the fifth day of camp

The temperatures dropped. The rains stopped but the clouds remain. All three grandkids are here with me as we start in on the next day of G. Camp (Gaga? Grandma? Depends on who you ask). 

They're up and going at 7. That's great you say? Well yes, but the cats! Oh, the cats! Stressed by the visiting threesome, they come upstairs confused, meowing for food, meowing for attention, meowing for who knows what reason. At 5:30. Darn cats, be quiet!

And again the three cousins start off with making up videos of crazy antics. And again Ed is playing the role of cameraman.

While I snip just a few lilies and prepare breakfast.

Snowdrop and Sparrow have their drama program at 9. Time to go.

 

 

 

I drop them off, then take Primrose to a Monroe Street bakery.

 

They all voted for lunch at the farmhouse, and that's great, but I could use some dessert treat. How about brownies with salted caramel? (Ed's reaction: that is sooooo sweet!) 

 

It's impossible for me to not finish the lily clean up and so we return to the farmette, where I snip away, while she plays. 

850? 860 snipped lilies? Something like that. These are the days of the profound colors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Nymphs and shepherds, in full bloom) 

 

 

(surrounded!)

 

 

 

 

(the firs gladiolus murielae)

(I'm always drawn to this one...)

(Big Bed)

Noon is pick-up-the-Shakespeare-duo time. We take a short walk to the local game store, where they admire everything and walk away with Nee-Doh (little squishy cubes) because everyone has one!

We eat lunch. Slowly, deliberately.

 

 

 

And then they play, all the way until late afternoon, when we all set out for our local farmers market. It's their annual kids day, where kid focused activities abound. The two younger ones make their own sundaes...

And then all three want to wait in the long line for face painting. I'll have to give the artist credit -- this woman is a serious face painting person. Snowdrop does the first one -- the younger two want to see how it will turn out.

By early evening I do what I was supposed to do earlier in the week -- I take all three to my daughter's house. Sandpiper is well and bursting with energy. The little guy is excited about getting his sibs back and excited, too, at the visit of Primrose. And here's the thing -- it is an overnight visit! I'll be picking Primrose up tomorrow after breakfast.

The farmette lands are suddenly very, very still.  Very quiet.

 

 

In my head I still have their squeals and explosions of laughter. Unrestrained.  Happy.

with so much love... 

the fourth day of camp

Some days, you just have to do an about-face and pivot. If you planned on one kid sleeping at your place and three show up, night after night, well then so be it! If you thought you'd be walking your campers through the local Olbrich Gardens and suddenly there's a tornado warning, you spend time in the gift shop instead. And spend much more than you intended. 

We have done a lot of pivoting this week. And it's been just fine.

It really is because of the little brother's illness -- it foreclosed the possibility of mixing up the households. The big two have been with me all these days just to keep them away from the sick little guy. And of course, their cousin, Primrose, is just delighted.

How's the dynamic between the three, you ask? Remarkably great. I've had to intervene and steer now and then, but mostly they resolve different needs and preferences on their own. These cousins are bonded and the time spent together, even at night, in a tiny and a little too warm room, only reinforces that.

 

This morning, they stayed in bed until the new rainbow clock (thanks Amazon!) showed that it was 7:15. By then I had had a chance to get ready for the day.

As before, they began their play with their video filming. I really haven't paid attention to what the subject of all this writing and recording is, but it does involve a lot of strange sounds and movements. When Ed comes down for a few minutes (he's been mostly hiding in the bedroom!), they rope him into filming all three.

Breakfast. We have our routine now!

Afterwards, we all get in the car to drop the big two at their Shakespeare camp. It's only three hours long and I pack pack in all that I need to do in the garden in that time slot. But before I get to that, I take Primrose to the downtown Wednesday market. For the flowers.

As we pass a stall with beets, I ask her if we should get some for dinner. I'm so wrapped up in the kids these days that I pay little attention to everything else. Only when I hear my name, do I see that we're buying from Natalie, our farmer and friend from the Thursday market.

It's a beautiful day in downtown Madison! Well, at least in the morning hours.

 

Back at the farmette, I do snip lilies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a few that I should plant, but there isn't time. 776 lilies in the bucket and now it's almost noon -- time to pick up the big two from their program.

I know we are to have wet weather. Looking up at the sky, I'm thinking it will be very wet and it will come very soon. I hurry them through lunch. Dessert first, to get it done!

We rush then to our first stop: Olbrich Gardens. The clouds burst with pounding rain the minute we enter the informational building. The kids dont care. There's a butterfly exhibit inside. They're happy wandering around the tropical plants, ignoring the few butterflies that pass our way (we see more in the flower fields than we do at the exhibit).

(yesterday they wore lavender, today, coincidentally, green)

As we are about to leave, the tornado watch switches to a warning. Not on my weather app, but the Olbrich people insist that they have an inside track to the emergency broadcast system. So we linger inside. In the gift shop. Where we shop. The kids are delighted.

Our next stop is Clare's at the mall. On the last cousin visit, they all had earned some money -- a grand total of $21.75. They planned to split it three ways at Clare's.  Okay, you try to buy something sensible there for $7.25. The first item is easy -- cousin friendship bracelets.

From then on it's one big chore to find something. In an effort to move things along I add to their budget. This is getting to be a very gifty day!

Home at last. I let them finally get to their last project -- one that I know they'll like best -- building a fairy garden.

A sensible person would have them collect stuff outside -- twigs, pine cones, etc., and allow their creativity to take them places. I am long past being sensible. I didn't even have time to bake the clay pieces they made the other day in anticipation of this project. Amazon has more tiny things for fairy gardens than you could possibly imagine. Thank goodness for no tariffs on these goods (yet), because I purchased a lot of tiny things for them to share. (I even had to buy the dirt, because farmette dirt is... too dirty! think: chicken poop.)

Supper? I asked if they wanted pasta or pizza. They wanted both. So they got both. And roasted beets.

I could say that the day ends there, but you know how it is with three kids and a sleepover, all under the indulgent and a tad tired grandma's eye. By the time we finish with a show, a game, and three showers, by the time I wipe up the wet floor and give them snack number 895, well, it gets to be a bit late. Still, they'd obediently stayed in their room this morning until the permitted release time of 7:15. Let's hope they have another restful night! 

with so much love... 

 

the third day of camp

Well, we got through the night alright! The freaked out cats (they are not keen on house guests), the three kids keeping each other up, a very calm and unruffled Ed, and me.

I didn't have a portable clock to give them so I brought over the big wall kitchen clock, leaned it against their wall and told them that no one is to come into my bedroom before 7:15 the next day.

What I neglected to say was that it was equally not okay to get up and play vivaciously downstairs at 5:40 a.m.. The three of them are writing a play and when they weren't squealing with laughter over one line or another, they managed to guffaw their way through scenes enacted and taped for posterity on someone's tablet. By 6:15 I gave up hope of sleep. May as well work in the garden. 

(So early that the majestic "trumpet" lilies aren't fully opened yet)

(catching the first rays of sun)

(do I see a child there?)

(and two more?)

 

Breakfast on the porch.

 

 

 

The older two begged to skip Shakespeare today so that they could continue their play. Fine with me, so long as they spend some time looking over their lines. (Parents agreed.) They play, they read, we do crafts. Clay, potholders, bracelets.

 

They laugh over the video clips they had put together.

 

 

 

And Snowdrop writes out a campers' pledge. I'm not sure where she got the idea -- she's never been to sleep away camp. Of loyalty, kindness, respect. They all swear to it. 

 

 

 

And then we set out. 

Our adventure for today is a trip to the New Life Lavender and Cherry Farm. This one is to the northwest of Madison and it's a bit of a haul -- some 50 minutes away. But, well, this is lavender season!  

We stop for a lunch at Culver's.

From there we make the trip to the farm. 

I suppose it is somewhat reassuring that they, too, had a tough winter with their plants -- not enough snow, too warm. Still, their lavender fields are lovely. We take a ride to the further ones and walk through the maze and take in the scent of... lavender!

(I hope you noted that we are in our lavender attire! And that Snowdrop is just about three inches shorter than my 5 ft 5 in!)

A complicated trip back: one girl has to go to a Girl Scout meeting. I need to pick up clothes for the big two. Their mommy joins Primrose, Sparrow and me for a Mexican meal nearby. 

 

 

 

I then pick up the Girl Scout, drop off the mommy, and take the three kids back to the farmhouse. For dessert and a movie. 

 

 

 

But only until 9! I have to be firm with this. We all could use a good night's sleep after an unusually beautiful but packed day! 

with so much love...