New challenges in LA!

After our week of camp with the teens last week I was pretty convinced we wouldn't face another week as challenging or as rewarding. At first we were very worried about meeting the needs of older kids but it turned out to be a great challenge that I think we conquered successfully.

This week however is a whole new world with completely new challenges that may be even more difficult than working with the teens. This week we are faced with a challenge of involving the opposite end of the learning continuum. Our camp this week includes a group where the majority of the campers are 7-9 years old. Most of them are young for their age. In order to be successful with this group and helping them grow as DI problem solvers, I have to put on my elementary education teacher hat and apply some early childhood education teaching strategies. Already Ryan and I have had to completely alter our curriculum and try all sorts of new games and challenges that are appropriate develop mentally for this group.

We've learned that before these kids can do performance based challenges and successfully create a skit or performance to go along with the challenges, they have to have a basic understanding of the structure of of a story. Today we plan to make a "beginning, middle, and end" chart with the campers using the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. We are hoping that if we use a story they are all familiar with then they will grasp the idea of story structure.

Not only are we facing teaching/learning challenges, but we are also facing new challenges with the facility we are teaching in. Unfortunately, upstairs in the facility where we're doing camp we don't have any lights. So we've had to learn to teach and the kids have to learn using only light from the few windows that we have up there.

Despite all our new challenges though, we have some very sweet and absolutely precious kiddos this week. They had a blast creating team names and posters yesterday.

The Red TNT Fire Rockets!

The Green Gumdrops! They each drew themselves as a gumdrop.

The Purple Monkeys!

The Orange Sunsets!

The Blue Ocean. They each drew themselves riding a sea animal out of the ocean! So cute!

October? Oh, I thought it was August... my bad!

Well since all six of the bases I've been to so far have been in places that are scorching hot and so humid you feel like you're living in a steam room, I naturally only packed shorts, tank tops, and my camp shirts for the summer. Up until this point, that has been perfect! Apparently Los Angeles missed the whole summer memo this year though and decided to go straight from spring to fall. Don't get me wrong, it feels good (kinda, minus the whole freezing part). Ryan and I are just a little confused, that's all.

Despite the climate culture shock of coming back to the west coast, we had an AMAZING day at Disneyland on Sunday!

We managed to find the parking lot and take the tram over to the park!

Because I was so upset when I saw the sign saying Alice in Wonderland was out of service, the lady at the main gate gave me a button that said, "Honorary citizen of Disneyland" hoping it would make me feel better. I think she appreciated my passion for the happiest place on earth! :)

We were very efficient in hitting all our favorite rides first before the park got really crowded. We both LOVE Space Mountain!

Naturally I took Ryan on a "find as many princesses at possible" mission. He was very patient and stood in line and took my picture!

I found Sleeping Beauty...

and Ariel...

and Tiana...

and Jasmine...

and Snow White!

I gave Jesse a big hug!

Although from the look on his face I think the soldier is the one that really needed a hug!

I asked him to please not to look so angry and I think he did better in this one.

Donald Duck!

Goofy gave me a kiss and squeezed me so hard that my head disappeared inside the hug!

He really liked Ryan too!

Overall, it was a fantastic day! We ended the day by watching the fireworks as we went into It's a Small World! I forgot how happy that ride really is! LOVE IT!

You know it was an exciting but exhausting day when Ryan sleeps the whole 45 min drive back to base! Thank goodness I got a GPS this week!!

Almost homeless in Tampa!

Despite doing two four hour camps a day and taking on the new challenge of a teen camp (we're talking kids only 3 years younger than us), our camps in Tampa were definitely among the most successful! Ryan and I were both sad to leave and are already missing our awesome campers from both sessions! It was so hard to say goodbye to Macdill air force base and all the fabulous problem solving kiddos!

I was totally engrossed in my my work setting up for the second session on Friday when one of the camp staff came and told me I had a phone call. "A phone call for me??" I asked. She said, "yes man!" So I went out to the front desk very confused and picked up the phone. It was the truth. I did in fact get a call... a very mean-spirited person from the Inn where I had been staying, called to inform me I had to get all my stuff out of my room immediately because someone was waiting to check in. I tried to explain that I was staying one more night but she wouldn't even listen. Feeling very confused and upset, I had to leave Ryan alone to at camp and literally run (I didn't have the car) down the street to the hotel. I threw my things into Ryan's room as fast as I could and took off running back to the youth center. That's when I started crying! CRAP!! I really tried hard not to cry. I couldn't help it. Those of you who know me well know that when I even THINK about crying, my eyes swell up and I get enormous red blotches all over my face! Instead of running back to camp, I ran to the bathroom. When I saw my face in the mirror it made me cry harder... by this time our AMAZING POC, Loretta heard what happened and came to find me. When she saw me, she pulled me into a huge mommy-like bear hug and said, "don't you worry baby girl, I will take care of this!!"

YEP! Isn't this an awful story?? I know, right?! Well, one thing I learned is that you DON'T mess with Miss Loretta! When I pulled myself together and got my face back to a somewhat normal color I joined Ryan and the teens for an INCREDIBLE last session!

By the time I finished camp, Loretta had done her thing and unleashed her hardcore-ness all over some people at the INN and before I knew it, I was put in my own palace! Well, maybe not a palace, but I did get to enjoy a wonderful little house for my last night! :)

And our last day of camp turned out just as well as my moment of homelessness. I can honestly say that I'll probably talk about some of these kids for the rest of my life!

Some of the great memories from the week...

These guys are proud to say that they tied the knot in the rope first!

There were some beautiful pictures drawn for brain writing!

Gabby drew a picture of her and I surrounded by all her favorite challenges

I'm on the left and Gabby's on the right.

Marta's picture represented teamwork!

Megan drew all her favorite challenges surrounding Ryan and I.

I think we we're all pretty proud of our DI Wall by the end of the week! Miss Loretta loved it so much that she decided to leave it up as a reminder to the kids of everything they learned at camp!

Ryan and I learned this week that even teenagers enjoy throwing bouncy balls up in the air out of a pool...

... and even elementary kids enjoy doing the Disco!

We will miss you Macdill! Thanks for an amazing and memorable week of camp!!

Drowning in Tampa... seriously!!

Now I understand the term flash flood! After camp today Ryan and I were driving back to base just minding our own business when out of nowhere an enormous storm washed over us! It was raining so hard and thundering so loud that we were afraid to get our of our car once we got to our hotel. So we just stayed put nice and safe in our rental car and sang/yelled along to our favorite songs on the radio. Once there was a pause in the rain we decided to make a run for it only to realize that our parking lot was flooded and the water was several inches deep.

Here I am risking my life to take a picture of our feet drowning in the parking lot!

Once we got back to our rooms we literally couldn't even move because of severe exhaustion! You know it's been a long day when Ryan (aka Mr. Hyperactive) falls asleep at 7:00pm and doesn't wake up till morning which is what happened last night!

Despite being totally pooped, we had another awesome day of camp! I don't think I've laughed so hard in quite a while! Macdill youth center has some hilarious performers!

Since the posters were so effective with the teens yesterday, we decided to try it with the younger campers too! They loved it! The Green Vultures were precious! They said that they chose their name because vultures don't give up even when times get tough! They said their team keeps pushing through just like the bird! CUTE!

Our morning group of Elasto Plasto super heros!

The teens loved Elasto Plasto too!

Here we have The Red Goblin using his laser vision to destroy the evil and save the innocent lovely ladies!

Gabby aka "just your favorite neighborhood Cat Girl saving the day!"

Looking forward to more performances!

Lots of great thinkers in Tampa!

Walking into the youth center this morning on Macdill AFB I had no idea how this week was going to go. We have two sessions this week. In the morning we have kids ages 8 to 12 and in the afternoon we have ages 14 to 17 (most are taller than Ryan and I). Both groups have close to 30 kids and instead of 3 hours each like we've been doing, we are required to do 4 hour sessions on this base. I was most worried about the teens because they usually get bored a lot easier. However, after today I can honestly say that if I had to pick kids to have for 4 hours everyday, I would pick these kids! What an awesome day!

In the morning we improvised a lot of little filler games and activities and the kids responded really well.

Here they are on an epic roller coaster ride!

One of our little girls and I saved a frogs life this morning. Nyla spotted it in the grass so I ran inside and got a paper plate. I spent 5 minutes trying to scoop it onto the plate when she came over, picked it up with her hands and set it on my plate. She said, "here you go!" I said, "oh... thank you!"

My POC then came over and said, "Girl, what are doing??" I turned around with with a frog on a plate and she screamed, "OH MY GOSH THAT'S GROSS!!" Nyla and I just looked at each other and shrugged then proceeded to find a safe place to set it free.

Here he is on the plate...

and here he is in his new home!

I was really nervous when our teens came in for the afternoon session. They all just sat their so silent staring at us while we introduced ourselves and talked about camp for the week. I told them that it's okay to ya know... smile... and laugh and stuff.

It didn't take them long to warm up though. They made an AWESOME camp target and when we offered to let them pick their own teams they suggested that we pick for them since they'll just pick people that will tempt them to talk and not pay attention. Ryan and I spent our whole lunch break coming up with new strategies and altering our lesson plan to come up with something that we thought older kids would like.

I have never seen a group love the warm up activity "what if?" so much. All they wanted to do all afternoon was play that game. One of my favorite quotes went as follows...

Me: "What if we could only see if black and white?"

Gabby: "Well, all our clothes would match and we wouldn't have to worry about anyone looking like a hot mess!"

After "what if?" we had the teens work in their teams to come up with a team name and create a poster that represents their team. They had to present their posters to the whole group.

Here we have the X-treme Green team!

The Blue Team Epic Team!

The Red Losers! They explained that everyone on their team has been called a loser before but they turned it around into something positive. They said they are proud to be themselves!

Team Orange!

And last but not least we have The Legit Purple Rangers!

We hung all the posters up on their side of the wall!

I can't wait to see what these kids come up with tomorrow!!

Attack of the lizards in Tampa!

We had a great last day of camp at Mcguire AFB in New Jersey! We got more hugs than I think we've ever gotten!

Here's a few of our awesome kids!

Isaiah and Anna are two kids I'll remember forever!

Before camp on Friday we sat on the bleachers together and talked about our favorite books for about 15 min.

After we packed up camp we headed to Cherry Hill, NJ where we got to help out in the warehouse at Destination Imagination Head Quarters for a few hours with Alyssa!

So much stuff to sort but it was so much fun!!!

Friday evening we went on an adventure into Philadelphia with Alyssa and Britt! Since I'm still traumatized from my parking ticket that I got in Philly last Monday, Alyssa drove us all. She is a champ!

It was an evening full of fun!!

We just did normal things like... you know...

build pyramids...

... and sit on the ground and hug...

... and leap through the air off of enormous Sorry game pieces...

... and dance with statues...

I accidently spun too hard and hit my head on this statue. Then I got scared to try it again...

But I faced my fears and the dancing continued!

We had a blast!!

Ryan and I feel so lucky because on Saturday we went back to Cherry Hill and got to spend more time with Alyssa and Britt! We found a cute park and had a picnic. Naturally we threw a photo shoot in there too.

Somehow we always end up sitting on the ground...

After our fantastic picnic, we headed on our 2 hour drive to Newark where we boarded a plane to Tampa, FL. We arrived in Tampa at midnight and met our POC this morning to set up for camp. Our POC is pretty much the sweetest lady EVER! We are so excited to work with her this week!

When we were all set up, we drove around and explored a bit until it was time to check into our hotel.... this is where the attack happened...

While Ryan was in his room, I made about six trips to the car to unload our luggage and Costco groceries. On either the 5th or 6th trip (I can't remember which), I was attacked by like a million little lizards (and by million I mean 5, and by attacked I mean ran at me to get away from me, but same difference).

Not as scary as some of the nasty bugs I've encountered, but they did startle me at first because I wasn't expecting them! Apparently we have like an entire extended family of lizards living in the bushes outside our rooms because they are everywhere!