Camp in the City

The week following Woodlands, our church hosted Camp in the City for the fourth summer. One of our favorite parts of summer is hosting some of the counselors in our home. Our four boys arrived late Saturday evening and the kids were so excited to wait up for them and then give them the grand tour of where they would be staying for the week. We love this time of rapid fire get-to-know-you. We saw them for a short time Sunday morning and then the kids didn't get to see them again until Monday night. For the last couple of summers, we have hosted a cook-out at our pool and had some of our friends who are also hosting counselors bring their group too. This year we invited two more families to join us. One family ended up not being able to come but we had fun adding to our crew.

The young men amaze me each summer! They are on the go all day and still come home three nights during the week to be with our families.

Tuesday night the counselors had off. Some of them went to a Braves game and some of them went to the movies.

There is an app that posts pictures of the kids from camp. I love getting a little glimpse in to their time each day. They play so many fun and silly games!

Wednesday night we cooked dinner at our house and just hung out. We really got to know these guys a little better each day and loved hearing their stories. After dinner, we went up to the baseball fields. Hayes had practice so after his practice we played. Our kids immediately take to these guys like they have known them their whole lives.

And these guys are just the sweetest with them!

On Thursday, one of our sweet boys let Sam borrow his Pine Cove hat and he was SO excited to get to wear it to camp!

Thursday night the church hosts a dinner for all host families and counselors. We love that dinner because we get to hear so many great stories from their week at our church. Hayes was excited he got to wear one of the boys "safari hat".

When we got home from church that night, the guys were joking about how stinky their shoes were (BOYS!). We decided to do a science experiment to see if we could get the stink out of their shoes. I think most of the guys were happy about how their stink went away. Reese thought it was so fun to be in on this process...I don't think she will feel that same way in a few years when her brothers are experiencing the same thing. HA!

More pictures from the app...

Friday there is a closing ceremony that parents are invited to. They do all of their fun camp things that they have been doing all week and then present the kids with character traits that they saw in them over the week.

Sam's counselor pulled me to the side one day during pick up and just bragged on how sweet Sam is and how well behaved he is. It did my mommy heart proud because he has been a bit pesky around the house lately. It showed me that his sweet self is still there!

Reese always gets the sweetest counselors and just loves them by the time the week is over. Her counselor was also on the bus that would pick up and drop off our boys each day. Our boys would go on and on about how sweet she is! On their last pick up, she got out of the bus and Reese ran to her for one final hug.

Friday night is often a late night for them because they have to pack everything up so that they can leave again on Saturday morning. They got to our house around 7:30 and ate some pizza that we had ordered. We got them some pizza from a local pizza place around here and they loved it! After eating we played some games...it wasn't really volleyball but we hit the ball over the net.

Once it was dark, we started our outdoor movie and made some s'mores while the guys washed their clothes from the week. You could see the exhaustion on their faces so as soon as their laundry was done, we sent everyone to bed.

Saturday morning we got up and made them a big breakfast before they hit the road to their next church. It it always bittersweet saying goodbye to them. We really love our time with them and love the influence that it has on our kids lives.