Overnight Camp

He's always been my most independent...by far. First day of preschool, not a tear. First day of kindergarten, barely a glance back as he walked on the bus. First day of elementary school, ran through the doors.

As this summer approached, I thought he might be ready for a night or two away at camp. We were lucky enough to know about a camp in Crown Point, IN called Camp LRCA (our church supports the camp and we've know about it for several years). Being that it's only an hour away and the camp for his age was just three nights, I had assumed he'd be totally thrilled to go. When we first talked about it, he was very excited and even more so because his best friend, Alec, was going too. About a month before camp, however, he grew quite nervous and unsure. We talked about it a lot and I convinced him (because I knew without a doubt) that he'd love it!

He was a bit hesitant when we dropped him off, but having Alec there made it so much easier. From Sunday evening until Wednesday afternoon, we had no contact with him and it was MUCH harder than I expected it to be! At pickup on Wednesday, he was all smiles and talked the entire way home about how much fun he'd had. He said that he was a little sad on the first night, but Alec helped him feel okay. By the next day, he was just fine and he definitely enjoyed the entire experience! 

Spring Sports Recap

We had another busy Spring in the Sturm home with two kids in sports. It's hard to imagine how much crazier it'll be if/when all three are involved in stuff!

Against all I ever desired, Leah played soccer. Our neighbor (who has two soccer players of her own) convinced us that she'd be a great candidate for soccer and Leah excitedly stated that she wanted to play. Though she is very high energy and has a little bit of interest in soccer, I never thought it would be fun to watch kids chasing a ball around (nor did I think my kids would have fun doing that). It turns out that she did enjoy chasing things, but it wasn't the ball...it was the cute little boys on her team! She obviously had fun, though, because she is planning to play in the fall too. It's shocking that she's interested because one thing we ALL learned about soccer is that you play no.matter.what....freezing cold, pouring, rain blazing heat...we had it all this season. I wouldn't have expected her to be interested in playing ever again after all of the awful weather she had to play through!

Caleb really enjoyed another season of little league baseball. His team was GREAT this year and only lost one or two total games before the playoffs. They made it through a couple rounds of the playoffs and lost a really close game to finish out their season. It's getting quite fun to watch baseball now that the kids have a better skill level and knowledge of the sport!

And, this guy. He doesn't do much as far as outside activities just yet. He is, however, so much "older" than my other two at this age. From bike riding, to scooters, to monkey bars, and more...I think he really believes he's about two or three years older than he actually is. Slow down, little man. You are making this mom so very sad!

Lake Trip #1

The first thing the kids start asking about as summer break approaches is "when do we get to go to the lake?" Lucky for them (and me) we had a short window of time to sneak down for a trip before the end of sports and the beginning of camps, VBS, and so forth. The drive down has gotten insanely easier now that the kids are older, so a quick trip isn't such an exhausting idea. The only downside to the drive is that Caleb has developed his mom's tendency for carsickness. The poor kid spent the ENTIRE drive there throwing up. On the way home we loaded him up with Benadryl, which oddly enough, is a great cure for carsickness. We all had a blast for the few days we were there. Grandpa, Grandma, and TiTi were also there, so we enjoyed the family time (but missed Daddy dearly and knew he was quite sad to have to stay home for work....thankfully he gets to join us for the next two trips down this summer)!

These kids love to fish!

Our picnic on the boat started with the tube floating off to the shore because it wasn't as secured as we thought....oops! Thankfully Caleb swam all the way to shore to rescue it!

Lunch by boat at our favorite "pirate ship" restaurant.

Pool time!