Elizabeth has been doing the summer camp program at the Agriculture Museum this past week.
Day 1 - "There are rabbits in our classroom. The first bunny rabbit was named Oreo. I fed the chickens. Later on my whole school went out to the chickens. When we got there we pet the chickens. And one little boy was scared of the chickens. But they weren't scared of him. The teacher picked him up. We fed the chickens too. I don't know what they eat."
Day 2 - "We named a rabbit poop. Because that's what they do.
The other one was called Thunderstorm. The black one. (Ed. note. There is no rabbit named Poop. I checked.)
There were water
beads. It's a box with water. And beads. And they were squishy.
We went on a
treasure hunt and there was a box and we couldn't open it because it was locked.
And there was a friend. And she opened it and there were pompoms and beads in so
many colours. So many things.
Her came around with them. I gotta peek. Her
brought them to each table. Roxanne went somewhere and her didn't come back. One
of the other kids was sick and wasn't there. They didn't mind cuz they had
me!
We made our bottle. We glue gunned the lid cuz you aren't supposed to
open it. So no one can steal our treasure! After I played everywhere. We
played outside. I actually got a shirt. I was busy playing there when Mommy
came. We played what time is it Monsieur loup and my teacher was the loup Then I
saw goats and I fed goats. They said baa baa and I frew some hay at them and
lamb sheep food and they gobbled them all up. I was close to the gate and it
squished my toe. And I was a little bit frightened. So my teacher picked me up.
The whole class petted the goats. I was right inside the cage with the goats and
I patted them.
Day 3 - No tears at dropoff today! It was difficult to get information out of her today - she was so wiggly that she couldn't sit still. As we tried to find out what she had done, she was literally crawling on the floor, turning somersaults and rolling round and round.
First attempt: "We made blueberry muffins but I didn't want to eat one so I had juice instead. The teacher sprayed me with the hose. It was chilly I didn't get a chance to pet the rabbit because my arms were too short. That is all."
Second attempt: "I only petted the pacas. I watched the baby cows. I did help brush the baby cow. First one boy or girl came up and brushed her. Then one more and one more and one more and then finally it was my turn and I brushed her. Then when we got back to farm camp we had to wash our hands. It was fun."
Third attempt: "Oh yeah we made cow toothpaste. The lady put stuff in a bottle. It was not nice stuff. The lady put a towel on her head to make magic. She said it was her hair but it wasn't (Ed. note Outraged tone of voice!) We smelled the bottle and it was very smelly. It was nice and yucky. I don't think cows really use it to brush their teeth."
On the way out she asked if she could sleep at the farm.
Day 4: "I said Mommy don't go, don't go but then I
did a colouring sheet. Isn't it beautiful? We were trying to find the Queen bee
but she was hiding. I didn't get wet cuz there was a plastic cover and my
teacher holded it over me like a raccoon. But my pants got soaking wet and on
the way back I needed the cover and my teacher did too and I ran and got soaking at
the end. But luckily I had new tshirt so I grabbed it and went in the girls
washroom and changed. I didn't care that my pants were wet it was just the
bottoms so I left em. After I did a pepper craft. My teacher gave me lots of
colouring crayons and I had my name and we put it on the farm mural. One teacher
had pink sparkles. Another teacher came over with silver sparkles and I got
silver and I put it on the thing. Then I washed my hands and went and played.
There are so many toys there I can't remember. Then I had snack and I had some
lunch. Then we had a volcano show!" (Skeptical Mom looks at schedule of proposed activities - "Did you mean Lava lamps?" "Yeah!") "We put medicine in a bottle. In something red. And they the teacher gave one to each kid. Even one to me. Then we waited. The teacher said we could go and play but I said I wanted to wait for my mom. The bottle bubbled. Wow. Then my teacher leaded me
over to the pigs. I went into the cage with the pigs and all the other kids. Her
gave me an apple and I dropped it into the cage and the pigs ate it all
up. Then we went out of the barn. But before that we gave them a shower but the pigs
didn't want a shower cuz it was too chilly so we cleaned up the end of the cage
for the farmers. Wasn't that nice for them?"
Day 5 did not go as planned. We arrived at the farm all excited to have a wagon ride and a special show put on by the kids in the afternoon! But before we even got into the farm Elizabeth suddenly threw up all over in the parking lot. She was very upset at the thought of going home and claimed she was feeling all better. I spoke to one of the staff members who was just arriving, and she encouraged Elizabeth to come to camp anyway (hmm). I decided to sit and watch the horses with Elizabeth for a bit to see whether she was just over-excited or actually ill. Elizabeth didn't want to go into camp, though, so I figured she was feeling rotten. Sure enough, she got greener and greener. I suggested maybe we could make a castle at home out of cardboard to rest in and take the wagon ride another day. She decided maybe going home would be okay. Then nearly threw up again. She curled up into a ball on the ground and wouldn't get up when I went to advise the staff that we weren't staying, so her councillor helped carry Matthew while I carried her back to the car. She threw up on Daddy as soon as we got home. I made the promised castle and then she slept and slept and slept and slept. Such a sad end to a lovely week!