Why I’m Glad I Sent My Kids To Camp

My kids are home now.  They got home Friday afternoon, went to bed early, and slept most of Saturday.  :)  Now that they are recovered, I’m back into the craziness of the last few days of summer vacation.

But before I leave the “summer camp” topic, I thought I would put together the top 13 reasons I’m glad I sent my boys to summer camp.  In no particular order.

1.  It gave them a safe place to step out of the nest and stretch their wings. 

2.  They had a boatload of fun!  Literally!  My guys learned how to steer a canoe and kayak.  And incidentally, to get unstuck.

3.  They made new friends, and caught up with old friends from last year, including some pretty awesome counselors.  This is my oldest son with his counselor from last year.  The picture is double-imaged.  But when it’s the size of a postage stamp, you don’t notice too much. 

4.  Apparently, they surpassed their goal on the missionary offering.  As a result they won the honor of turning the guest missionary into a human sundae.  Lol!!

5.  For making their individual cabin’s offering goal, they got to see their own counselor get his head shaved. 

Talk about motivation to give!!  For the record, he told the boys that ALL great American Soccer Goalies have bald heads.  (Hmm.  My oldest plays keeper, and travel ball starts this week.  I’ll keep you posted on how influential this turns out to be…)  Here’s a picture just after the event…

Isn’t it ironic that theses picture came out so clear?  Lol!  These were definite highlights for the kids!  (My son got no less then thirty-some pictures and four videos of the two events.)

Well, they were a highlight for my kids, anyway!  I get the feeling there are differences between what boys and girls find “cool” at this age.  What do you think?  The face of this young girl CRACKED me up!

6.  There were five campers who decided to be baptized!  PTL!

7.  My oldest is now contemplating missions overseas.  Seriously.  I’ll be watching to see what God does with the seeds that were planted.

8.  At home here, there were three whole days where I couldn’t find enough clothes to do a load of laundry.

9.  And my dishwasher had empty cup places.  All week.

10.  My little guy received some coveted one-on-one time and we celebrated Valentine’s Day.  Because he wanted to cut out hearts and fire trucks, and anything else that was red.111.  At my house, there was no bickering.  No fighting.  No tattle tailing.  No dirty socks stuffed in the sofa.  Or behind the lamps.  No arguments over bedtime, or who gets to use the chocolate syrup next.  No sticky countertops.  No LEGO obstacles.  No missing things from my desk.  No strange odors coming from their room.  And, to my husband’s delight, no missing remotes.

12.  There was, however, a mom who got a reprieve from the daily grind, soaked up the peace and quiet, and arrived (just in time) at a place where she missed her boys.

13.  And finally, the hugs all-around at the end of the week were priceless, genuine, and sweet!

Yep, camp is a beautiful thing.