Nadia continues to tell us that she wants to be a chef when she grows up. While at a Young Chefs class a couple months back they told us about a summer camp called “Baking Boot Camp.” Nadia asked if she could go and we agreed. She went 3 hours a day for 3 days and LOVED it! They made an amazing amount of stuff over the course of three days.
Day 1 – Cinnamon Roll Apple Pies, Carrot Cake Cookies, Caramel Chocolate Chip Snails, Braided Berry Handpies.
Day 3 – Chocolate Eclairs, the pastry cream for the eclairs, and Pate a Choux for the eclairs, White Chocolate & Raspberry Whoopie Pies, Lemon Meringue Treats
WHEW! And we have all the recieps in her Young Chefs binder. Her favorite for the week was the Ciabatta Bread.
Click the album above to see the entire album. Alyssa and Nadia on the first day.
After our stop over in Paul’s Valley to visit the Toy and Action Figure Museum we continued on the way up to Tulsa for our 3rd China Camp. This year was the first time Amelie was old enough to attend and she was really excited to be going with Nadia. We took the girls to their classrooms and then waited for the opening celebration. The highlight for the kids is the lion dance. When we picked the girls up they had all kinds of stories to tell us about their day, but Amelie desperately needed a nap. This was the first time she had ever been at something all day long past her normal nap time.
Cousin coloring time!
At dinner time Jade and Gwen drove down to Tulsa to spend the evening with us and have dinner. We were all so excited to see them again so soon after Jade’s wedding.
Day two of China camp was a great fun for the girls. Mike and I had a great time going to the movies and out to lunch with no interruptions 🙂 After a short nap it was time for the family swim party (which we didn’t make it to the last two years).
On day three Nadia was oh.so.excited. to find out that her favorite teen counselor was staying at our hotel also – I knew I had to make sure and get a photo of them together. The closing ceremonies were lots of fun and you can check out the videos to see how entertaining they are.
Nadia’s class on the last day.
Taggie is always on our travels.
Within minutes of being home in Texas the girls had to put on a lion dance of their own. Once again, China Camp was a great experience for the girls!
2013 – We went with Avengers for our matching family shirts this year.
It’s our tradition to stop at the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, OK on our way to China Camp. This year we ate lunch at Boomerangs Diner which is next door – they have some awesome fried pickles if you are ever in the area.
I bring a pocket full of quarters so the girls can ride the truck and Batmobile.
The girls went the predictable route for their costume choices 🙂
The Simpsons was a new display this year.
This was also a new display on loan from an avid cowboy/cowgirl collector.
Once again we had a great time wandering around the museum and talking about all the cool items they have. This is one of our favorite family traditions.
*Excuse me while we take a break from our normal style blog posts while I tell you a little about our field trip to Austin, Texas.*
Click on the photo to see album
If you watch the news you probably saw the very heated debate that occurred in our wonderful state last month over the change in abortion legislation. Never mind that 29 other states in America already have the same sorts of restrictions… all of a sudden the pro life population of Texas was branded as women haters and some fairly horrible things were said that I am unwilling to repeat here on our family blog. Needless to say, the pro-abortion side was very upset that any sort of restrictions were up for a vote and they were against abortion clinics having surgical healthcare standards like other states have.
In Texas if you want to support or reject a bill, you have to show up in person and sign a form to have it in the official count. It’s not enough to call or email your representatives office. In the first week of July the pro-lifers turned up 2 to 1 in support of the bill. And while we knew the bill would pass, I still wanted to go in person and sign the card in the second week of the special session of the legislature. It was deeply important to me to show up and also speak to our representative and senator. So Mike took a personal day off work and we loaded up and headed down. I considered it a chance for the girls to see the democratic process in action. We gave Nadia a basic explanation of what we were going to do and why.
Ceiling of the rotunda.
The girls in the rotunda.
I want to start by saying that I have never seen so many state troopers in one place at one time. One of them told me that they were called in from all over the state to be there for the week based on the behavior of the pro-abortion side when they stopped the vote on the bill the first time around. I was joking if you wanted to speed on the highways of Texas, then this was your week!
We headed over to the other side of the Capital to sign our cards in favor of SB2. Then we went looking for our representative. She was not in the office, but they did ask us to sign the guest book. They had a couple of big Planned Parenthood signs up, so I was pretty confident she would be voting against the bill 😉 We also had lunch and then went to our Senators office to sign the book and voice our opinion. The woman in there was so surprised that we were “actual constituents” and they offered us pizza, soda and candy.
All of a sudden Amelie says, “Der’s a lot of people here talking a lot.” A man in the office laughed and said, “And they aren’t saying much are they?” Mike said, “What do you think of that Amelie?” She said, “Dat’s crazy!” After that we headed out onto the lawn to take some photos before we headed back home.
Nadia brought her camera and the following were taken by her.
One major thing I observed was that if you are a pro-life man, you have NO say in this debate according to the pro-choice side. Pro life men are branded as women haters who have no rights, even if they are the father. But if you are a pro-choice man, well, you can say and do whatever you want. I saw a man there with his infant in a baby carrier with a sign that said “Rick Perry wants to legalize the rape of Texas women!” and his other sign was a lot more graphic. He had three women with him who obviously thought he was awesome because he was “standing up for them” even though his signs made no sense in relation to the bill. And don’t get me started on the UT student who started the whole “Bro-choice” thing that encouraged the college age guys to protest against the bill because if it passed it would “cramp their style” and make the ladies less like to sleep with them if they couldn’t get unfettered abortions. Because clearly those guys are showing how much they respect women and want them to have better healthcare options.
I saw a lot of other stuff that I am unwilling to type out here and I certainly didn’t take any photos because we had our kids with us and I was not looking for a confrontation. I am glad that we went and happy that the bill passed. I pray it will save more lives – babies and women.
*Now back to our regular style blog posts. Thanks for reading even though I know it’s not a popular topic.*
