I laughed so hard, I cried....and almost wet my pants

Just your average homeschooling mom's who get thirsty!

Our first weekend of Haiti camp is in the record books. We left for Alexandria, Minnesota on Friday morning and had a somewhat peaceful drive there. With 4 kids, the trip is never 'fun' but at least the 5 hours passed in relative harmony without any major fights. We found the camp, Lake Geneva Christian Campus, without any problems, checked in and promptly began looking for the three families I most wanted to see.

I had never met Sarah from Wisconsin, but had followed her life thru her blog, http://www.fivefrozenchamorros.blogspot.com/ and knew we would hit it off in real life. Sure enough, we met and began chatting and having fun from the first second. Together we planned a covert operation of sneaking beverages of an adult nature into the camp which restricts alcohol on the premises. She brought two of the LARGEST travel mugs, cutely decorated with our names and sequined flowers so we could quench our thirst in relative secrecy. Who would have known that ice would be hard to find at this damn camp. We ended up drinking our margaritas out of styrofoam coffee cups with lids and I shared our 'secret' with Sara Eggers and another gal from Missouri named Maryann. Together we formed a secret drinking society.

All of the kids had fun and I have lots and lots of pictures to post, but for now I am going to post the one that made me laugh the hardest. Sarah and I posed for a picture at check-out time with our travel mugs and laughed so hard I almost pee pee my panties. Not only will these mugs travel to Haiti Camp again next July, but Sarah and I and the big purples jugs will meet up in March in Orlando for a mom's get away with Corey from http://www.watchingthewaters.blogspot.com/

Secretly I desperatly wanted to make sure Sarah would come back to this camp so I nominated her to join the board of directors of this camp which is Haiti in Our Hearts. She is officially now in charge of event planning and getting the itinerary planned. Marc and I got elected to the board and will be in charge of reservations, registrations and newsletters. I'm sneaky, but just want to spread joy and sunshine wherever I go.

Richnightder and Jerome got to meet creche mates, Marie Dakar and Mackenson again. It's been 2 years since they saw them and their frienship picked right up where it left off. Their parents are Sara and Joe Eggers who are complete and total riots. Sara and I laughed to the point of public embarassment while watching Marc and Joe on the lake.

Marc took Marie and Richnigthder out in a peddle boat and Joe took Mackenson and Jerome for a ride in a canoe. Unfortunately, both men decided to do this right after a tornado..ish storm rolled thru on the other side of the lake. The wind picked up and the lake had sizeable white caps. Marc looked like Gilligan as the waves kept him from peddling the boat back to shore. I think he must have peddled a full marathon in that damn little boat with the two kids. Joe brought the canoe ashore but it quickly capsized and the kids scrambled ashore while he hopelessly fought the wind to paddle it back to it's docking place. Eventually the wind lifted the front of his canoe and tipped him ever so slowly backwards into the lake. He has now earned the nickname of Tippy-Canoe!

We had a great time and invite any and all of you with children from haiti to join us for next years camp. The more the merrier. For me, the most gratifying sight from the weekend was seeing the now grown kids who have been coming to this camp for 20 years. They are now young adults in their 20's, some with children of their own now and to witness how much they value their on-going connection to each other and this annual camp with families who will always have Haiti in their Hearts!