This was Alex's second year, and Ryan's 1st year at Doublecreek. Alex enjoyed it a lot last year - he spent four weeks then - but its much more expensive than the other day camps, and since we're now paying to send two little boys to camp, we decided to limit them to one week.
First off, Ryan LOVED riding the Doublecreek bus to Doublecreeek every day. It was his first time on a really big bus (since I don't count the large vans his preschool used). And he would hustle his way out of the door every morning to get us there on time.
The theme this week at Doublecreek was "Doublecreek's Got Talent." Ryan and his fellow "Minis" (as they call the entering Kindergartners) entered the competition, and you could have knocked us over with a feather when he came home on Tuesday and told us he had danced to "Single Ladies." And what's more, received three 10's for their dance. Heck, even Alex was impressed with his brother!
Parents are welcome to attend on Fridays for lunch and "sing song" (ie, if you don't come, your child won't speak to you for the next week), so I went today and was treated with the grand finale of the competition.
The best of the best.
And if there is one thing I like, its a competition.
First off, was Ryan and his Minis dancing to "Single Ladies." He and the other 5 year old boys tried to dance with the girls, but they were having none of that.
As the girls told the boys, if you like it, you should have put a ring on it.
The boys didn't like getting this news, and proceeded to cry some tears for three long years.
Their score?
A perfect three 10s!!!!!
And then it was time for the competition to try and steal their certain victory.
There were girls singing a song called "Tonight, Tonight," which offered me my first "I'm a really old, out-of-date and not-with-it Mom" moment, because the song they started to sing was not, as I had expected upon hearing the title, from West Side Story.
There were gymnasts dancing to Let's Get It Started (hearlding the return of my hip parental status, since I own that Black Eyed Peas album). They were good, doing flips and all, but could that really top my son's dancing greatness? I think not.
There were singers who did gymnastics while singing to "Billionaire." (If I own the 'Glee' version of the song, do I still get to keep my hip Mom card?)
And then there were a bunch of 6th grade girls singing "Whip My Hair," a song I had not heard before, but which I at least knew was sung by Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith's daughter, so I gave myself 5 points for that one.
Then there were some boys dancing and "singing" a song I've never heard (minus five points for me).
And finally, some brave young woman got up and sang all by herself, a capella to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." She was amazing. Even I, super competitive Mom who wanted her son and the Minis to win it all, wanted to give her three 10s.
When all was said and done, there ended up being a three way tie for first place. The Adele singer, the Whip My Hair girls, and Ryan and the Minis all won eternal fame and glory at Camp Doublecreek. At least, until they announced that all the competitors were winners, and they were forced to share their hard-earned victories with the other Top 10 competitors. (boo! hiss! Ryan wins it ALL!).
Then since I was WAY over my lunch hour(s), I headed back to work and my looming 5pm discovery deadline.
And when the boys came home at the end of the day, they came home with ribbons.
Ryan had two: a red ribbon for "Penny Dive Champ," and a blue ribbon for "Doublecreek's Camper of the Week." Go Ryan! *side story: Alex's main criteria for a week at BB Gun Camp was that it must be during a nickel/penny dive week. He missed those weeks last summer, and I didn't hear the end of it until yesterday, when he FINALLY nickel dived and came home with over five dollars in nickels.* **Second side story: The minis don't nickel dive, they penny dive, and Ryan came home with $1.08 in pennies (also known as 108 pennies) today. Not to mention his counselors said he helped other kids get some. I told him it was because he was such a strong swimmer (yay me, signing him up for swim team at age 4!) And Ryan answered, "Yes. And its because I REALLY like money." Not sure I can give myself a yay me for that one. Unless he turns into the next Warren Buffet. Stay tuned.**
But my favorite ribbon had to be Alex's white ribbon.
After the nightmare known as the first day of BB Gun Camp last summer - a big parental failure I still receive grief from Alex over (which, I would note, was discovered to have been a computer failure and not my fault, but try telling that to an unhappy Alex) ...
Alex received a ribbon for being an "Awesome BB Shot."
(and Go Mommy! for getting the BB Gun lessons set up properly this year)
