4 Wheels 4 Girls

On Thursday at El Lago Del Bosque, Stella and I ate dinner and then decided to dance.

We went to find some counselors so they could put some music on for us, and we found our teachers, Vero y Evelyn. Evelyn is Stella’s teacher, and Vero is mine. They put in the CD that we use for El Clase De Bailar, and they led us in the first dance, the song Waka Waka by Shakira. I love that song, and I love the dance, too. Then we danced to a lot of other songs that we learned in dance class, and they taught us lots of new songs. They’re really good dancers. It was really fun to dance to the Spanish music; I’ve discovered that I really like it.

We danced for a long time until we were all exhausted and about ready to fall asleep right there. Then we turned off the music and went to watch Shark Tales in Spanish. It was a super fun night!!! 😀

Ellie, Ana, and Rosa leading the dance

Dancing with Vero and Evelyn

After meals at camp, we usually have a break, where we can do whatever we want. Play, dance; anything. So on the second day, Bella, Emelia, my sisters, and I decided to play four-square.

We drew the giant square with sidewalk chalk, and then wrote KING QUEEN KNIGHT and TRASH in the four sections. Then we played. And played and played and played. After EVERY single meal, my sisters and friends and I would run outside to play four-square, and sometimes we even got the counselors to play with us. On Friday, Nelson played with us for a REALLY long time, and he was really good at it too!!! He was almost always King, and when one of us became King he got us out as fast as lightning. It was still extremely fun, though.

Four square on the plaza

It was sad when we had to leave camp; that meant no more four-square! But it was great to be there and have so much fun with everyone.

¡Hasta la vista! 😉

On Thursday we made tie dye animals with Ale and Vero. We went to tie dye with Vero and Ale. We has to get in a line and pick a animal. I was first and got an elephant. I picked out all the neon colors and went to work. Most of the spary paint came out in globs so I had to spread it with my fingers. After a while I finished and went to look at everyone’s animals. Ana made a giraffe and Stella made a snake and Greta made a fish. We let them dry and would get them the next day. After that we went to go play 4 square with Bella and Rosa.

Tidy
Me and my Sesters all were in the same class tidy. We all did a shert. my shert looked like a the northern lites. I did not mean for it to be like that but I liked it.

[Editor’s notes: tidy = tie-dye]

This is the tie-dye shirt I made

On Thursday at El Lago Del Bosque, one of our counselors, Bruno, gave a drumming class.

That afternoon, Dad came and found me while I was enjoying a passionfruit snow-cone. He told me to come to Bruno’s drumming class with him. So I put down my snow-cone and decided to go. I went around to the drumming classroom and sat down in a chair. Dad, Stella, Ellie, and another family were there. Bruno told me to grab a drum, so I did. My drum was big and tall. Then Bruno taught us three different ways to hit the drum and then four different rhythms. It was really fun, and I was pretty good at it! Bruno told us at the end that we were a very musical family. I’m glad I took the drumming class. I had a great time!!! :•)

Ritmo con Bruno

On Thursday and Friday me Ana Mommy and Daddy were all going to start a new activity: mettle carving class!

When we got there we all picked out our design. I picked out two blue birds siting on a branch with flowers all around them. Ana got a butterfly and Mommy got a pot of either tulips or roses. Daddy made his own thing, the RV. It had flames and a flower on it. After that we took our sheet of paper with the design on it and out lined the whole picture on to the mettle. When you looked on the back you would see the design showing up on the back. It took along time until we finished with that part. Then Ale gave us some tools to use. So if you wanted to make something pop out on the front you would use the tool and draw in the space and then it would pop out. At first I did not want it to pop out and then I did and it looked pretty good.

Drawing designs to form in metal sheets

The next day we did the pop outs and we had to decide what to use it for. I made mine for just something to look at. I put a purple frame and taped it on. After that we got to color it. I made the birds light blue and their belly’s dark blue and their beaks yellow and the flowers red and pink. I gave mine to grandma. I loved making the mettle designs.

At Spanish camp on Wednesday night (August 31), there was a really fun activity…

It was a game where you split into groups and you ran around finding counselors hiding under blankets. Then you asked the counselor yes-or-no questions in Spanish, like,”Do you have long hair?” or “Are you a man?” and you tried to figure out who they were. If they said yes, they signed a sheet that proved that you had found them. My group was Stella and Bella, and we were an awesome group. We were super fast and we were good at finding the hidden counselors. There was one counseslor at the end who was really hard to find named Alejandro, but we finally found him in the closet. Then we ran to Nelson, the one who was in charge of the game, and he told us that we had won first place! We were the fastest team! We exchanged a big round of high-fives with each other and Nelson, and then we sat and hung out with Vero until the other teams were finished. We had such a fun time playing… The Mystery Counselor Game!!! 😀

In the square with our new friend, Alana. Alana and Ana were on Dad's team for the mystery counselor game.

On the third day (August 31) of camp at El Lago Del Bosque, I decided to try the extreme challenge: get a super Español badge. *claps hands excitedly*

Super Español is this thing they do at camp where if you volunteer to wear the Super Español badge, you have to speak ONLY Spanish until dinner. (They give out the badges at lunch.) So I got a badge and tried to speak only Spanish all afternoon. It was REALLY hard. When I asked questions, I had to ask them in Spanish, and even when I was just playing with the other kids… I think you can guess the answer.

But… I survived! I spoke English a little bit, but for the most part I did fine. At dinner I turned in my badge and the counselors gave me a mardi-gras necklace in return. I’m glad I stepped up to the challenge, because it was actually fun! 😀

Every dinner and sometimes lunch the counselors turn on some Mysterious music and run around then Alejandro would stop and all the counselors would FREEZ!!!!!!! Then someone from the crowd yelled out a consolers name and then they would say something in Spanish and then they would go like ohhhhhhhhhh and the counselor would say siii no!! Then someone yelled Evelyn!!!! Everyone did the same thing!! Then everyone went ohhhhhhhhhh!!! Then she said noooo siii!!!!! Then she said that she saw the person talking a lot of Spanish and helping others. We all did a drum roll and the person was ….. Ester!!! THAT WAS ME!!!!! Yes!!! Then all the counselors sang this song. It was very embarrassing because every one was staring at me. Then Evelyn handed me a necklace and it had a small blue thing that looked like a dissgoball.* It was awesome.

[*discoball]

We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner at camp. We got to sit with the counselors.

Each day we had breakfast then class then a snack. Then we would do cooking then class then lunch. Then we would do a class then have a snack then we would eat what we cooked earlier. Then we would have dinner, then dessert, and then popcorn with a movie at night.

It was very fun sitting with the counselors. I sat with Vero, Paola, Nelson, Mariano, Alejandro, Ale, Bruno, Carla, Christina, Emilia, Evelyn, Edgar, Ana, and Yamile. But not with all of them at the same time. The counselors always spoke Spanish. I did not speak much. They spoke to me, but mostly to Mommy.

The food was from different countries like Guatemala and Argentina. It was very good. They brought out all the food and somebody from each table would go get it. At the end of each meal we would get a bucket and we would stack our plates and bowls in it and we would put our silverware in cups and dump them into the right bucket.*

[*this post typed by Dad for Ana]

Hula hooping in the square before dinner one night