Happy Camper

Maddy has been at one camp or another three of the four weeks this month.  In order of appearance, she's had a school-sponsored basketball camp for a week, a week off, then a week of softball camp, basketball camp at SIUE, a local college. this week, and she will finish up the month with three final days of school basketball camp. 

All her camps have been day camps.  Except for this week, all the camps have ended at noon.  Her camp this week runs from 9am to 4pm.  It's a long day but she's having a good time (so far, it's only Tuesday).  She said she's enjoyed them all, and I think her skill set has improved also. 

I didn't mean for her to be camped out for an entire month - they all just happened to fall that way.  She really enjoys playing softball and basketball, and she'll want to try out for the teams once she starts junior high in August (excuse me while I try to process that my baby is out of elementary school).  The more exposure she and her mad skillz have to the coaches of the teams the better she'll perform at her tryouts.  She's a kid who does well with a little bit of familiarity.

This week she was apprehensive about the SIUE camp.  It's held at the college, it has about 50 girls attending, and she wasn't going to know anyone there.  I told her at least she'd have something in common with the others - they all loved basketball, right?  I got the "yeah whatever, mom" look.  Ah, it starts - the end of my days as the smartest person she knows.

Sunday night she was planning her wardrobe.  I'm glad she's taking an interest in her appearance but I'm also thinking, it's basketball camp - shorts, t-shirt, socks, shoes - what's to plan?  She showed me her ensemble and I said "it's lovely.  Now go to bed, you have to get up at 7:30am." 

As we walked into the gym on Monday and crossed the floor, one of the coaches saw us, pointed at Maddy and said "ok, we're going to have a problem. . ."  Maddy's face turned ashen, I'm trying to think of what we could have possibly done in the 3.6 seconds we'd been there, and then the coach continued ". . . with your shirt."  I looked at Maddy and realized she was wearing her Saint Louis University t-shirt.  To a camp at Southern Illinois University -Edwardsville.  Epic. Parenting. Failure.  Luckily the coach laughed it off, and Maddy was immediately christened SLU Girl.  Hey, there are worse things to be called.  And she made an impression - no way she could hide in the crowd now.

I assured her that she would not be expelled from camp and promised to stop by the bookstore on my home and get her the proper collegiate apparel.  I even bought a shirt, just in case, and made a mental note to not wear my Texas Longhorns shirt.

Today Maddy wore her new SIUE shirt.  And she bought some SIUE shorts at the camp store also, just for good measure.  As she was paying, one of the other coaches came up to me and said that Maddy's wardrobe faux pas wasn't so bad - apparently a camper showed up in an SIU-Carbondale shirt today - SIUE's archrival.

Sartorial screw-ups aside, she's really enjoying these camps, and I'm so glad I'm able to be there to take her and pick her up and hear how her day went, what she learned, who she met, and how much fun she's having.