Focht Family Blog

After Samantha’s party the day was filled with Christmas. The campground had a Christmas craft where the kids were able to make ornaments. Then after a potluck dinner Santa arrived on his golf cart….

He gave presents out to all of the kids and when he learned that it was Samantha’s birthday, he had everyone sing to her…

I even heard that after we left to go back to the RV that Santa gave one woman an engagement ring from her boyfriend! :)….

After all of the excitement the kids hung out at the RV with their cousin Alex before they headed out in the morning…

Samantha was thrilled for her birthday. Nathan’s parents came for the week before her big day and stayed for her birthday weekend. Nathan’s sister, Vicki, also came for the weekend with her daughter Alex so Samantha had lots of family as well as all of the new friends she has made this summer.

The morning didn’t start out well. Her party was starting at 10:00 and when Josh woke up this is what he looked like…

For those of you who know of Josh’s eye troubles, the swollen eye is the one he can see out of. So… while the rest of the family was decorating for the party, I took Josh to the ER. We weren’t going to take a chance. The ER doctor didn’t see anything in it (although Josh didn’t cooperate with the exam) and she couldn’t see any bites. She gave us some eye drops for infection and told me to give him benadryl every 4 hours. Neither did anything to help the swelling.

On to the party…. AMAZINGLY Josh and I made it back with 15 minutes to spare! That was a quick ER!! :) The first game we had come up with involved 5 different colors of yarn that the other family members strung around everything in the Pavilion. The kids were grouped into teams and the first team to wind up their yarn got a little prize. Here is a picture of Samantha and her team winding up their yarn…

The other game we had to entertain them was putting them in teams and giving each team two rolls of toilet paper. The first team to use all of their toilet paper to make a mummy out of one of the members got to hit the pinata after Samantha…

I think one of Samantha’s favorite things from her party was the pinata. She has wanted a pinata for years but we have never had her parties where we could have one so she got one this year! I managed to dodge the stick to get a picture of each of our kids taking their turn…

Samantha had a great time. After all of the games we filled the kids up with hot dogs and lots of cake and brownies and sent them home.

Side Note: Nathan said he saw the boys playing with the newly installed tetherball and he was pretty sure Josh took a shot to the head. The swelling started going down the next day but it never looked bruised. We are thinking it must have been a hit from the ball. Everything seems to have healed fine and he can still see! :)

We saw this restaurant while driving around and decided we needed to try it out. It started out when someone bought an old auto service station and turned it into a restaurant. Everything is decorated with cars including the building…

They are known for their wings (we didn’t try them). Here is a picture of Samantha and Josh posing as chickens (Timmy was at another camp)…

Also… a picture of Samantha and Josh with their cool straws and a picture of the Corvette that was hanging off the wall next to our table…

Samantha’s first overnight camp was held at Camp Singing Hills. It was a Core Camp that was called Challenges Are For Me. Because it is a Core Camp, you have to have a leader or parent with you so Nathan took her. I am glad since I am not sure I could have slept in the tents….

Here is Samantha helping with a flag ceremony…

The Challenges included a rope course. Here is Samantha holding on…

Of couse they did other things as well, like archery…

Here is Samantha showing off where the arrow hit…

This particular camp only had Nathan, Samantha, and a troop of 7 girls from Pittsburgh. Here is a picture of the whole group…

Well… now you know how far behind I am! :) The weekend of the Fourth the campground had a parade with golf carts and bicycles. We ended up leading the parade. Here are some pictures of the decorated golf cart…