This week I have been with the kids at Silver Star Mountain at Piping Hot Summer Drummer -- a camp for Bag Piping, Drumming and Highland Dance.... It is located in 4 buildings in the village centre and I parked my van on Sunday and haven't moved it since.... I've been walking... Checking on my kids... and having a relaxing, but busy week.

The pipers and dancers have a slightly different schedule, but both with 6 hours of instruction a day, plus evening activities -- dancers starting 15min later and ending 15min earlier in the morning... but pipers having a shorter afternoon, and having some flex time in the afternoon where they choose their class to attend. The kids get quite a bit of freedom walking between venues... My son (age 11) went too and from class without a problem. The girls (ages 9 & 6) had a little difficulty finding the way for the first few days and I would take them to class & meet them after... I would often wander the village to see if I could see my sons group playing outside, too... Oh and I went for a few walks on the trail -- uphill, oh and return was downhill

It has been a week of firsts for the kids too! My son entered his first tune writing competition, and although he didn't place, we learned how to use GNU Lilypond for writing music. My daughters both entered the choreography competition... my oldest entered as a solo dancer with a dance she choreographed... and my youngest entered as a group with 6 other dancers (4 older dancers, and 3 young ones). My older daughter placed 3rd, and the younger one's group placed 2nd! My 9yo also picked up the penny whistle and has learned to play Auld Lang Syne....

Tonight was the ceilidh.... and they all performed at the formal part of the ceilidh, and my older two performed at the pub after... My son played 2 tunes with friends, then he played the fling for his 9yo sister.... She then danced the jig too...

The ceilidh is just finishing up, we've been up in our room for a bit, but we are right across the access road from the pub, so we've been able to listen to the music... The kids went to bed sometime after midnight, and were asleep within seconds of their heads hitting the pillow! They are tired from all this activity!


Its been a busy week -- tomorrow is the parade outside and we get to repeat it next week. Although, my youngest won't be in dance camp, she'll be hanging with me... So I guess I'll be doing some shorter walks - which is probably good as my shins are so sore!