#33 Claudia and the Great Search (Claudia's Wild Goose Chase)

The Yuletide festivities have passed, the presents have been opened and my hips are another inch wider.  Hoorah!  Tory is down with the flu after taking care of her own kids, so she’s taking it easy and I’m posting.

But today we re going to snark about a girl who can eat as much junk food as she wants without getting a pimple or gaining a pound.  It’s Claudia!  And she thinks she’s adopted!  Her logic is astounding and um, flawed.

We see Claudia snoozing her way through science, wondering why the word species is species no matter how many you have.  Well, Claud, it’s a Latin word used in English…but you don’t really care, so let’s move on.  She’s counting down the minutes because she gets to leave early today.  Janine is getting an award at her school; Claud and her family are going to attend the ceremony.  They are escorted to the front to the reserved section by a gushing teacher.  I don’t remember my school making such a big deal about awards; we had pep rallies.  Apparently they focus on academics here at SHS. Janine gets her award and afterward, the Kishis are approached by teachers.  Claudia is told again and again how they can hardly believe she and Janine are sisters.  Well, here’s a thought, Claud.  You’re dressed like a bad 80’s Sears catalogue (a very short black skirt, an oversized white shirt with pink and turquoise poodles printed all over it, flat turquoise shoes with straps, and a ton of jewelry, including poodle earrings.  Hair pulled to the side in a high pony tail with a pink clip) and Janine looks…normal (hair cut pageboy, pleated plaid skirt, white shirt with a round collar, stockings and blue heels).

Claudia doesn’t want her parents to think she’s jealous, so she’s happy to escape the auditorium and go home with her dad to the quiet of her room after all the interviews and congratulations that Janine has received.  We then have 19, yep 19 pages of exposition.  It’s a Monday, so it’s meeting day.  Kristy calls the meeting to order and instantly starts stressing about Emily Michelle.  Her pediatrician is concerned about her lack of speech development.  Apparently EM is also having nightmares and doesn’t even play like a two year old.  Well, let’s see here peeps.  This child has a) lost her mother b) been stuck in an orphanage c) been transferred to a new family in a new country d) been given an overachieving sister who demands nothing less than Gabby Perkins in a sister and e) now repeated her second year of life in the BSC time loop.  Do you think there might be some reasons why she’s not progressing?   Well, Kristy’s mom calls needing a sitter and Claud gets the job.

After the meeting, she’s back to being a little depressed, but decides to get creative with the dinner salad.  There’s a cake to go with dinner as well, to celebrate Janine’s achievement.  Along with her award, she gets $250, which she plans to put toward college.  Claud about spontaneously combusts; she’d blow the entire amount of money on a sweater (day-glo, never the less), art supplies ( not so bad) and candy.  Yes, child, be glad you don’t gain weight.  If you buy that amount of candy to eat, it’s a miracle you’re not suffering from childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.  But then you and Stacey can be diabetes buddies.  Maybe that’s her goal!!

Claudia rustles through the living room and finds some photo albums.  They’re mostly of her mom and dad after their marriage and then an album of Janine.  But hardly any of Claudia.  Very few baby pictures.  She starts rustling through her dad’s desk, looking for pictures that weren’t put into albums and comes across a lock box.  Suddenly I understand why Claudia struggles in school; her logic is way flawed.  Because a) there aren’t a lot of pictures of her b) she and her sister don’t look a lot alike and c) there is a lock box in her dad’s desk, she’s adopted.  Yep, that’s a pretty big leap. 

She keeps her awful secret to herself for the next week.  She comes up with a couple of different scenarios of what happened; my favorite is the one where she’s stolen from the hospital, bought through a crooked lawyer for a huge sum of money and, when discovering they bought a stolen baby, her parents decided to go incognito.

Claudia manages to get through the week and heads to sit for EM and DM.  EM cries for her parents, as Claudia is warned she might.  She struggles through the evening and finally gets EM and DM to sleep.  Stacey calls and Claudia confesses her secret.  Stacey is skeptical, but consoles Claudia that she’s not related to Janine.  A loud crash of thunder and EM is awake with a nightmare, so Claud signs off, but not before warning Stacey to keep this a secret.

Dawn sits for EM and DM.  She stops EM from putting a pebble in her mouth and wonders if 2 year olds shouldn’t be putting things in their mouths anymore.  Well, when comparing EM to Gabby Perkins, it’s no surprise that she’s behind.  Any normal 2 year old would be.  There’s so much pressure put on kids now to do more and be more at younger and younger ages that it’s no surprise child suicide is on the rise.  Anyway, Kristy approaches Dawn, concerned about EM and how she didn’t make it into a school program because she’s not toilet trained.  I can’t think of ANY program that has that requirement for a two year old.  Grrr….

Claudia starts searching for her birth mother.  She starts with the agency the Brewers adopted EM through, called Love Bundles.  Seriously?!  That name just screams “illegitimate business!!!”  Turns out they only started five years previously and only deal with Vietnamese adoptions.  Claudia’s next step is to go to the bank to get her birth certificate, but she doesn’t exactly understand how the whole key thing works and ends up leaving embarrassed.  Her last stop is her pediatrician’s.  It turns out she had another pediatrician when she was born and didn’t start seeing Dr. Dellenkamp until she was almost 2.  The receptionist looks at her like she’s nuts and Claudia heads home, certain Mrs. Wilson is hiding something!!.  Dun, dun DUN!

Claudia sits for EM and DM again. DM takes off for a friend’s house and Claud is stuck er, staying behind with EM.  Claudia starts trying to get EM to pick different color crayons and give them to her and finally EM catches on to what Claud’s up to.  Elizabeth gets home, squees and asks Claudia to tutor EM.

Stacey sits for the St. Perkins girls, who make cookies without a recipe.  Stacey finds a book about adoption and mentions it to Claud.

Claudia has to have this book and checks it out of the library.  She also skims through the paper from the time she was born and finds birth announcements of baby girls who were born the same time she was.  Her name is not there…she must be adopted!  There is a girl named Resa Ho born around the time she was; it must be her!  She calls Stacey, who comes over to calm her down a bit.  Claudia goes through all of her discoveries and Stacey somewhat questions her logic.  Stacey, the mathematic genius, can’t sense that it is statistically improbable that her friend is adopted?  She actually encourages Claudia to start her search.  Heh boy.

Claudia calls all of the families, hoping to find out who is missing a daughter.  She is able to account for all of the girls…except Resa.  She calls Stacey (who is feeling tired) to dish and heads over to her house to take a break.

Kristy sits for DM.  He’s feeling left out and lonely because EM is getting so much attention.  They have a Krusher’s practice and Bart shows up to walk her home.  They arrive back at the mansion in time to see Nannie return with EM after her re-evaluation at the hoity-toity preschool.

The next day Claudia is tutoring Emily again.  Emily’s starting to talk more, knows some colors and shapes and today Claudia is going to teach her how to count.  Seriously?  My two year old can’t comprehensively count yet; she just zooms through the numbers.  I guess its time for a tutor.  As soon as EM leaves, Claudia calls Wyoming and the Hos.  She gets numbers for three Ho families and  is able to reach two of them.  One woman does not answer, so Claudia immediately assumes she is that woman’s daughter.  She calls Stacey, who (finally!) puts the breaks on Claudia’s imagination and tells her to talk to her parents about this.

She and barely get through dinner, to the point that her parents ask to talk to her.  She breaks down and starts crying, accusing them of lying to her about her birth and not telling her she’s adopted.  I’m sure of all the things her parents expected to come out of her mouth, that wasn’t it.  She spews out all of her “discoveries” and dares her parents to tell her it isn’t true, which, of course, it isn’t.  Turns out her birth was announced in a discontinued paper, there aren’t as many pictures of her because she’s the second child and her parents were busier and the lock box in her dad’s desk contains $500 in emergency money.  Claudia, of course, feels stupid, but her parents assure her they love and appreciate her for who she is.  Later, they show her a picture of Mimi at the same age and they could have been twins.

The Friday meeting arrives, along with Stacey, who is yet again beat.  Kristy arrives and announces that EM was reevaluated and the school says she will be accepted in the fall.  Claudia is to keep working with her because her mom wants EM to get used to being with people outside of her family. 

After the meeting, Claudia decides she likes being a part of her family and rousts Janine away from her computer to make dinner together.

Hoorah!

#27 Jessi and the Superbrat

Oh my goodness, this thing was a beast to get through.  Honestly.  We have one of the first ghostied novels here.  The author thanks Jan Carr for her help in preparing the manuscript.  It isn’t one of the more interesting books in the series, believe me.

The cover shows Jessi looking like Michael Jackson with a migraine.  I don’t know anyone who can contort their bodies like that. She is at a 90 degree angle at the waist.  Wow.

The book starts with Becca running through the house retrieving the family for TV time.  I guess TV isn’t evil yet.  But before we can sit down for the show, we have to have the chapter two information.  Then they sit down to watch P.S 162.  Becca reveals that the kid who plays Waldo used to live in Stoneybrook.  Jessi calls Mal and finds out his name: Derek Masters.  He used to be in Nicky’s class.  Jessi is ecstatic!

She slides into the meeting the next day and we meet the girls of the club.  During the meeting, Mrs. Masters calls to request a sitter for her boys, Derek and Todd.  Jessi is the only one free and squee!  She gets the job.

And because we wouldn’t be the BSC if we didn’t have a vocabulary lesson, Jessi defines carriage for us.  She’s in ballet class and it’s not going well until the end when she feels herself soaring.  Madame Noelle pulls Jessi aside and asks her if she’d like to audition for Swan Lake.  Jessi fantasizes about dancing the lead and decides to audition.

Jessi is excited to babysit for Derek and Todd.  Becca begs for information about the show, but Jessi promises himself and her sister that she’s going to focus on the kids, not the star.  Jessi and Derek have some back and forth conversation; Jessi asks about LA, Derek asks about life in Stoneybrook.  She plays Candy Land with the boys and tells Derek about her ballet audition.  He offers to be her director and to help her prepare for her auditions.

So Derek isn’t doing real well “getting back into real life.”  The other kids stare at him and ask weird questions, reporters show up for his first day back at school, he gets called names and gets into fights.  In particular, he has issues with a a boy named “John.”  “John” (because we all know it’s really Derek) does all sorts of nasty things.  Jessi is outraged and calls “John” a superbrat!  She informs the BSC posthaste so they can solve the problem.

Kristy sits for Karen, who invites Hannie and Amanda over to play.  Karen insists upon being the star.  Rah.

Jessi goes to her audition, is a little twigged out by all the dancers that are there (some are even from NYC!), but gets a callback.  She calls Mal to tell her and finds out from Mal that Derek threw food all over a kid at school.  Jessi defends him and says the superbrat must have pushed him too far.

Claudia sits for the Masters kids.  Derek feeds her more “john” bs and they run into some boys from school.  All of the kids start to hang out and end up having a really good time.

Jessi goes to her callback and, since she has a job sitting for the Masters right afterward, gets to perform not only for the director and panel, but also for Derek.  They head back to the Masters’ house, where Todd (oh yeah, the Masters had a second kid!) lets it spill that Derek’s in a movie and they’re going back to LA in a few weeks.  Jessi starts thinking she should go to LA too, just because Derek said it was a good idea. Yes!! Excellent deduction, Watson!

She starts writing down names and phone numbers of talent agencies to represent her.  While that stew is simmering, she decides to start planning a going away party.

When she raises it to the BSC, they can’t find a time, but they finally figure it out.  Then Mal spills the beans that Jessi made it to the second rounds of auditions.  Jessi’s a little upset she told, but then, she never said it was a secret.  You want it to be a secret, make it a secret, honey.

Jessi tries to convince her parents she should be a model and act, but they use logical arguments and common sense to counter her request.  In the end, they let her try calling agencies, as long as it’s not farther than Stamford.

Jessi tries to get more information from Derek about the acting/modeling word.  He invites Jessi to move in with them in LA while trying to get her big break.  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Mal mentions to Jessi there’s no one in Derek’s class named John.  Jessi says he’s probably in another class or grade. Hmmmm

It’s party time!  The morning of Jessi’s big audition is when the party is.  They have games and breakfast food and non BSC charges SHOW UP FOR THE PARTY.  They eat food, play games and have a good time.

But, all good things must come to an end Jessi heads to her audition.  Jessi does her best and leaves it up to the fates.  She gets a call – she made it!

Jessi stops to tell Derek before he leaves and he tells her it’s great and that she won’t be going to LA soon.  Then we have the confession that Derek himself was “John” (oh shock and horrors) and he did all the nasty things John did.  Huh, totally did not see that one coming.

Mommy Moments:

• If my child was a “tv star” I’m not sure I’d try to get him back into normal life.  Life is obviously no longer that kind of normal.  Maybe it’s time to make a new norm.
• Along with that, what’s to stop the paparazzi from parking outside his school if they want to?
• Perhaps some consistency and continuity, Masters family, especially for Todd’s sake?  You’ve been here a few weeks and are now moving back to LA.
• I think Mama and Papa Ramsey are they best BSC parents.  They actually discuss things with their kids, rather than just saying, “yeah, sure, whatever you want honey.  Just don’t burn down the house.?”  They’re even going to let her try to get an agent, as long as it’s in their parameters.
•  

Claudia Outfits:

• A bright pink t-shirt, a short red flouncy skirt, and underneath the skirt she had on black footless tights that she had rolled up to mid-calf.

This is my first ghostied snark – if they’re all that awful, it’s going to be a long time between blog posts.!

Missing Posts

Sorry there haven't been any posts recently.  Between giving Tess a helping hand with her babies, dealing with the cold and flu season (this year it's a plethora of coughs) and the holidays, the snarking just hasn't happened.  Plus, I'm snarking Jessi and the Superbrat and it's just kind of boring, so that in and of itself is a challenge.  I PROMISE to try to get it done tonight.  I make no guarantees. :)

#29 Mallory and the Mystery Diary (Or Mallory Fixes it All)

Mallory, we love you, but if that’s your room on the cover, I can tell you why everyone considers you a nerd.  It looks like my mom’s bedroom in the late 80s; mine was a bit more…hip.

“If only I were thirteen instead of eleven.  Life would be a picnic.”  Yes, Mal, the instant you turn thirteen, life becomes a picnic.  Just wait until you turn fifteen.  Life will suddenly become an absolute dream.  And then we get an explanation of what a journal is and how her journal is just a notebook so she can write in it whenever she wants.  Did journals provide dates for you?  I’ve only ever seen ones that you can write your own date in.  “My eleventh year already seems a decade long.”  That might be because you’re already in your second year of being eleven.  Mom calls her downstairs and asks her to take a casserole over to Stacey and her mom, who recently moved back to Stoneybrook.  We get the chapter two spiel and see Stacey and her mom unpacking in their house.  They stumble over an old trunk and Mallory refuses to let Stacey and her mom throw it out and volunteers to take it home.  She drags it in and wonders what mysteries it holds.

The trunk remains locked and Mal and her siblings try all sorts of things to get it open. 

Dawn sits for the Barretts.  Buddy is reading below grade level and Mrs. Barrett is upset with herself.  Dawn volunteers the BSC to help tutor him.

So, the trunk still isn’t open and Mallory finally caves and lets her brothers smash the locks off the trunk.  The trunk contains clothing and a diary from 1894.  Vanessa dresses up in the clothes, and she and Mal exchange broaches and start dreaming about life in the past.  Mal decides to save the diary for a little light bedtime reading.

Mal tutors Buddy and tries to mimic school.  Buddy’s not thrilled about tutoring.

That night Mal decides to set aside her homework and read the diary of Sophie.  It turns out that Sophie’s mother died and her painting disappeared just after her burial.  Sophie’s grandfather blames Sophie’s father, and since the grandfather is wealthy, the whole town shuns the family.  Sophie is angry and vows to clear her father’s name or she will not rest easy when she dies.  Mal instantly assumes Stacey and her mom live in a haunted house!  There have been more than six families who lived in the house; obviously it’s haunted.

Kristy sits for her siblings and, since Mallory told them the story of the haunted house, she’s got ghosts and attics on the brain.  And Karen is visiting for the weekend, so of course she’s freaking everyone out.

Mallory’s at the BSC meeting, wearing a shirt that says I Heart Kids.  I think this could be massively misconstrued these days.  Mal describes everyone else’s clothing (nothing too exciting; Claud went back to the 50s for the day). They decide that Sophie’s grandfather was James Hickman, otherwise known as “Old Hickory” and her father could possibly be crazy Jared Mulray.

Mallory has another tutoring session with Buddy.  She decides to have him read comic books and write his own comic so that he can discover that reading is fun. 

Things are at a standstill with the mystery, so Mallory and her friends decide to have a séance.  Kristy demands to be the “channeler” and the rest of the girls decide to go along with it.  They meet at Stacey’s house and “Madame Kristin” begins the séance.  They try to channel Sophie’s spirit, Kristy pretends to be Sophie and finally everyone decides it’s time to eat.  Mal isn’t too disappointed; she didn’t expect to actually get Sophie.

Stacey sits for Charlotte.  Charlotte points out that things aren’t always what they seem and maybe they’re overlooking something.

Mallory has another tutoring session with Buddy and they read Encyclopedia Brown.  Mal tells him about the mystery and shows him the diary.  Buddy’s arm gets stuck in the trunk.  Buried in the pocket in the side of the trunk is Old Hickory’s confession.  He couldn’t bear to look at the portrait of his daughter, so he had it painted over.  When his friends asked where it was, he said in it was stolen and they automatically blamed Jared.  Old Hickory never said otherwise.  Buddy asks if they could look around Stacey’s attic to see if maybe the painting was moved there.  They call Stacey and thunder over to see if they can find the painting. After looking around for a few minutes, they find a picture of ships….that are sailing over a finger with a ring on it.  They show Mrs. McGill and she stops them from rubbing the painting with turpentine, but suggests they take it to a professional art restorer.  As the only adult prominently featured in this book, I’m glad she has one common sense line…and she follows that up with a comment about how she doesn’t want any ghosts in the house.  Great.

Mal runs Buddy home, explains to Mrs. Barrett how she miraculously cures Buddy of his reading troubles in less than three weeks (if a kid in 3^rd grade is struggling with sight words, there are other issues afoot other than “liking to read”).

At the next BSC meeting, Stacey rushes in with news about the painting; Mal asks her to wait until everyone gets there.  It turns out that it was the painting of a beautiful woman, most likely Sophie’s mother.  Stacey and her mom are going to hang the painting in their house so the spirits can all be together.  Rah.

Buddy then calls the meeting to tell Mallory that he’s been moved up from the crows to the robins in school reading groups.  Hooray!  All problems are solved, all mysteries are solved and everyone is happy.  Now I’m going to go swipe some trick-or-treat candy from my kids’ buckets.

#25 Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

I’m sorry I’ve been dragging my feet on this snark folks.  I just can’t stand Mary Anne and I keep drawing her blasted books!

On the cover, Mary Anne is holding a bowl of catfood out to an invisible Tigger.  I’ve never lost a cat, but it makes more sense to me that she would scatter cat treats on the ground instead of holding a large dish of food.  I digress….I may do that a lot in this book.

So, we start with Dawn and Mary Anne riding their bikes to the cat store to buy more toys for Tigger because he keeps batting them behind the refrigerator.  Common Sense Moment: Move the stupid fridge instead of wasting your money on more new toys.  If you don’t ever move the fridge, I REALLY don’t want to see what’s under there.  We get the chapter two spiel and it’s not even chapter two yet.  I want to hang my head and cry.

They get back in time to give Tigger his toys and head to the BSC meeting.  More gobbledygook (the language of goblins) about meetings and procedures and MA gets a job sitting for Logan’s siblings.  Ironically enough, Logan is the one who calls the club to arrange a sitter for his sibs.

Richard still has some rules, including a rule that Logan cannot come in the house without an adult present.  So MA and Logan sit on the front step and hang out.  It’s an icky, almost raining Friday.  Logan is a little snappish, Jamie Newton comes over to play with Tigger and then Mariah and Gabbie come over.  After they leave, Charlotte J stops by to play with Tigger too.  I am amazed that Logan isn’t annoyed that his pseudo date with MA was interrupted by the neighborhood kiddos.  It’s time for the BSC meeting, but Tigger is so happy outside that MA leaves him out while she goes to the meeting.

MA gets home, starts dinner and realizes she hasn’t fed Tigger.  I just have to pause to say this cat has a mat that says “food please”.  MA is going to be one of those crazy cat ladies when she’s old, isn’t she?  You know, those people that feed their cats at the table and talk about Smoopkins as though he was a person.  She looks through the whole house (conveniently forgetting she left him OUTSIDE before the meeting) until her dad comes home.  Then both of them search outside in the dark.  Richard finally talks MA into going back in and having dinner.  She tries to remain calm until it’s bedtime and then she panics about Tigger again.  Richard tells her to go to bed; Tigger’s probably just off having and adventure.  But when the cat’s not back the next morning, Richard’s worried too and they take turns watching for Tigger.

MA breaks from TIggerWatch 1989 to babysit for Logan’s brother and sister.  Hunter is allergic to everything and Kerry is trying to stretch her independence wings. 

MA hurries home to see if Tigger’s back and he’s not.  She calls Kristy for an emergency meeting.  They meet at Claudia’s and MA sniffles through the story of the lost Tigger.  Mallory suggests posters, Claudia volunteers to draw a picture of Tigger and Kristy suggests a reward.  She also says her mom will run copies off at her office and they can hang them around the neighborhood the next day.  MA calls Logan to tell him about the Tigger problems, but he’s distracted by baseball, so she calmly hangs up on him.

Jessi has a sitting job for her siblings and has to write about it in the club notebook.  It’s really more about her reading Sounder and thinking about where Tigger is.

Sunday morning dawns and Kristy calls MA at 8am to tell her that they can go and paper the neighborhood.  MA runs into a kid who says he saw Tigger and can he please have the reward money?  They tell him to beat it and he scrams. 

They keep looking for Tigger and even when MA sits for the Newtons the next day, Jamie offers to continue to search.  They invite Mariah and Gabbie to go along with them, but still no Tigger.  They stop by MA’s house, she gets the mail and there’s a letter…Tigger has been catnapped!!!!  She calls Logan, who is massively underwhelemed, but volunteers to come to the meeting.  They all try to figure out what to do, when Logan suggests a plan.  MA drops an envelope of monopoly money and the rest of them hide out in the field to wait for the catnapper.   They all agree not to involve any adults.  Mommy Moment: If one of my kids felt that they couldn’t tell me something or about some problem they’re having, I’d be worried.  These girls NEVER go to an adult first, but their friends.  Is this normal teen behavior?

Dawn sits for the Barretts, and the kids are freaked out about their dog Pow possibly being napped.  Way to go, MA.  Jamie Newton has spread the word of the catnapping.  Perhaps you shouldn’t have been calling everyone and their uncle to tell them about your letter WHILE YOU WERE BABYSITTING!  Mommy Moment: If my kids are in bed, feel free to talk, text, browse the internet.  While they’re awake, I want you aware and paying attention to what is going on.

The next day, MA slogs through school, waits anxiously until it’s time to go and then heads to the drop location.  She pretends to go home, then doubles back to hid with Kristy.  Suddenly, someone approaches the rock.  It’s the same kid who demanded money while they were hanging posters!!  They confront him and he admits to just trying to get some easy money.  They let him go after they scold him a bit.  But where is Tigger?

Claudia sits for the Perkins girls and they talk about replacing Tigger.

At the same time, MA is sitting for Hunter and Kerry again.  Lo and behold, Kerry has Tigger hidden in her closet!  She saw him by the street one evening and decided he wasn’t being well taken care of, so she took him home.  You know, in spite of the fact that her brother is allergic to EVERYTHING.  You’d think once she saw the posters for the missing kitten that she would have given him back.  What a sanctimonious brat.  She’s just trying to show that she’s good and responsible, so she has a heart to heart talk with her mom.  MA decides that Logan must have known Kerry had Tigger and accuses him of being a liar.

Well, that hurts Logan and he is angry with her.  She says he’s hurt her by being gruff and crabby lately.  He says he’s about to get kicked off the baseball team so he’s sorry if he’s been distracted.  They promise to be honest with each other.

MA brings Tigger with her to the meeting, poo-pooing the idea she’s being as overprotective with her kitten.  Who cares?  Hes’ back and he’s happy.  And….he’s a kitten.

The Babies are Here!

Tess made it to within a month of her due date (October 28th) and today her babies were born!  Micah Daniel (5 lbs, 1oz, 17.5 inches long) and Merissa Delaney (5lb 8oz, 18 inches long) arrived at 1:22am and 1:40am respectively.  Micah's in the NICU with a little oxygen, but Merissa's breathing like a champ. Tess is tired, but relieved that everyone is okay and that she's done with pregnancy!  Hopefully she'll be up to snarking again in a few months!  Congratulations Tess and Jesse!

Super Special #2 Babysitters' Summer Vacation

I was really excited to snark this super special and then I realized that super specials are…LONG.  And include a lot of, um, how shall I put it nicely, slower chapters.  I like the way Tess divided it up, so I will do that.

On the cover, the sitters are attempting a chorus kick line and look extremely awkward.  They also don’t look like teenagers…Mal looks like a deranged chipmunk...

Stacey

We start with Stacey’s point of view.  The Stoneybrook BSC has invited/forced Stacey to join them at Camp Mohawk during the summer (pre divorce and pre Mimi death, so this must be the summer that’s missing in the time line of books) so she’s on a bus heading out of NYC to the wilderness known as Camp Mohawk.  Stacey has decided to keep a notebook of her two weeks at camp and she’s going to have her friends write in there too.  She’s a little embarrassed since nobody sits by her on the bus.  Oh, and I see we are on the “no sugar no sweets” mantra now.  She finally arrives and is swarmed by the BSC and Charlotte Johanssen, who is sobbing with what Stacey presumes is excitement from arriving at camp and seeing her bestest babysitter ever.

Stacey’s first day getting her 6-year-olds settled in is busy and hectic since they aren’t as able to get their items unpacked.  They are also sick and, since Karen Brewer is in her cabin, they are loud.  Karen meets her Waterloo in a girl named Nonie, though.  They head for dinner and Stacey is in a predicament.  She has to eat, but she can’t eat everything that is given to her.  She goes to talk to the cook, but get scolded until the camp director, Mrs. Means, arrives and makes sure everything is under control so that Stacey has enough food to eat that follows her diet.  If I were Stacey’s mom, I would be livid that this happened, especially after 3 phone calls.  Of course, food sensitivity in kids is so prevalent today, most places are equipped and prepared to deal with special diets.  After dinner, they have a campfire, where Mrs. Means gives a lecture about ticks, poison ivy and poison oak, and not eating wild mushrooms and berries.  Stacey is getting eaten by mosquitoes, so she hides in some leafy plants.

It soon is apparent Stacey is not ok and she ends up in the infirmary.  She has a rash on her arms and legs, a big bump on her shoulder, an itchy patch near her mouth, red eyes and she feels tired and feverish.  She is certain she has Lyme Disease and heads to the infirmary.  It turns out she has poison ivy, pinkeye, an infected mosquito bite, a cold and impetigo by her mouth.  She has to stay in the infirmary while she recovers.  I think I’d call it quits and head for home.  She’s excited to be in the infirmary since she has a roommate.  Her roommate Miko has a broken leg and is in a thigh to ankle cast – why haven’t her parents taken her home?!?!  What is a girl with her whole leg in a cast going to do at camp?  Stacey recovers and is headed back to her cabin.

Stacey is a little miffed at her parents for calling her while she was in the infirmary.  Had she been my child, I would not have called her.  I would have gotten in my car, driven to camp and taken her home.  I win for most overprotective mom.  Her parents want her home too, but she talks them into letting her stay.  That’s why you don’t call; you just show up.  Muahahahaha!  Stacey makes it back to the cabin and survives the next few days with only a splinter in her hand.  One morning the kids wake her up saying it’s Christmas!  The other cabin Christmased them! 

Kristy

So, apparently Dawn is the reason they’re all at camp.  She’s been watching The Parent trap and Meatballs and everyone has camp on the brain.  So they find a camp and sign up for it.  The best part?  They get to be Counselors-in-training, except for Mal and Jessi, who have to be regular campers since they’re only 11.  Not only are the BSC going, but also a large amount of their clients as well.  So they get on a bus and head to camp.   Margo Pike pukes (of course), and the rest of the kids sing 1 million bottles of beer on the wall. By the time they get to camp, Kristy is fed up, Charlotte is crying and everyone is ready to get into their cabins.

Kristy is getting settled with the kids and enjoying her time with her kids.  Charlotte is in her cabin and is severely homesick.  Kristy also mentions that the other CITs are really nice, but are so not like her.  They’re girly and like make up and boys.  Kristy tries to get into the activities with the kids, but Charlotte refuses to try anything but the dance program and archery, which she promptly quits when a kid yards away falls down and Charlotte thinks she has hit her with an arrow.  Kristy takes her back to the cabin and reads to her until she calms down.

Kristy ponders two things Watson has said: You have to take the bad with the good, and there are ups and downs in life.  Apparently Charlotte is having good days and bad days.  Just about every night she has to call her parents crying, random things are making her cry and she is getting scared over things she normally wouldn’t.  But she doesn’t want to go home; something is keeping her at camp.  Other than Charlotte, Kristy is enjoying herself.  There is only one thing challenging her: the CIT dance with the boys and the fact that her fellow CITs want to give her a makeover.  She is so desperate to avoid going, she plans to roll in poison ivy to get out of going.  The other CITs give her a make over anyway and she looks good.  But she doesn’t feel like herself, decides she needs privacy and space and wonders why Charlotte is still here.  I don’t like it when other people force their opinions of what I should eat/drink/wear; I can’t blame Kristy for feeling a little claustrophobic.  When I tell lovers of the Paleolithic diet, “No thanks” I don’t want them to keep talking to me.  I want them to go away.  Sorry; I was just lectured last night on the evils of grains.  I felt a little claustrophobic.

Her fellow CITs do her makeup and accessories for the dance, all while Kristy is protesting that she doesn’t want to go. Charlotte doesn’t want her to go either and is crying for her. She is talked into getting on the bus, forced by the bus driver to get off the bus and then stations herself next to the food table.  Lo and behold, someone asks her to dance!  The Logan cuts in!  The night ends, Kristy finally feels comfortable and Charlotte has quit crying.

Claudia

Everyone is getting excited for assignments and head to the flagpole to get organized.  Claudia and Stacey are gossiping about hair and Claudia mentions Mimi is having troubles.  Their gab session is interrupted by Claudia being assigned to Meghan’s cabin, whose campers include Vanessa Pike and Haley Braddock.  They haul all their junk to their cabin to get settled, Claudia and her co-CIT Sally claiming bunks for themselves.  The theme along with Claudia always having stalkers seems to be that she has the top bunk and steps on her bunkmates' hands.  She finds out there’s a canteen with candy and suddenly camp is even more interesting.

The next morning the breakfast is terrible, so Claudia and a bunch of cabin members head to the canteen and Claudia buys a ton of junk food.  They go horseback riding and are back at the cabin changing when some boys arrive.  A gorgeous boy named John is there with some equally gorgeous compatriots, one of whom may be Japanese, to invite them to a CIT movie night.  Claudia didn’t really notice, she was too busy ogling gorgeous Japanese guy.  The members of her cabin make it their quest to find out about gorgeous guy and get Claudia to see him before said movie night.

Claudia’s campers succeed in finding Claudia’s dream boy.  His name is Will Yamakawa and he will be at the CIT movie night.  The CITs get ready for movie night and take a van around the lake to the boys’ side.  Claudia introduces herself to Will and they start to talk.  This is not good in a movie setting so they go outside.  They talk and talk and are almost trampled when suddenly the movie is over.  Everyone goes to the fire pit where Claudia and Will hold hands and roast marshmallows together.  Sigh~

The dance has come and gone.  Sigh~  Claudia has a wonderful time with Will and doesn’t remember anything other than dancing with him.  They slip outside just before the end of the dance and Claudia remarks that they probably won’t see each other again.  Will says it’s time to say good bye and Claudia starts crying.  They are hugging when the dance ends and Claudia just gets on the bus.  No addresses, no good byes, just gone. Sigh~

Jessi

Jessi is feeling nervous because a)she’s never been to camp before and b) there aren’t many black kids at camp.  She and Mal are also set apart because when they filled out their applications, they begged to be included as CITs since they have sooo much experience sitting.  The camp director poo-poos that request (yay for adhering to rules!) but says they can help with the younger campers.  Mal and Jessi get to their cabin and start unpacking their things, while the other campers giggle at them.  Mal invites Jessi up on her bunk and proudly displays the dorky arm bands she made emblazoned with JUNIOR CIT.  Their cabin counselor informs them they are in charge of the younger girls’ dance performance for parent day.  Another camper makes a snide comment about them being twins and another snots it’s obvious that they’re not.  Mal doesn’t get it, but Jessi does.

They survive camp, even though the other campers don’t really warm to them.  On the last day they have to pack up and be ready so that they were ready to go when parents arrived.  Mal and Jessi wrote a play about a black girl and a white girl and the injustices they face.  They hope the other girls in their cabin get the picture.  The performance goes off great and most of the girls in Mal and Jessi’s cabin apologize to them.  Some don’t.  They all get together with their families and it comes out that Charlotte wanted to see if she could make it through camp – and she did.  Jessi climbs into her car and promises to mail Stacey the diary when she gets home!

Mary Anne

MA isn’t overly excited about camp anymore; the other CIT’s in the 7-year-old cabin  are soooo sophisticated and she’s not.  They grill her about why she came to camp, to which MA says she wants to be near her boyfriend.  They don’t believe she has a boyfriend.  At that moment, MA settles a dispute between Margo Pike and another CIT’s little sister named Tara, not to Faye’s (CIT) pleasure.  MA feels that she has landed in a cabin full of hotshots and she’s not excited about it.

MA decides to write a sappy love letter to Logan, signing it “your love bunny.”  Seriously?!  Richard, there might be something you want to talk to your daughter about!  She only wrote the letter as a distraction for the other CITs, but her bluff is called.  Tara the terror suggests she sneak it to the other side of the lake to the boy’s camp.  The CITs draw MA a map and then tell her about a murder loose in the woods.  MA sneaks out before bed checks and is partly through the woods when she hears her name.  Mrs. Means and Connie, MA’s counselor are there to get her along with some boy counselors.  Tara ratted her out.  The counselors offer to take her letter to Logan.  When she gets back, everyone just stares at her in awe.  Apparently only two other girls have tried to sneak around the lake and she did manage to make it halfway.

So MA is in a little better with her fellow CITs, but they are still testing her.  The latest test is to let them pierce her ears.  Being true to herself, MA says, “yes” even though her Dad has a no piercing rule and she’s cringing inside in pain.  The other CITs are surprised and start getting the stuff together to do the piercing.  MA picks out a pair of earrings, takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.  But nothing happens.  The CIT Faye can’t do it – says she’s never pierced an ear before and can’t stand the sight of blood.  Everyone starts laughing and now they’re all friends.  I am rather concerned about MA’s following the crowd to be liked, well I would be if I was her mother.

Dawn

Dawn loves her cabin of 11-year-olds.  She gives us a detailed description of all the girls in her cabin and hesitates about a girl named Heather.  Heather is quiet, shy and a bit on the pudgy side.  All the other girls head out explore, but Heather hangs back.  Dawn puzzles on about her a little more.

Time passes and the other girls aren’t crazy about Heather, so when they are on the verge of their overnight camping trip, she’s pretty isolated from the other girls.  The night before the trip, the head counselor is informed her mother is sick and she heads for home.  A replacement counselor is on the way, but Dawn is in charge for the night and she orders her cabin to have fun!  But Heather stays on her bunk alone.

The new counselor arrives and her name is Debra.  She’s pretty inexperienced as far as camp goes, but she’s excited to go on the campout.  Her inexperience shows a bit and some of the campers – mainly Heather – remind her of important items such as a compass, extra canteens, items that are rather necessary!  They are finally ready to go and start off into the woods following the map and markers to the campsite.  Unfortunately, one of the markers has fallen over and they unsure which way to go.  Debra pulls out the map, makes a wild guess and says left.  Heather has also looked at the map and disagrees, but goes along with the counselor.  Soon Debra realizes they’re lost.  Heather spots a clearing and suggests they make camp there for the night.  They get settled in and make dinner, although some of the girls suggest eating snakes and rabbits in case they’re not soon rescued.  Yum.  Dawn sanctimoniously manages to “choke” down a hot dog rather than starve but skips the marshmallows.  Someone mentions an escaped convict and they all dive into their tents.  They don’t sleep much and decide to head back to camp right away in the morning.  Unfortunately they are still lost and spend most of the day going in a circle.   They arrive back at the clearing where they had spent the previous night.  Heather takes the map and declares she knows where they are, but that it’s a long walk so they should spend the night in the clearing again.  They start out early the next morning and are met by a group from camp out looking for them.  Mrs. Means gives Heather the medal of bravery.  Dawn says they all deserve one, but Heather most of all.  Now Dawn, what did you do (aside from choking down a hotdog) that you think merits a medal of honor?  You did nothing really to help remedy the situation.

Mallory

Mal wakes up before the campwide wake up call and she and Jessi have a little whisper fest, angering the other girls in their cabins.  At 7am, they snap to and are dressed and ready before their cabin mates are up.  Someone mutters, “oreos” and Jessi prickles.  The counselor sharply reprimands the offender, but Mal doesn’t get what it means, so Jessi explains that it’s a racial term meaning you are black but act white.  Mal still doesn’t get it since she’s already white.  So they make some jokes and laugh it off.  They head off to the 8-year-old girls and get started with the dance program.  Charlotte is there and is still clingy and weepy.  They do some stretching but they have no idea what they’re going to do for the program.

Logan

Logan is tired.  Jackie Rodowsky is in his cabin and he has been run ragged trying to keep up with him.  He’s relaxing at lunch when he gets the letter from MA and he’s touched, since this is the most emotional letter she’s ever written.  But another CIT named Cliff (Cliff?  What is this, 1950 Ann?) reads the letter aloud over his shoulder, embarrassing Logan.  So he flings peas and corn at Cliff, starting a food war and redirecting attention away from his letter.

Still, Logan’s fellow CITs think MA’s a “feeb” meaning feeble minded person.  They’re right.  The bus arrives and MA jumps down and throws herself into Logan’s arms.  She confesses he wasn’t supposed to see the note and he says he guessed as much.  They have a good time at the dance and Logan’s fellow CITs say that MA isn’t a feeb.  Rah.

Wrap Up Points:

• Stacey recovers fully from all her maladies
• Claudia and Will end up writing to each other
• Kristy occasionally uses mascara
• MA will never get her ears pierced.
• Dawn wants to sign up for survival training
• Heather will not be returning to camp
• Mal and Jessi are still close friends
• Mal only had one chapter in this book

Super Special #1 Baby Sitters on Board!

Well, I seem to be the one who takes the longest to post to the blog.  But I am still pregnant, still on bedrest and will (hopefully) make it a few more weeks so these babies will be good sized when they’re born.

It’s a super special book, so I’ve decided to divide this into their specific stories rather than snark the whole book, since it’s not a story, but several different stories.

The book starts with the kids writing a thank you note to the (newly married) Brewer parents and Pike parents. They made a present for them as a thank you for the awesome vacation.  Apparently the Pikes won a cruise trip to Disney and hired MA and Stacey as Mother’s helpers.  Watson got wind of it and decided to take the Brewer Thomas family as well with Claudia and Dawn as guests.  They all fly to Florida and the adventure begins!

Dawn:

Is staying with Claudia and Kristy on the ship and has told the other girls she’s a neat freak.  And she’s not kidding.  Of course, Kristy does her best to needle Dawn too.  Dawn explores the ship and runs into Mr. Gorgeous.  She strikes up a conversation but he quickly bows out and leaves.  Apparently Dawn’s pretty boring.

She and gorgeous guy keep eying (STALKING) each other over the next few days, but they finally get the chance to talk at a snorkeling class.  He comes over and says hi and suggests they go take a walk around the island they’re on rather than spend the day snorkeling.  Yeah, that’s a good idea, Dawn.  Wander off on a strange island with a boy you don’t know without telling your friends, much less an adult.

But since this is not Criminal Minds, it's all ok.  They have a great day together (his name is Parker, by the way.  Apparently Ann thinks this is a weird name) and decide to meet the next morning.  They enter a ping pong tournament (Apparently Ann thinks only old people and kids play this) which they win.  They lay on the sun deck and talk about divorce.  Parker is against remarriage and thinks his new step brothers are brats, even though he’s not spent much time with them.  He doesn’t want to talk about it so they wander off and find a photo booth.  Dawn is in LUV!

When they get to Florida, Parker suggests they spend the first day at Magic Kingdom together.  This time Dawn decides to get permission before she goes from Kristy’s mom.  Woo-hoo!  She borrows an outfit from Claudia: white tank top under lavender overalls, lavender pushdown socks, lavender high top sneakers and a beaded Indian belt around his waist.  In her hair, white and lavender bird clips.

Dawn and Parker head for Disney World, which Dawn isn’t too excited about since she’s been to Disney Land.  Then they ride on Space Mountain, which is more realistic than the one in Cali and Dawn almost pukes.  So they sit for awhile with a soda before going shopping for the perfect souvenir.  Dawn only has $8.80 left so she settles for a glass unicorn charm.  Yep, this just screams, “I WAS AT DISNEY WORLD!!!”  Maybe it would for her, I don’t know.  She attaches it to her antique bracelet she is wearing and thinks it looks pretty good.  Parker buys a t-shirt and Dawns thinks cattily that boys don’t care much about souvenirs.  I think his shirt might be a little more, I don’t know, memorable?

After they finish shopping they run into Parker’s father and step family.  They ask Parker to watch the boys for a little while and Dawn discovers they’re not brats.  The four of them end up having a really good time together….until Dawn discovers her bracelet is missing.  She’s sad until Parker slips her a new charm and kisses her on the cheek. Aw….

Mallory

Mallory has just finished reading Harriet the Spy and has decided she wants to be just like Harriet.  Having read that book, I think the point of the story is to NOT spy on the people around you.  She wants to keep a notebook about the people on the ship and gets the opportunity to slip off alone to spy on people.  She spys an actress, a sad older man and a little boy with oxygen tanks and medication along.  She also is sure she has seen Spider from the music groups The Insects and has spotted a stowaway.

She waits the whole time on the ship for the stowaway to be arrested, but he isn’t.  If he’s a good stowaway, no one is going to find him, Mallory!  She gets another chance to spy when they get to magic kingdom.  The first part of her afternoon is pretty boring, but then she sees the actress and the stowaway with…their…parents.  It turns out that the parents are a singing duo and the kids are just trying to be individuals.  Honestly, Mal's chapters are a little...boring.

Karen

If she was my kid, I’d be embarrassed.  All of her stories in this book are supposed to be precocious, but are just bratty.  Anyway, Kristy takes her sibs swimming and Karen has forgotten her earplugs.  She begs to be allowed to run back to her room to get them and Kristy lets her.  On the way there, she sees a beauty parlor.  She decides to have a manicure, of course, and just charges it to her room.  Then she stops at a café to have a coke, also charging it to her room.  She finally gets her earplugs and returns to the pool where Kristy is waiting nervously, wondering where Karen is.  Does Karen get in trouble?  No.  Kristy takes a picture instead.

Karen also loves Disney World.  She and Andrew get their picture taken with Minnie Mouse, get a magic trick, ice cream cones, balloons, and rides.  Karen insists they go to the haunted house and is disturbed by “hitchhiking ghosts” and is convinced there is one stuck to her.

On her last day, Karen and her family get to have breakfast with princesses on a steamboat.  Karen, Andrew and DM start eating dounuts as the meal starts.  The MC asks if anyone is having a birthday and a little boy is.  Everyone sings happy birthday to him and Karen decides to say it’s her birthday too.  She likes when people sing to her and she feels special.  Watson is angry and threatens to take her outside to wait until the breakfast is over, but doesn’t.  Well, why the heck not?  The kid told a bald faced lie.  All she has learned is that she can get away with things as long as they’re on vacation. 

Seriously, I should have just written "Karen" and then put a facepalm for this whole section.

They finish breakfast, get some autographs and head out for their day.  Karen stops to pull up her socks and loses sight of her family.  A popcorn vendor offers to help her find them and Karen accepts, pretending her hitchhiking ghost is friendly and is helping her as well.  They got to the carousel, which is where the family was headed and Karen is reunited with them.  Karen decides to take her hitchhiking ghost back to Stoneybrook with her to be friends with Ben Brewer.  Yay.

Claudia

Claudia awakens when her alarm goes off the first morning they’re on the ship and gets started with her day.  Kristy and Dawn are at each other’s throats until Dawn spies Mr. Gorgeous across the way at breakfast.  Claudia gets a surprise with her juice – a note telling her she is beautiful from a secret admirer!  Now, I’ve always had the contention that if you don’t have the guts to tell me to my face you think I’m beautiful, why should I waste my time being flattered and wondering who you are?  I have better things (and guys) to do with my time.  And why is Claudia always the one with the creepy stalker after her?  Because Claudia is stuck with the stalker, she gets the most gifs.

Anyway, they’re docked at Nassau for the day and the girls are given permission to go off on their own.  Claudia decides to go shopping, but feels a little left out.  She explores the streets and starts taking pictures.  As she’s taking pictures, she notices someone jumping out of the way and again as she’s shopping and looking things over.  At the end of her shopping trip, she reaches in her bag and finds another note again telling her she’s beautiful.  Egads!  She gets in line to pay her way into an aquarium and yet again her secret admirer has paid her way, but she can’t find him.  On her way home, she spies a pair of expensive earrings she’d like, but can’t afford.  What do you suppose happens?  Yep, the secret admirer buys them for her too. 

Her secret admirer continues to follow her, paying for things and leaving her notes.  Finally Stacey spots him at the ice cream parlor, but all she notices is that he has light brown hair.  Claudia is off on the hunt!  She doesn’t find her admirer, but runs into another boy and starts talking to him about her admirer and how she wants to meet him.  He thinks it’s more fun to have a secret admirer.  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight

They hit it off and start talking.  His name is Timothy and he’s from Connecticut too, not far from Stoneybrook.  He’s nice and good looking and Claudia decides he’s more interesting than her secret admirer.  Timothy asks her if they can spend time together at Disney and Claudia agrees.  He walks her to her room, where Dawn and Kristy are still at war over room cleanliness.  Claudia gives them a lecture in her best mommy voice and starts packing.

Claudia spends most of her Disney time with Timothy and has fun, but still wonders about her secret admirer.  On the last day at the parade, Timothy’s sister blurts out how he’s Claudia’s secret admirer.  Claudia’s a little let down and disappointed, more so that Timothy lied to her and she feels like a fool.  Timothy likes to spy on people and hide (he’s the stowaway the kids found); it’s his way of spicing up his life since he’s on the shy side of things.  She forgives him.  They miss the parade, but see the fireworks and Timothy kisses her.

Back at the hotel, the girls have a BSC meeting and in the midst, Claudia blurts out the idea of an album with diary for the parents.  Everyone loves the idea and that’s how we get this book.  Yay.

Mary Anne

MA is along as a mother’s helper for the Pikes.  The first day they’re on the ship, she and Stacey split up the kids.  The oldest four are allowed to go off on their own, so MA is with Vanessa and Nicky, who want to explore the ship.  As they’re looking around, MA spies a beautiful girl in the salon, a girl not much older than her who fills out a bikini really well.

The girl hears her soft “wow” at her cleavage and turns to tell her that she doesn’t recommend traveling alone, but she has to since her parents were ki-. Oh, she has to run.  MA instantly assumes that she was going to say killed.  She and the kids continue to explore while she puzzles over the gorgeous orphan.  Suddenly the kids spy a head sticking out of a lifeboat.  They too have spied the stowaway!

The days pass.  The triplets get into trouble and are back under MA and Stacey’s care.  The triplets, Nicky and MA are off on their adventure the next day and are soon joined by David Michael.  It turns out the boys have a treasure map and, although its highly unlikely they will find anything on the ship, MA agrees to let them QUIETLY search the ship.  MA takes pictures of the boys, but is soon bored.  She runs into the gorgeous orphan again, who is complaining about how the salon butchered her hair.  Her name is Alexandra Carmody (Alex) and this is her fourteenth cruise.  MA brags that Spider from the Insects is on board (according to Mal) but Alex says he’s not since she knows him.  MA changes the subjects and asks where her parents are.  Alex says they were killed 6 months prior in a car accident.  MA starts to cry and talks about her dead mother.  They’re practically dead mother sisters!  Squeee through the tears!  Jordan Pike runs up at the moment and says they need to move on and so they do.

MA is run ragged at Disney and keeps putting off Mal, who really needs to talk to her about something.  Before they can talk, she and Stacey go to a BSC meeting.  They discuss the kids and then the dreaded question of the gift for the parents comes up and no one has an idea.

MA falls asleep while the girls are watching a moving.  She drags back to her bedroom where Mallory pounces on her.  She saw Alex Carmody with her brother, mother and father.  Alex’s parents are famous singers.  MA is completely torqued off and calls Alex on it when she sees her the next morning.  She’s with the kids at Disney when Alex appears and proceeds to follow her around all day.  MA takes the girls for ice cream (with Alex following) then to space mountain.  Margo throws up on Alex’s shoes and that just makes MA’s day.

 MA sees Alex later in the day at the parade and Alex ‘fesses up to lying to get attention.  MA forgives her, but isn’t going to keep in touch when they go home. 

Byron

Byron is convinced they are going to find treasure on Treasure Cay because he saw the move Treasure Island.  The triplets get permission to go hunting for treasure, along with Nicky and David Michael.  Now, as a parent, I can see letting 10 year olds explore a cruise ship alone, but an entire island?  An entire foreign island?  An entire foreign island with two 7 year olds along?

Anyway, the boys decide to explore and are a bit disappointed at how modern everything is.  They explore the beach, spot some cool things in the water and decide to dig in the sand.  At first they find junk, but Byron discovers a treasure map.  They try to figure it out, try to get Dawn to help them (she’s in a Parker daze) and decide to try exploring the ship and Disney World, since there’s a stowaway on board the ship and he may have something to do with the map. 

The triplets get in trouble and end up back under supervision, so when they’re at Disney, Stacey is along with them.  DM and Nicky come along too and they do rides first before searching for treasure.  The go to Tom Sawyer’s island and look for treasure.  And then Byron finds something – an antique bracelet.  Stacey bursts his bubble by explaining it’s Dawn’s but assures him Dawn will be thrilled to get it back (she is-she cries). The boys are disappointed they didn’t find any treasure, but Byron keeps the treasure map in his pocket.

Stacey

Stacey’s first day is spent with Margo and Claire in the water, which she recaps with the girls at a mini BSC meeting that night.  After the meeting, Stacey goes up to the sun deck for a little alone time.  While she’s there, she meets a 7-year-old boy named Marc Kubacki.  Mark is in a wheelchair because he has a severe heart condition.  Stacey confides in him about her diabetes and they start bonding.  His parents rush up a little while later, but are relieved when they meet Stacey and see that Marc is fine.  Stacey has to head back to her room and is greeted by MA.  There’s a storm rolling in and everyone is to be in their cabins.  Stacey goes in and sees a green Margo.  Mrs. Pike retrieves her and she spends the night with her parents while Stacey and Claire take pictures of things sliding around.  There’s a picture of a flying banana in the book

The last day on the ship the Stacey is in charge of the girls again and this time they are arguing about what they want to do.  Mal and Vanessa head off to read and Stacey takes Margo and Claire to every place of things to do, ending in the arcade.  There they run into Marc again and Stacey talks his father into letting him come with them to the arcade.  The kids play until they run out of quarters and then they go to the ice cream parlor for a treat.  While Stacey’s in line to pay their bill, she spots Claudia’s secret admirer, but is too late to get Claudia’s attention.

Stacey spends her last day at Disney with Claire and Margo (Again).  They actually end up at Epcot and as they’re walking in, they spy Marc!  They decide to spend the day together and Stacey is pleasantly surprised at how nice people are to Marc and how is wheelchair doesn’t seem to be a problem.  Now I’m not a huge Disneyworld fan, but they do do a good job with special needs.  That’s especially important since so many Make-A-Wish kids wish to go to Disney.  Anyway, they start with Universe of Energy and then head to World of Motion.  Marc’s parents decide they should stop for lunch and Marc’s medication, so they sit down at a café.  While the kids are eating and having a great time, the Kubackis confide in Stacey that Marc is having risky heart surgery in just a few short weeks and that they want him to have the time of his life.

A few months after the trip, Stacey gets a letter from the Kubackis saying that Marc’s surgery, while difficult, went well and, after a long recovery, he is at home.

All I have to say about Stacey’s section is that I know she’s supposed to be a mother’s helper in this book, but where is the mother she’s supposed to be helping?  The older kids go off on their own and the younger kids are split between her and MA all day, except for two measly hours.  Why bother bringing your kids if you’re only going to spend two hours a day with them?  Save the airfare.  Even Elizabeth and Watson spend time with their (step)kids.  Except for Sam and Charlie.  Where the heck are they in this book?  In the beginning it says that Sam and Charlie are coming on this trip as well.  They are not mentioned one single time after that.  Of course, they were on a cruise ship and then in Florida.  They were probably too busy chasing bikinis to be mentioned again.  I bet their chapters would have been MUCH more interesting. ;)

Kristy

Kristy is excited and squees when they get to Florida and the ship.  She’s not so excited about rooming with Dawn and a by day 3 on the ship she is doing her best to annoy the snot out of Dawn.  She decides to go off on her own for awhile to cool down and heads to the pool with a book and a towel.  The first night on the ship an older gentleman had stopped her and asked for the time.  The same man sits near her by the pool.  As she’s toweling off, she spots the title of his book, which happens to be Nannie’s favorite book.  They strike up a conversation and she finds out his wife is recently deceased.  Mr. Rudy Staples took this trip for a change of pace, but it wasn’t really the change he wanted.  After her conversation she heads back to her room and discovers Dawn has cleaned it.

Egads!  Horrors!  She’s cleaned the room!!!!

She’s so mad she demands to switch rooms.  When her mom says no, she’s so mad she cancels their nightly BSC mini meeting.

Thankfully the hotel room is bigger and they have more space to spread out.  Claudia puts her foot down and demands a truce, which they reluctantly agree to.  Then they finally really make up and admit they were trying to tick each other off on purpose.  The girls head off to explore the hotel with Karen and Andrew in tow, when who should they see but Mr. Rudy Staples at the check out desk.  Apparently she and Rudy had gotten close and played shuffle board a few times, had some conversations and talked to the family.  Karen even begs him to come to dinner so he can pull a coin out of her ear.  He decides to stay and they pretty much escort him to his room.

That night they have another meeting, but still no ideas on what to get the parents.

Thankfully Claudia comes up with an idea, so Kristy can relax and enjoy the rest of her vacation.  At the airport, she and Mr. Staples hug and exchange addresses (so Kristy can sic Nannie on him).  All around are all the girls saying good bye to their respective “interesting person I met on this trip” and crying.  Finally they get on the plane.  Margo pukes again (it mentions somewhere that the Pikes have Dramamine floating around – wouldn’t it be best to give it to her BEFORE she throws up?) and Karen begs to watch.  Byron is informed by a Dutch man that he has a diagram for a Dutch copy machine, not a treasure map.  They land, Margo pukes AGAIN and they head into a sea of people to the sign that says “WELCOME HOME!”  Because no one in the BSC circles can just quietly meet someone at the airport.