Grammie Camp Part 3

Well, the one thing I am good at is Treasure Hunts. I have done so many treasure hunts for my family, and I have had to do them all different... because its usually for the same people. This treasure hunt was for 6 girls and we had the whole cottage and property to use. We needed to have 20 clues... which would hold 5 pieces each.. of a 100 piece puzzle. Written on the back of the puzzle (which could only be read once it was put together) was more instructions on how to find the treasure... That is what we started with.... we ended up splitting the girls into two teams... with each team having a different color of triangle boxes. Each box held a clue to the next box... as well as the puzzle pieces... Lime Green Team and Hot Pink Team (left over paper from Michelle's wedding.. hee hee)

We sent them up the lane (more than once), to the fire pit, in the cottage , down by the lake, over by the canoes, Kids cottage, dance floor and even the spider infested shed!!!

Finally, armed with 100 piece map of Canada puzzle, a few sticks of gum... they put the puzzle together... and flipped it (not an easy process on a picnic table!). The instructions were for someone to walk a certain amount of steps.... to about 5 different locations. Caitlin was our stepper... and she paced her way to the treasure.. finally. They needed to dig it up and it was an exciting moment when the dragged it back to the table to open... it was filled with movies, popcorn and licorice... ...we were watching movies tonight.. thats for sure!

Now while I was hiding all the clues for the treasure hunt.. Gail was in the cottage with all the girls. She was reading off a list of Scavenger Hunt items that they needed to find for the next day. The rules were that they could not gather any of the items.. or even show us any of them.. until after lunch the next day. This whole scavenger hunt was born on a whim.. the first day we had camp.. and Gail and I scribbled down several items we thought they would find o.k. with a few that would be impossible... so as she read them to the girls.. they were all a buzz when things like 100 clam shells and an elephant were announced and in total shock and terror when one of the items was a beehive... and another was a birds nest!!

Now, they had 24 hours to plan their attack on this list.... and they couldn't actually gather anything until tomorrow after lunch. (Remember, we are just making up stuff..here.. to drive them crazy!).

When lunch time came the next day... they were a buzz... working together.. handing out tasks for each of the girls to go get. Meanwhile they are telling us NOTHING... as the rules state!

We knew there was a bird nest under the canoe. It had been empty for a year, and all the girls knew about it too. They were totally creeped out.. and clarified with us.. over and over again that they actually had to have the birds nest.. not just show the judge where it was. We giggled to ourselves watching the determination on their faces... who is going under the canoe for the bird's nest!

The armed themselves with shovel and tray... and Emily and Grace were determined to get everything on the list.... so in they went.... and finally Grace put down the shovel and the tray and just grabbed the darn nest with her bare hands.... she was pretty darn proud and we were flabbergasted!!

They were stumped when it came to the "Elmo" bowl full of raspberries... but when we told them that Baby Aurora knew where the raspberries were... they were relieved, and off they ventured with Aurora .. up the lane to where Gail and I had picked gobs of berries for her the day before the kids came.

At the pre determined "judgement" time of 3:00.... the items were called off of the list, and the girls had to bring them... one at a time.. to Grampie for judging. Aurora deserted the gang and sat with Grampie to be part of the judging team. She mowed into the bowl FULL of raspberries and made short work of them.

One by one.. the items were presented.... and low and behold... the beehive... was even presented. It was an embroidered beehive on Jessica's Eye Spy quilt that Gail made her years ago. Toooooo funny.... Grampie was a tough judge.... hesitating on the Pine Cones when they were actually "spruce" cones. That made the girls hearts skip a beat (mine too actually).

The final item that was presented was the 100 clam shells. Grampie got right on his knees and count those shells about three times. Both Jess and Caleigh had a shell hidden in their hands ready to throw in, if they miscounted. We all held our breath while he re counted and then re sorted them and counted again!

Finally, after counting them again... he says 102! Well, I thought the girls would die!!!!! We all had a great laugh and they won their prize... two full size chocolate bars. One for now.. and one for tomorrow!! yipee....

Grammie Camp Part 2

A typical day at our Grammie Camp started with the baby waking up first. After a short snuggle in bed with Grammie and Grampie... Gail would sneak her upstairs to where 4 of the girls were snuggled in one room. They would play upstairs while Gail, Mert and I would sip our coffee and talk about the day. My Caleigh found herself between the grown ups and the kids, so most morning she would mingle with the grown ups over coffee... The girls would all tromp down the stairs for a pee.. and to read the schedule for the day.

The would cross off the items as we did them.. and talked about what was next. Once we finished our coffees... we would dawn our yoga pants and head out onto the deck for a round of stretches and bends.

We had more fun listening to the moans and complaints, while we tried to convince them that this was the best way to start your day! We even had this weird yoga music blasting while we posed! After 7 or 8 minutes, the music was turned off, and Dora songs were put on.. and we all danced to these silly tunes... amongst squeals of laughter and twirls.

We always had fun breakfasts and most of them were outside on the deck. The weather was spectacular!

Each day will filled with crafts..... like String Balloon Art !

We had to wrap yarn (dipped in paper mache goop) around a balloon.... and make sure they criss cross with each other. We hung them on our clothes line to dry all night. In the morning we popped our balloons and were left with funky string balls... Sadly, Jessie's balloon deflated in the night, and her strings dried all wonkie!

We learned how to do String Art using needles and cotton thread, cardstock and a big long list of numbers... What a fun project that the girls could work on when ever they felt like sitting and doing something quiet! My friend Debbie Walker gave me her whole school binder of patterns and all her cotton. The kids were very good at this and they took all the patterns home for later!. Thank you Debbie... I will be picking your brain for next year... that's for sure.

For most of our crafts, our hands got pretty messy... and we had a bucket of soapy water to rinse our hands. It got used a lot. I am not the only one who didn't like messy hands!

When things were just too hard for Aurora to do... Grampie kept her busy. Most of the time, though, we waited until she was napping to do the really hard stuff. She loved those balloons! Grampie could make them fly though the air... and she would fall into fits of giggles EVERY time.

Stay tuned for a little more..... like the treasure hunt... and the scavenger hunt... hee hee

Grammie Camp Part 1

Imagine... a lake.... a cottage... a wraparound deck with part shaded and part sunny... for all your relaxing pleasure. Imagine sunshine, warm breezes, yellow Adirondack chairs and a cool drink.

That was my week last week at my sister's first annual "Grammie Camp".

A little history.... My sister and her hubby have been blessed with 6 wonderful grandchildren. At the time of Grammie camp they are aged 11, 9, 8,8,8 and 2.5! I have been extremely blessed to be a part of their lives as "Auntie Donna".

Sometime this winter, my sister came up with the idea of having a summer camp at the cottage for her grandkids, and do fun stuff like crafts and games. We talked about it over MSN while she basked in the sun in South Carolina... and I shivered here in the snow. The thoughts of the warm breezes of the cottage just warmed my bones and the thought of being surrounded by those kids, there... excited me for such an event.

Gail and I planned things on and off all winter and spring, and the final weeks before the camp was filled with Google and Youtube searches, looking for ideas, techniques and recipes....

Now, Mitchell, the only grandson in the pack, chose not to go to camp. He felt it would be too girly. Grammie let him in on all kinds of secrets (of what we were planning, to reassure him it wouldn't "be "girly") but he stood his ground. No Grammie Camp for him. Because we were down one participant. I invited my 14 year old niece Caleigh to come along and be a help and a surprise guest!

I know I painted a relaxing picture in my first paragraph... and we did have all that... but dispersed in amongst that was....... tie dying shirts, paper mache, string art, balloon art, flower pens, treasure hunt, scavenger hunt, spa night, movie night, campfires (with smores of course)!

Not to mention fun camp food, water balloon fights, and playing in the lake!

On each of the 4 days of camp we wrote a schedule on the chalk board by the bathroom. The kids loved knowing what was in store for the day, but we didn't let them know any more than that day. So, on top of knowing what was happening, they were excited to anticipate what was going to happen the next day!!! After the kids unpacked and had a fun lunch (and said good bye to the parents), we got right to our schedule.... Tie Dye our camp shirts... Gail and I came up with three techniques that the girls could chose from. Some chose one technique, and others chose all three... Not one of our shirts was the same as the other.... it was a blast!

Once the shirts had soaked in many colors of dye, left to dry for a couple of hours.. we unwrapped them to discover their design secrets.

While waiting for the shirts to dry, we started to talk about and design our Paper Mache projects. I have paper mached about 5 things in my life.... a snake, a pig, a giraffe... a fish.... ugh.. I don't remember... but I didn't feel that confident when it came to making all sorts of animals. But I didn't want to limit the kids either, so I was going to help them with the creation part, as much as I could. .. It didn't take long for them to decide what to make... A pig, a fish, a cat, a whale and an elephant! I sort of know the concept of how to make things from balloons, tape, newspaper, etc and it didn't take much to get them going on the right track. The kids started by drawing what they wanted to make... and then we began. What a blast... we taped on legs, feet, tails... ears.. noses... and giggled and laughed about how funny they looked. Our paper mache project was going to last for 3 days. Construction on the first day... papering on the second day and painting on the third day... Below are just a few of the fun pictures of the actually constructing and papering. Aurora made her own fun with the balloons, since she wasn't really invited to make an animal! Its amazing how much fun a balloon can be!!!!

After the first layer was put all over each animal.. the kids helped me put on a batch of old fashion ice cream. Flavor of the day... Oreo cookie Vanilla!!! While that churned away in its bucket, the kids made a bee line for the lake..

We had a very hot and very big camp fire after supper and evening play... and when we all went to bed later in the night, it was pretty darn easy to fall asleep... we had a very full day and it only started at noon!!!

Ah Saturday.... how I love Saturdays...

Yesterday... a glorious sunny Saturday morning, was spent with Robin and Bill on an adventure to Annapolis Royal. We started off at the market where we saw some amazing crafts, fantastic fruits and veggies and a whole lot of people! I bought some organic garlic and green peppers for some bruchetta I am making today... and some amazing chocolate rice krispie squares (that have coconut, walnuts and two kinds of chocolate drizzled on top)... yum.

We wandered through some antique shops as well, and although I am not very interested in antiques, I was enjoying the nostalgia of objects in the stores (sadly, I remember some of them from my childhood, ugh). My dad would have died to see some of the prices that he could have got for some of the "junk" that was in his barn!!! This piece you see below was all carved wood and it was about 6 feet high, and 8 feet wide. It was stunning, I must say. The red you see is the side of the shop..... it was like a privacy scre

en!

After a quick slice of market pizza and a basket of organic blueberries, we headed off to find a lake to kayak in... We ended up at a place called Grand Lake Flowage, and for anyone who drives to Digby often, its on the left, and it looks like a hundred trees died in it.. and certainly not a welcoming looking lake.

But what a beauty it turned out to be... Deep and quiet.... lots of big green dragonflies and an eagle or two as well.

The waterlogged trees were only at the start of the lake and after we got past those, it was glorious!

We took a small break on a little beach, and looked for paths and portages... of which there were none! Bill has a reputation of falling out of his kayak as he tries to get in it, or get out of it, so I had my camera at the ready several times.. but he disappointed me!

Enjoy some pictures of the adventure.. and just know that this Saturday was just a little bit of heaven for me.