MeeMaa Day Camp

(My sister calls it Grandma Day Camp)  Each summer my sister and I get together and plan a day camp for the grandkids.  She has 4 and I have 7—4 of whom live here.  The other 3 just moved into their new house, so they won’t make it this year.  But we will mail them their stuff.  These pics are from last year...

To get this going, we have to decide on a theme—this year it’s an Olympic theme.  Then we have to figure out what to do for the t-shirts.  We have already tie-dyed, bleached, and hand printed.  This year we just let the kids decorate the shirts.

We always have to wait until its record-breaking heat—at least this year and last year.  That doesn’t go well for our outdoor stuff.  Probably no bike rodeo this year.  My sister lives on 10 acres and has chickens, so one day is always farm day.  She runs with a crowd that does animals—one year we went to see miniature horses, goats, a dairy farm and this year it’s back to a goat farm.  We see them milked and we are making cheese.  YIKES!!  Last year we also helped harvest honey—or the kids think we helped.  We all went home with home-grown honey! 

We start each day with a flag ceremony. 

We sing camp songs—some with bad words in them.  Where else do you get to sing the words ‘buttocks out!”  or “Glory, Glory what a hell  of a way to die!”? We do schedule a rest time—watching “Ernest Goes to Camp” is a favorite. 

My hubby makes an obstacle course in the back yard and the kids run thru it until they are tired.

Last year we did paper mache with the kids.  That was a huge mess, but very successful.  We made pigs—blow up a balloon and cut up an egg carton for the feet and nose.  Start putting paper mache.  The next day when it should be dry, you can paint.  But with the humidity, it takes at least 2 days to dry.  Then paint and let dry another day. 

This year we are making volcanos—it has nothing to do with the Olympics, but we’re doing it anyway. 

We are finishing up day camp with family day – an evening picnic at the park, making the volcanos erupt, and watching “Joseph and the Techni-Colour Dream Coat”