MeeMaa Day Camp Day 3!

Day three was zoo day.  Flag ceremony, then  zoo.  We met up with all kinds of cousins, saw animals, rode the carousel, rode the train and ate Cheetos near where the cheetahs were supposed to be.  We always bring Cheetos just for that.  But the cheetahs were no where to be seen.

The pictures include cousins and in one my brother who happened to call and we held up the phone.  We always get one of the kids at the lion cub drinking fountain and one of Kallie and Jocie at the orangutans home-- the zoo has one orang named Jocie and one named Kallie, although they spell theirs differently.  Jocie was born right around the grandkid Jocie's birthday.  Yes, that is two animals named after Jocie.  Kind of...  We also got the crowd getting ready to ride the tram back from Africa, and talking of the Royals.  Shannon can be seen giving the Royals the thumbs up, because she loves them so.   

 

We got home and made the marshmallow catapults.  I think they ate as many as they used for the catapults.  They aren't the strongest of catapults, but they worked.  The only thing they could hit was a pregnant Shannon and then we put all the kids outside with all the marshmallows to use on each other.  Pampa ended up using the leaf blower to blow all the marshmallows out into the street so we wouldn’t get ants.  Then the first part of camp ended—two more days to come later.

                                   

     #grandmadaycamp

 

MeeMaa Day Camp Day 2

Day two was farm day.  First with the flag, and songs.  Then on to Kim’s house to play with the goats—one of them is named after my granddaughter, Jocie, and the chickens.  Joc theGoat has the purple collar.  And yes, they walk the goats.

Only one egg was cracked in all the fun.  An improvement from last year...

We went to the park for the picnic lunch and walked a nature trail.  Sometime between the park and the trail, someone turned up the heat and we about died on the ½ hour we walked the trail.  Amazing how fast the heat can come on!

 We got home and painted picture frames and the boys made chocolate chip cookies for the snack.

It's tough when you are so tired that you have to lay down to eat your cookie!  And yes, my hubby makes the cookies that big all the time.

We ran out of time to do the obstacle course and marshmallow catapults.

#grandmadaycamp

MeeMaa Day Camp!!

Last week, I held MeeMaa Day Camp.  We- my sister and I hold this each year, but this year we are separate due to scheduling...Here is a link to last years'.  All of the 7—at the time—grandkids got to come.  The theme this year is Naturally Good.  I don’t know why, but it sounded good in Feb, when my sister and I started planning.  And we have already started next year’s planning. 

 

 

Anyway, the first day started with the flag ceremony and singing camp songs.  The songs seem to be a crowd pleaser!

 

  

Then we made the waterbottle holders, and cut out and put the faces on the Owie Kats. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owie Kats are cat shaped and rice filled.  Then you put them in the freezer or heat them when you get hurt.  Mental note, don't tell the kids about the freezing until they take them home, unless you want to try to freeze the whole house.  They need to check on them a lot.  And get hurt a lot... They have to dry before we can sew them. 

 

Then it becomes a blur—we made God’s Eyes and the lunch crew took orders and made English Muffin pizzas for lunch.  Each day there is a lunch crew and a snack crew.  The other crew does the flag ceremony. 

 

The lunch crew seems excited to get to work!!

 

We then sewed the kats.  everyone gets to sew... *Hint* hold the two year olds hands when sewing, they like to poke all the buttons...

Next, ran the obstacle course and the snack crew got to make the camp favorite of Poop on Ice—No-Bake Cookies on ice cream.  It was pretty good, but those that stirred theirs together didn’t like it as well.  But the name was fun to repeat over and over again.  Soon, with more singing and taking the flag down, camp was over…



P. S. Does anyone know how to get rid of that tiny pic?

 

#grandmadaycamp

Cupcakes a la Pioneer Woman!

When I watch the Food Network, I always find something yummy to try.  On Saturday, I watched The Pioneer Woman—she has tons of great recipes, and this one looked fab!  Why do I always pick the ones without pics?  After a trip to the store to get the buttermilk, cream and bittersweet chocolate, I was all ready. 

 

I actually followed the directions and got all the ingredients measured up and got the batter made and in the oven.   Oh, yeah, I need another cupcake pan—I have a 12 and a 6, both over 30 years old, and I think it’s time for a new 12. I rejected the ones that I saw, so I just borrowed my daughters pan.  Look at that really bad pan!!

 

 
Against my better judgment, I sprayed the heck out of the pans, and didn’t use paper liners.  Everything went together as planned until it was time to get the cakes out of the pan.  Out of 24, 6 came out great.  The rest tried to stick or lost part of the cupcake.  Time to take a break with my diet coke and contemplate what to do with ugly broken cupcakes that need fluff squirted in them. 

 

I just went ahead and squirted the fluff as if they were all good.  I was a good girl and didn’t even lick off the icing tip between cupcakes.   MMMmmmmm!

 

Time to spoon the ganache over! 

 

The finished product.  Someday, I will learn how to stage the food, but don’t hold your breath. 

 

If I were to make these again, I would just use a dark chocolate cake mix, and make only half of the fluff.  I have at least half left over, so I called my daughter over to take it home with her and she is going to use it on some cupcakes she is making with the kids tonight.  There will probably be some left still…any takers??

Old Office Chair Re-do

I have wanted to update my sewing chair forever.  I never saw some fabric worthy of the change, until I saw this.  Got it at the Goodwill Store.  More about that here.  Anyway, I went and came out $6 poorer, but I now owned about 2 yards of this dec fabric, various mesh sports clothes to cut up for American girl doll sport clothes, an Ann Taylor Loft coat, and a dump truck.   Anyway, back to the chair.  I have just a cheap office chair with black plastic arms and legs.  After looking at the fabric with no light on, I thought there was red on it.  So I painted the plastic red.  Upon further inspection, it was a dark pink, so back to the store for a new color.  Telling this is way too fast.  With our wacky weather, you can paint one day, then it’s way too cold for the next few days, then finally warm enough to paint again with the pink color.  Then you just cover the old upholstery with the new fabric, tucking in firmly.  The bottom chair, I stapled the fabric around the bottom.  I LOVE my new chair! 

 

Christmas Pillowcase

 

Years ago, back when I had a grandchild, I came across this pillowcase in a magazine.  I needed to make it for him… and my sons.  At least one was still at home, and maybe one in college… who knows?  Now every grandkid has one—I just finished Makinley’s – she’s getting ready to turn 2.  But babies can’t have real pillows before then, right?  I don’t even have the pattern any more, so I had to get Addie’s to go from.  First you trace the gingerbread people and the candy canes on Wonder Under or something like that.  Wonder Under has a paper backing and iron on glue on the other side.  After tracing the figures on the paper side, iron it on the fabric, let it cool and cut everything out.  Place it on the red pillowcase.  I cut the red flannel 1 inch wider than a regular pillowcase—that gives you ½ inch seams.  Iron on the people and candy canes, then sew down.  

 

 I sew the gingerbread people on before I sew the side seams.  The gingerbread people would look better if I had sewn on the bits of ric rac before sewing them on the pillowcase.  Now I have an embroidery machine, I sew their names on instead of using the puff paint. 

 

 Then sew on the white edge with the striped bias edge between.  Now Addie wants hers to be satin.  It makes her hair less frazzy. 

 

  As I unloaded these pics, I came across a few bonus pics. Does this count as a photo bomb?

 

End Table Revamp

We got end tables about 30 years ago.  Yes, you can insert an old lady joke here.  Anyway, one day, I decided to paint them.  I went with a classic black.  By the second day, I knew it wasn’t me.  The dust it showed!  I have a black TV thing, but this was so much worse!  So, onto gray!  I like the gray, but the paint never got real hard.  Even though, it was sanded and primed and painted in air conditioning, here it is two months later, and it still isn’t hard.  I used Lowes’ latex paint.  Never again on furniture.  Then, I thought they were too plain.  So I tried a stencil, but it just wasn’t me.  So, on to a new plan-- sponge painting then stenciling.  For all you young ‘ins out there, to sponge paint, you get a  sea sponge—or ask your mom for one, and then I mixed the gray with a bit of old craft paint I had hanging around—as long as they are both latex paint, you can mix them.  Pour the paint on a paper plate—or if you are lazy, one of your real plates,and dip your sponge in. 

 

 

 Then you need to pat off most of the paint. As you can see, I used the box in the living room to pat my paint off, but a paper towel is reccommended.

  

 Pat, pat, pat the paint on—the goal is not to have streaks. The goal is to make it not solid, but however much paint you want on it. Then I was going to stencil the plain gray paint, but I like it the way it is, so enough already! I’ll wait at least a day and pile all myjunk—lovely stuff back on the tables.