Grandma Camp 2012

I proved to myself this year that you don't have to work on preparing Grandma Camp the entire year! It has been a year of big changes for me. My husband retired nine months ago as in he is home everyday! That is a big adjustment to a 30 plus year stay at home wife and mom. It has been one year since my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and already seven months since she moved into our home full time. My youngest adult child moved back home a year ago too. So, my year of transition from being a stay at home wife and empty nester with a full time working husband has evolved into a full nest, added responsibilities in caring for my mother in law, little privacy, little alone time, thermostat challenges, TV remote sacrifices, and probably the hardest hit being far less time for my personal creativity time to bring me the joy that it once did.

Needless to say Grandma Camp was pulled together very differently this year and I did not began my camp with the 100% over the top organization that I usually do. But, guess what? If needed you can pull Grandma Camp together in two days and it seems everyone still has just as much fun!

Sadly, this year four of my grandchildren were unable to attend. Oh, how I missed them. So this year I had just six little campers and all boys! Another big change is that we moved the camp to the mountains this year!  My adult children graciously HELPED me pull grandma camp off this time.  We all (parents and kids) headed to our mountain cabin for the Memorial Day weekend.  We extended our stay to include grandma camp. The kids were okay with mom and dad being there but they were very concerned about where they would be during grandma camp and where they were going to sleep to no intrude on our special time together. Traditionally, it is no parents allowed. Seems to be a tradition the kids really like!

To kick off the camp we all (as in parents and grands) headed into town for a pizza lunch and arcade games.

Following lunch the moms and dads stayed in town for the

day to play and Papa and I loaded up our campers and headed

back to the cabin for Grandma Camp!

We had six campers between the ages of 2-11.

Once we arrived back to the cabin we all worked together

to set up the tables and chairs we needed.

Our first activity was talking about keeping a journal.

I then gave them each a camp journal to

record when and where our camp was, who was there, what we did,

how they felt, and their favorite things about grandma camp.

They were given time following each activity to

write or color in their camp journals.

Next up.... Since slacking grandma didn't get personalized

water bottle labels created before camp the kids made their own.

Each child was given a strip of card stock that would

cover the store bought label with a 1/2" overlap.

Each child decorated their labels using colored pencils

and they wrote their names on them. Papa used clear packing

tape (with the kids help) to attach the labels and to waterproof them

 to their camp issued water bottles.

Funny thing....

No one seemed to notice that Grandma Camp

had been pulled together in just two days!

What's next on the agenda?