Cousin Camp

I told you all we were doing something fun last week - Cousin Camp!

I had seen people who did this with their grandkids, like my friend Miss Merry, and thought it would be fun to do. 

After getting the dates approved by the moms, I sent these invites in the mail.

I made a sign for their room, got the beds ready and made little welcome bags for each of them.

In the bags were stickers, a flower bracelet, a few notepads, glow in the dark temporary tattoos and a flower t-shirt.

Here are our happy campers, by the front door welcome sign.

I think tie dye is mandatory for camp, right?  So, we started by making tie dye t-shirts.

After that, we did some air dry sculptures.

I found some archeology eggs, that the kids chiseled away to find some different types of rocks inside.

Cassie with the rock she found.

We went to the park for a scavenger hunt.  But - we barely started and it began to rain hard. This is ironic because we've been praying for rain for 6 weeks!  So we needed it, but really?  We went home and played this game...

It's a marble balancing game and we had fun with it.

We had fun making water slime with sea charms in it.

It quit raining so we headed back to the park for the scavenger hunt. I had found print off sheets with things to find in nature, and one was an easier one with pictures for Cassie.

This park has a beautiful suspension bridge.

Grandpa grilled hot dogs for supper, and we had finger jello and watermelon with them - good camp food!

After supper we watched a cute movie about a dog named Ruby. (We watched this one with Terri down in Florida and knew the kids would like it.)
We also had S'mores; another camping essential.

Then it was bedtime. Cassie has a hard time sleeping away from home, so it was a night of not much sleep. I thought she would be so tired and once asleep, would sleep well.  But that was not the case. She ended up sleeping with me and I was woken frequently with questions like "Grandma - is it morning yet?"  "Grandma - what is your favorite animal?"  "Grandma - I can't find my stuffy",  and as soon as the sun was peeking out - "Grandma - it's morning!"   We had to remind her that her cousins weren't ready to get up yet...

And that was the beginning of day 2.  I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

Todays recipe is perfect for a hot summer day.  It can be made a few days early if you want since it's a frozen dessert, it's really easy - and really good!

Toffee Ice Cream Dessert

28 oreo cookies, crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 to 3/4 gallon Heath bar ice cream, softened
1 bag Heath Bits O'Brickle

Mix together melted butter and crushed oreos. Press into a 9x13 pan and place into freezer.
While crust is freezing take out ice cream to soften.
In the meantime, prepare topping.

8 squares semi sweet chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/3 cup evaporated milk

Combine ingredients in sauce pan, cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until thickened. Allow topping to cool.

Spread 1/2 of softened ice cream over crust. Return to freezer until topping is cooled.
Drizzle 1/4 to 1/3 of topping over ice cream. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of Heath bits over topping and place back in freezer.
After ice cream is somewhat hardened, spread rest of ice cream over top. Again return to freezer. When this layer of ice cream is hard, spread rest of chocolate topping over it. Sprinkle remaining Heath bits over topping and freeze until serving.
Yum!

*If you aren't a fan of Heath, you can substitute Oreo ice cream and crushed oreos for the Heath.