"Back to the Jurassic" boys camp

 G and J had seven boys attend their camp today.  It was really fun, really easy and a cinch to clean up!

Dinosaur Hunt:  We had a huge tub of dinosaurs the boys have collected over the years outside ready for the boys to pick a few each.  They hid their dinosaurs while one boy was in the house.  The boy would then go out in the back yard and he had one minute to find as many dinosaurs as he could.  After his minute was up, the boys would all go back out into the yard and retrieve their dinosaurs to hide for the next boy.  Each boy liked looking for the dinosaurs and it kept the boys involved the whole time knowing they would get to hide their dinosaurs several times.

Fossil Dig:  The boys hid over one hundred flat dinosaur skeletons that we got from the dollar store out in the sand around the fire pit.  The boys dug carefully in the sand trying to dig up the dinosaur fossils.

Dinosaur trivia:  G and J were leaders of their teams for this activity.  I would read a trivia question about dinosaurs to each team.  If they got it correct, the whole team got to do a cannonball into the "volcano" aka pool.

Megladon and fish: (sharks and minnows)

Exactly how big is an Apatosaurus?  This big.  We drew it to scale so that the boys could see.

The two hours flew by and we weren't even able to so some of the activities.  We'll save them for next year. The boys did go home with packets to make a five inch glow in the dark dinosaur.

My tea party

The girls have had a hard time watching the boys do so many fun things with their camps, that they thought it was their turn to have some fun.  So, we had fourteen girls over for a tea party.  Cost was $10 a girl.  I had envisioned an "afternoon tea", after teaching etiquette to all the girls and having a lovely ladylike afternoon.  Well, the girls arrived decked out in their finest afternoon dress, where I had all my costume jewelry displayed for them to wear anything they wanted for the two hour period.  They had fun trying on thing after thing.  

We made Victorian fans for their craft because after thinking about it, what little girl takes two hours to enjoy her "tea"?  They were cute and the girls loved them, thing is, G, J, and I pretty much made all fourteen fans by ourselves.  That wasn't in the plan.  

Then it was time.  Time for afternoon tea and a lesson on etiquette.

What.  A.  Joke!!!  I had envisioned the girls sitting there quietly as I explained the proper etiquette for afternoon tea, and then they would quietly visit with the other girls at their table while we got their tiers prepared.  Oh no, they were all over the place, spilling their drinks, yelling, "When do we have the tea party?", eating I don't know how many sugar cubes, etc.  G and J were beyond cute and helped me the entire two hours.  They never stopped running.  We were busting out the tiers full of cucumber sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cherry scones, eclairs, macaroons, cookies, fruit, chocolate dipped strawberries, etc.  Those girls ran us ragged!!  In the corner of the kitchen, the boys would hear me mumble, "This is so dumb.  I just want this over!"  And then we'd hear from the girls, "We want more cucumber sandwiches!".  What?  What child wants cucumber sandwiches?  Oh, those girls.

The clock struck 4:00, the door bell began to ring and we were like, good riddens.  The girls walked out having had fun and were happy with their experience.  I had to keep reminding myself that the girls were happy despite it going anything like I had envisioned.  I looked at the tables and realized I hadn't had two seconds to even take a picture of my adorable tables I had set.  It was over.  The food gone.  So, I rinsed some dishes, grabbed some food from different plate piers and sort of grabbed a picture.

The boys quickly pointed out that I probably wouldn't ever do that again.  And then I quickly said, "Yes, I will.  I just learned a lot from this one.  I won't be calling it a tea party.  It will be afternoon tea where my expectations will be written out prior to arriving.  Plus, I had way too much fun shopping around for all of my dishes, tea pots, silverware, and table cloths.  Can't wait to use them again!

"Loveland9 Olympic Games" boys camp

There were eleven Olympians today.  The day involved:

Running the torch.  The boys ran around the yard with a torch I had made from a toy microphone and paper as they passed it to each other.

They did the Olympic athlete oath.

Sports which included, Basketball, table tennis, soccer, track and field, (5x1 relay and long jump) swimming, and water polo.

Medals on the stand.

This camp was okay.  I told the boys that they were on their own on this one because I wasn't feeling it.  They were fine with that because it was going the be the "best" one.  It turned out to be a teaching opportunity for me.  As a parent over the years, I've learned not to ask, "Who wants to ______?"  I had to point that out throughout the two hour period.  I was able to teach them to say, "Now we are going onto our next even which will be Track and Field" rather than, "Okay, every one come over here.  Who wants to do the long jump?" while swimming.  Grateful for this experience and all the things I am able to teach the boys.

"Gone Country" boys camp

Today's boy camp was so much fun and slightly hilarious.  I so wish my sister and her cowboy kids could have seen how we do country.  haha

Camp activities included:

Wanted posters:  Each boy got a bandanna and a mustache to keep and then posed with a cowboy hat in a wanted poster sign to send all of the parents.

Swim Noodle Horses:  The boys made their own horses from swim noodles.  We charged an extra dollar since they were leaving with a craft.

The Pony Express:  The boys took turns wearing a satchel filled with envelopes while riding their horses around the back yard.  They had to deliver the envelopes to the different stations as fast as they could while being timed.

Panning for Gold:  G, J, and I spray painted small rocks gold the night before the camp.  We had water, sand and the "gold" in a huge tub ready for the boys to pan for gold with pie tins.

Roping a SDEER:  That's right.  A SDEER.  You really think I have a cow laying around the garage?  I do have my buck.  Remember that?  lol  We got rope and tied it on small hula hoops that the boys tossed to rope a sdeer.  That folks was a riot!

Campfire Chili:  For our snack we threw two cans of chili in the fire pit.  Some of the boys had NEVER had chili in their lives!!  They were anxious to taste it.  The boys loved it and couldn't wait to tell their moms that they wanted it for dinner.  Or even better, for a snack!  It was so funny.  And those logs, they are the old swing set we chopped up in March that made me so happy.

Milking a Cow:  We city folk had to get pretty creative on this one and boy did we.  I had D bring some gloves home from work.  We filled them with water, tied them around the belly of our buck, poked holes in the ends of the fingers and voila.  Those city kids were milking a cow.

There's a Snake in my Boot:  The kids took turns trying to toss snakes in my boots.  If they got one in, they got to yell out, "There's a snake in my boot!"

Shooting Range:  We had a pyramid of empty pop cans on the end of the fire pit for the boys to shot down with Nerf guns.

Swim in the Lake:  The boys always enjoy jumping in the pool especially with the heat we get, so it's a no brainer that we have to fit it in somehow.

"Survivor" boys camp

With our family being die hard "Survivor" fans, we had to have this one as a camp.  We were able to do things that we have watched for years.  Here's how we did "Survivor" Loveland9 style.

Tribes:  G and J had divided up the boys the night before so that they were fair as far as ages were concerned.  The boys lined up in a line with their eyes closed and one hand out.  Colored marbles were then placed in their hands to tell them which tribe they would be in.  After the tribes were decided, they received team buffs and they they went with their leaders and decided on tribe names where they each made tribe flags.

The Green Snakes and the Blue Crushers.

Building Shelters:  The boys could use anything they could find in the yard to build their shelters and they all had to fit inside of it together.  It was so funny watching the boys and what they decided to use.  Next thing I know, the boys have gone to the doll house and brought the "Home Sweet Home" sign.  Then they were gathering all the "statues" from the yard. One of the tribes won for being the largest, where the other won for being decorated so nicely.  haha Afterwards, the team that put everything BACK first won a reward for the first team challenge.

Ultimate Survivor:  We cut pool noodles in half and gave them to each boy.  The tribes started on either end of the lawn.  We blew the whistle and the boys went at it.  They were to try to hit an arm or a leg of the opposite tribe.  When they did, that  player could no longer use that limb.  If the chest or back was hit, they were out of the game.  I had to referee that game because the boys liked to claim that they didn't get hit.  We played a couple rounds.

Cracking a Coconut:  No machetes used on this one.  The boys used hammers to crack the coconuts and then held them up in the air so that the water would pour out into each of the boys' mouths if they wanted to try it.  Then they slammed the coconuts onto the pavers so that they would break and they could eat them.

Team Challenge 1:  We had fifty lacrosse balls in the center of the bottom of the pool.  Each team was on either side of the pool.  One player from each team would dive down and get one ball, swim back to the side with it and tag their teammate.  The next person would go.  Once all the balls were gone, the team with the most balls won.

Team Challenge 2:  The tribes raced each other on the following relay around the yard.  There was a "runner" between stations to involve more tribe members.
Station 1--One tribe member diving to get three torpedos out of the pool.
Station 2--One tribe member digging in a sand bucket trying to find the "lucky" penny
Station 3--Two tribe members putting together a puzzle.  If they needed help, one member could run across the yard to see the puzzle demo and then run back to help out.
Station 4--One tribe member undoing several knots to release the tribe raft
Station 5--All members of the tribe had to get across the pool on the raft without anyone falling off.

Making Fire:  We built a fire in the fire pit and the kids roasted marshmallows.

Lemonade stand

I took B and S to Michael's the other day and told them that they could each pick out one craft each.  We were headed up to the cash register when B spotted a lemonade stand for around $5.  She quickly dropped what she had in her hand and grabbed the lemonade stand saying, "I'm getting this because I'll get more money!"  She brought it home and it turned into a craft project by the three little kids.  They were thrilled and couldn't wait to sell lemonade.

Not sure I really wanted to do this, or how, or where, I put it off until I couldn't any more.  B loaded up her stand, and took it out front.  The front porch in the shade was perfect other than the fact that no one would ever see them in our cul-de-sac.  So, I put it on facebook and sent out texts to friends and before we knew it, we had car after car drop by.  B was thrilled and I was shocked at how many of my friends would drop what they were doing and come buy from my little girls.  We ended up making three pitchers of lemonade and pulling in a huge $37 after about an hour.

We loaded up the stand, the cups and the lemonade and went inside only to find the boys hovering over the couch looking out the window.  They were a little jealous at what their little sister had done.  They all wanted a share since they had had to make extra lemonade with the huge demand, and little g wanted a cut since he helped color the stand, and don't forget S since she helped work in the booth.  B paid everyone off with a $1 each and was ready to run to Target.

G and J?  They wanted to know if they could have a lemonade stand tomorrow.  I pulled a weird face and told them, "no".  They wondered why.  I explained to them that no one would come buy lemonade from 12 and 14 year old boys and that I was NOT going to send out a text the next day to my friends.  They wanted a turn to make money, so I told them that they could have camps.  They wondered what that was and so I told them about my sister and her kids and the camps they do each summer.  The boys were sold and ready to make a killing.  Here is what we came up with.

We decided that they would have five camps for boys before school would start on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The camps would be $5 a boy for two hours.  If they got ten boys to a camp they could each make $25.  We came up with our themes, sent out emails, and texts and hoped for the best.  Let's see how this goes.

Here are their upcoming camps:

"All Things Boys"
"Survivor"
"Gone Country"
"Loveland9 Olympic Games 2013"
"Back to the Jurassic"