The past couple of years have had some challenges on our dates for Grandma Camp. Last year one of our littles got sick and ended up in the hospital – so we had to postpone. No one gets left out of Grandma Camp. This year, it was supposed to be in June, but all our kids and grandkids ended up with Covid . . . again. It seemed to drag on forever as each family member got it at different times, but we were finally able to make it happen last weekend.

I rented a bounce house from “The White Castle” bounce house. Thankfully they were great and re-scheduled it for me without a change fee, because of the family Covid outbreak in June.

My oldest granddaughter, Oakley, came and helped me all day Thursday. She was a lifesaver!!!

She helped me move all the furniture, get all the tents set up, the schedule figured out, and helped me make our special desert for Friday night.

This year we decided to just do our own desert and make it simple. Oakley and I came up with the idea to bake two Texas Sheetcakes, one with frosting and one without. After they cooled, we cut six big heart shaped cakes from each one using a cookie cutter.

We placed the one with frosting on the bottom, then the one without frosting on the top. Then made one more batch of frosting, put it in a cake decorating bag, and drizzled it over the individual cakes. A cute tall skinny candle from “Papyrus” was the perfect finishing touch. Oakley chose the color of candle specifically for each of her cousins. We put them on cookie sheets with tall glasses to keep the saran wrap from touching the tops of the cakes, and hid them in my sewing room until we were ready to bring them out for their surprise treat after dinner on Friday night.

I come up with a theme a year in advance, and begin gathering the things for the activities, toiletry swag bags, and treats to go along with the theme. Finding things on sale is helpful if you have a year to look for them.

This year’s theme was based on spy activities complete with walkie-talkies, bubble guns, and cipher codes.

I ordered all these on Amazon, and even found most of them on sale! We also had an elephant theme, with special meaning to end with on Saturday. I’ll explain more about that in next week’s post.

This year we invited the three youngest – ages 2-4 to join us for lunch, the bounce house, walkie-talkies, and bubble guns. By the time they finished, they were ready to take their swag bags, go home and take a nap. The four bigger kids stayed for the rest of the time.

I’m finding crafts are getting trickier to choose because of the age range of the kids that are here for the full two days – ages 6-14. We did ok with the variety I came up with this year, but next year, I’m going to have to take a hard look at a different direction. In 2023, two more of our littles will be joining us overnight, and only one is a boy. I’m thinking we’ll move away from crafting, which makes me a little sad, and more into activities and games.

The bounce house was a huge hit, and the kids went in and out to play all day – even in the rain! It was a little pricey, but it was worth it to have “The White Castle” deliver it at 9:00 a.m. and pick it up at 9:00 p.m. One less thing I had to add to my list of to-do’s. Initially, I thought the kids would be finished playing in it much earlier, but they were still jumping at 8:30! It was nice to have it overcast and a little cooler after the 100 degree heat and hot blowing winds we’ve been having. They got drenched in the rain, but didn’t get cold.

I popped their clothes in the dryer, they changed into their jammies until those got drenched, then I popped those in the dryer and they changed back into their clothes. Their jammies were dry by the time they needed them to go to bed.

With Ron and Oakley’s help, we were ready for everyone else to come on Friday at 11:00. When the bounce house arrived at 9:00, we added the blow-up pool toys for the décor. I checked into a balloon garland and wasn’t willing to pay the $300-$500+ price tag, and then wonder what to do with it afterward? I couldn’t justify spending that much for a one-time-wonder even though they are super cute!!! I already had the solid light-pink blow-up heart tube I had bought from a store in St. George on clearance a few years ago. I ordered the floral heart blow-up tubes from “Natural Life” – they were on sale as well. The floral and pink beach balls are from “Rifle Paper”.

I received them free of charge with an order of other things a few years ago. Inexpensive solid color beach balls from Amazon were the final thing to add more color and fullness. My daughter Steph helped me tie the beach balls together in clusters, and we attached them into the center of the large blow-up hearts. We tied them on the bounce house with ribbons, and they stayed put all day.

Ron went to get the Subway sandwiches and had them back by 10:30. The kids arrived at 11:00 and were ready to go for Grandma Camp!

Grandma Camp is a lot of work, but it brings so much light, love, togetherness, and one-on-one cousin time that doesn’t happen any other way. It does my heart good to see how sad they are when it comes to an end. My mother-in-law, Eileen, has a saying that I love. “You know everyone had a good time, when you AND your house guests are sad when it’s time to go home.” It means no one wore out their welcome, everyone wants to come again, and the host wants to have them back! The kids always say they wish they could stay another night, but I think that would be way too much over-stimulation with all the activities we do back-to-back. We have fun, but we stay busy too. When night time comes, they are tired and ready to get in their jammies, settle into their individual tents where they can still see each other – yet have personal space, pop some popcorn, and watch a couple movies until they fall asleep.

So share some light with those you love. It doesn’t have to be as over-the-top as what I do for Grandma Camp, it can be as simple as dinner, pop-corn, and a movie. What really matters is that you are un-plugging, spending quality time together, and that always brings light! The rest of the details on Grandma Camp 2022 will be coming in next week’s post, after I take a few more naps!

Love Ya, Les ☺

Family

Grandma Camp 2022 : Part One