Grandma Camp 2023

After having to postpone three times this summer, we were FINALLY able to have Grandma Camp! It’s been a crazy summer filled with lots of unexpected twists and turns, and with grandkids ranging in age from three to fifteen, finding a date that works for everyone is becoming more challenging. However, anything worth doing is worth doing whatever it takes to make it happen right?!!!

We had our usual traditions of starting with Subway sandwiches for lunch, Grandpa Ronnie homemade individual pizzas for dinner, our special Grandma Camp treat (this year it was homemade chocolate cupcakes topped with a tiny milk chocolate frog and sprinkles made by Macey from the Grandma Camp Committee), two late night movies complete with popcorn, waffles with vanilla ice cream and Grandma Les’ homemade strawberry jam topping for breakfast the next morning, leftover pizza for lunch, and the culminating reading of a new children’s book for each child at the end.

After having my oldest granddaughter help me out last year, I decided to make a few changes this year. With a growing number of grandchildren eligible to attend grandma camp now (the criteria to attend Grandma Camp overnight is that you have to be potty trained and be able to wipe yourself. This is due to the fact that I am so busy with all the food and activities, I don’t have time to do potty duty too. :) ), we had a total of six this time.

Mason and Lila both age four joined us for the first time for the full overnight camp. This meant making two more tents, and trying to figure out crafts and activities that worked for everyone from pre-school to high school.

I was having a difficult time thinking of what to do, so I decided to call a “Grandma Camp Committee” to help me plan it. The criteria for being on the Grandma Camp Committee is that you have to be twelve years old. I was excited to have my two oldest granddaughters help out this year, and they did a great job helping me plan and carry out the perfect activities!!! Watching them learn life skills is so rewarding. They are natural born leaders, and their parents have taught them to work hard. They are kind, compassionate, and caring – I’m such a lucky girl to know them!!!

Oakley and her friend wrote a book last year in Jr. High and entered a contest with it, they did really well in the contest, and I loved the meaning behind the story of “Fred the Frog”. Fred lived on a lily pad with his family and was happy. He went to school and his friends told him he needed to be cool like them and have a cool backpack, clothes, and gold chains on his neck, sunglasses, and shoes. Fred went home and told his mom he needed new stuff. She wasn’t thrilled about it, but agreed to take him and get him everything he asked for. Fred went to school and all his friends told him how cool he looked. But when Fred went home and got on his lily pad, it started to sink because he had too much stuff. So he took all his stuff and put it in the garbage can. He told his friends he didn’t need all that stuff to be cool, that he was happy with the way he was before he had all that stuff. So his friends put all their stuff in the garbage can too, and they were all happier!

We made a copy of the book for each kid, along with a stuffed Fred the Frog complete with all his new accessories and a tiny garbage can to keep it all in.

Macey came up with an idea to give out kindness coins throughout Grandma Camp as an incentive for everyone to be more kind. So she made a little store, bought toys to fill it with, and gave out play money for kind acts of service during Grandma Camp. As the kids were leaving to go home, they got to shop at “Grandma’s Toy Store” with Macey as the store clerk, using the kindness coins they had earned. It was a huge hit!

The bounce house we had last year was also a fan favorite, so we went bigger and better this year. Oakley was a student body officer at her Jr. High last year, and told me about “Jumpolines Party Rentals”. “Jumpolines”, came and did their field day at Jr. High at the end of last school year. We looked on their website, and I let Oakley and Macey choose which bounce house/slide we should get.

It was Hawaiian themed, and was perfect after our family vacation last April to Kauai. It also gave a nod to Maui, our prayers go out to those affected by the recent fires. The cute couple that own “Jumpolines” were so kind and hard working! We had them deliver it, set it up, and come back the next day to take it down. We learned they actually have over 70 different inflatable bounce house/slides/ obstacle courses to choose from! It was clean, in perfect condition, and the kids played in it every spare moment they had.

We will be renting from them again next year for sure! www.jumpolines.com Check out their website or give them a call, they are fantastic - 801-808-7085!!

For our crafts each kid got a personalized work apron, and they loved them!

We used them for all our craft activities, and then they got to take them home. Each kid made a big and small stepping stone out of cement and colored glass tiles. I ordered all the supplies for these on Amazon.

I learned that if you wipe the inside of the mold with Vaseline, the completed cement stone comes out easier. We did this one right after lunch, and I asked the mom’s to stay and assist with this craft.

Our youngest granddaughter who is three came to the first few hours and was able to have lunch, make her cement stepping stones, and play in the bounce house. She went home with a “Grandma Camp” swag bag similar to her older sister’s and cousin’s, but more age appropriate. Hopefully next year, Jade will join us overnight!

For our second craft, we learned how to hammer nails in a stump of wood. I called “Wasatch Timber Products” in Heber City, Utah to order the wood slices for this craft. I asked for 12” diameter by 6” tall. When I got up there to pick them up, they were much bigger, and barely fit in my car! But it worked out just fine and the kid’s names looked great on the 16” diameter by 10” tall slices.

I used a font on my computer made with dots.

It was perfect for Grandpa Ronnie to pre-drill the holes in the shape of their names, and then the kids pounded away.

Each kid got their own personalize tool kit. I ordered these from Amazon.

Mason is four, and has a hard time saying his “L’s”. He had us all laughing when he said with great enthusiasm, “I’m gonna wack the wog (log :))!!!”

He could drive those nails in with one wack of his hammer! Even Grandpa Ronnie was impressed! Every one of them completed their names and nailed every nail in by themselves.

We used roofing nails because they have bigger heads, and are shorter in length. We didn’t have one smashed thumb, which I thought was quite miraculous! They had so much fun with this activity that they asked if they could do more!

So we let them add hearts, smiley faces, and peace signs to their wood creations. Their parents can use these stumps of wood as stepping stones in their yards by digging down a little in the dirt and setting the stumps down in the hole to keep them in place. Each kid went home with two different kinds of stepping stones.

The next day after breakfast and some time in the bounce house, we had a scavenger hunt dressed as butterflies for the girls, and a firefly/dinosaur for Mason. The winner won a package of Skittles.

Then we had a watercolor painting activity. I challenged them to choose something they could see in the yard, and paint it.

I loved how each one was a creative representation of each kid’s talents and personality!

We were grateful for good weather to hold all our crafts and activities outside on the back porch in the shade. We have a kid size “Lifetime” brand table and chair for each grandchild. These have been the best investment, we use them EVERY time the kids come over.

They spent more time in the bounce house while I heated up their left-over pizzas from the night before, and made another round of lime rickey drinks. This is something new I tried out last year. I’ve loved lime rickey drinks since I was a kid. This year we went through 36 cans of Sprite, 1 ½ bottles of Torino Grape Flavored Syrup, and more limes than I could count! In all fairness, the kid’s moms and Ron had their fair share of these as well – so the kids didn’t drink ALL of those cans of Sprite by themselves! I don’t think I threw away one leftover drink, they love them!!! Would I give this to them every day? No way! But at Grandma Camp, we eat and drink whatever we want (as long as we don’t eat and drink enough to make us sick).

We play hard, we craft hard, we learn new things, we eat yummy food, and we stay up way past our bedtime, and we don’t feel bad about it!!! Each child went home with a swag bag from “Natural Life” filled with all the crafts and activities we did at Grandma Camp.

As another year of Grandma Camp came to an end, and we finished with our traditional story book read by me, as they followed along in their own copy of the book. This year’s book “If I Had A Little Dream” was written by: Nina Laden and illustrated by: Melissa Castrillon. I have loved to read from the time I was old enough to pick up a book! I want to share this love with my grandkids, and help them add to their own little book libraries. It is my hope and dream that these books will be read to their own children and grandchildren someday, and that each time they read them, they will remember Grandma Camp and how much Grandma Les loves them!!!

It always does my heart good when they don’t want Grandma Camp to be over! I’ve already got ideas for next year, and I’ll meet with the official “Grandma Camp Committee” in January for a sleepover with our two oldest granddaughters to start planning for 2024. The goal is to hold it as soon as school lets out next summer. Hopefully, we can make that happen and not have to postpone again like we had to this year!

So after eleven loads of wash, five dishwasher loads in the two day time period, my sewing room looking much emptier in a good way, I’m exhausted, but filled with LIGHT from my strong, creative, resilient, kind, and loving grandkids!!! I love them more than life itself!

If you don’t have grandkids yet, adopt some, you’ll be amazed at the LIGHT they bring into your life!

Have a great week! Love Ya, Les :)

Family