Nana's Summer Day Camp--2014--Here Comes Summer

- June 02, 2014

Disclaimer:

I love to write and record the journey

with my grandchildren. It is my hope

that these blog posts will be

looked back on fondly by

them and by me in years to come

when they are too old to

participate in activities like

Nana's Summer Day Camp.

I appreciate that

so many of you comment on

how much fun it looks like I have

with my grandchildren, but

I do NOT write the posts to brag about

what I do for them.

I have learned to be a grandparent

from some of the BEST--

from my own grandparents,

from my children's grandparents,

and from my sister-in-law Gail, who

entered this grandparent world before

me and always does such fun things

with her boys that it made me want

to "grow up and be like her".

I am not a very good
spend the night grandmother.
For some reason, I can't sleep when my
grandchildren are here for sleepovers.
So I decided that this summer, we would
have several "Day Camps"
during the sumer of 2014.
This robot snack, from
Pinterest of course,
was a big hit.

Our first Nana Day Camp this summer
was a HERE COMES SUMMER party.
David always played the song
Here Comes Summer by the
Dave Clark Five
loudly through the house at the end
of each school year
for Kelly and Jeremy
and they loved it.

I knew digging would be involved because that's a
crowd pleaser, so the cupcakes
had dirt (crushed Oreos), worms,

and frogs.

Our good friends, the Morris's,
were in town visiting the young Gibson's,
so Kate got to be part of the celebration.
What a precious little girl she
is growing up to be.

No, we did not include face painting as an
activity, although if Sweetie had been in town,
we might have because that is one of
her specialities. Aaron had
his face painted the day before, and
alas, the paint was not coming off. :)

In Colorado, we have rocks in abundance,
so each of the kids got to choose a rock,
paint it, and then make a rock creature.

We made a trip to the local park.
You might notice an extra "grandchild".
Anna Kate lives next door to us
and the boys love for her to visit
when they come over.
She is such a fun little girl
and fits right in.
It's also nice to have the
feminine touch with
Kate and AK.
Can't wait till Cora
is old enough to join
in the fun.

I pulled the little guys in the wagon
part of the way, but enlisted the
big kids to help out, especially when we
were going uphill. You don't
get to be a grandmother without
learning a few tricks.

Kate climbed this
"volcano" which was about 8 feet
off the ground.
It was a little scary
climbing down, but
she was brave.

The kids played with bubble
wands while Nana watched
the USAF Thunderbirds
practice overhead for the
upcoming graduation.
I kept yelling, "Look up, guys,
it's the Thunderbirds!" and
the kids just kept playing.
They weren't as impressed
as I was.

This is definitely a trick I
learned from Aunt Gail.
Ducca buries "jewels" from
the Dollar Store in the ground
and the kids have a
blast digging them up.

Notice Kate's amazed face.

Another unplanned but very exciting activity
happened when Kate found a worm. Poor
little thing should have dug just a little deeper
because he was "loved" to death (literally).
The kids made a Worm Habitat
for him. Can you tell what Caleb
was recently studying in school?

What a fun day!
Can't wait for more
Nana Day Camps coming
SOON!