Camp Arrowhead Day Three

Day three of summer camp, Camp Arrowhead, began with one of my pre-kindergarteners coming in so excited that he had practiced his ABCs overnight and finally had the song down.  Shaun just happened to be here when he proudly sang the tune without a hiccup on any letters!  THIS display earned him the ABC star badge for his head band!  We are working on two more boys here possibly earning their badge tomorrow.  So proud of those guys!

 

Our morning craft was a good one.  After seeing the campfire I had made to use for camp all week, the kids were tickled to learn that they would be making their own campfires today and earning a campfire badge to boot!  We painted thick paper plates black and painted four toilet paper and paper towel rolls (p.t. cut in half) a few shades of brown and black to resemble fire wood.  I hot glued the sticks in place and the kids learned how to smush tissue paper just so that it looks like flames.  I hot glued the flames in also.  Tomorrow, since Kroger ran out of the flicker tea lights, the kids will get to take their campfires home with one tea light in the middle to use at home. 

 

 

 

 

Lunch time was had inside today.  The kids asked if we could pretend thunderstorm again so that's what we did.  This time however, we brought out the campfire and I cooked hot dogs in the microwave that afterward we put on forks and pretended to roast them over the fire.  They really liked that... the kids that is.  We also had grapes and chips with mini marshmallows for dessert that one pretty smart kid put on the tines of his fork and pretend roasted them too!  That's a lot of pretendin' going on!

 

 

After nap and a cheese and cracker snack everyone heard the activity whistle blow!  They came running and were advised to put their shoes on cause we were going outside.  I had found online and printed out copies of insect bingo.  I decided to simply use the bingo cards as guides because it had great pictures of lots of insects.  I handed out the sheets and a crayon to each and we headed out to see what we could find.  We hunted and pointed and "Hey look" 'ed until we got pretty hot, this being a very humid afternoon, and decided to head back inside and get ourselves some water while we compared notes on what we found.  Everyone was excited to tell about which insects they had seen and everyone earned an insect badge for participating in a successful hunt!

 

 

 

Day three is at a close and it's been a good one although the campers seem restless to do their own thing.  After one more day of sack lunches I am sure they will be ready for green beans and chicken nuggets next week.  They're just like that.  We only have one more day because everyone will be here that day.  I don't have as many on Friday and most would have missed out on the camp closing badge ceremony!  I am tired but getting a little sad to see the week come to a close.  On to day four!!

 

 



setting up camp

I have two of my kids at the day care who will be starting kindergarten in a few weeks.  I felt the need to do something special for them... everyone else included.  I decided to have a summer camp here at the day care.  We can't actually spend the night and we can't technically go anywhere but here.  So imaginations will have to be sparked.  I have several notebook pages full of ideas from decorating to lunches and crafts and games.  I have made head bands that will be used to glue merit badges to and will have feathers hanging from the sides.  I have such plans that I am almost nervous that I can't pull it off... but I will because it's all up to me and my creativity and vision for the special week for them. 

Here are some of my decorations.  They look so much better in person.  You just can't get the full effect through pictures.


The entrance to our day care tent and camp.

I hung glittered pine cones and trees that I made last Christmas to make our forest before the playroom.  I love that I save that stuff and can use it again.

Inside our inside tent.  I plan to set up the nap mats in a circle with the campfire in the middle so they can look up at the glow in the dark stars while listening to campfire stories from library books I have picked up.  I also have a sound machine.. one of those to help you sleep... that has a setting called Summer Night that sounds like crickets.

The bulletin board drawing for the week.

So, the hardest part, or the most time consuming part of making an indoor camp fire, was the rocks.  I couldn't quite think of what to use and then one Friday it hit me... papier mache.  I stuffed paper bags with plastic grocery sacks and wadded and taped them.  Then I covered them with papier mache (because I am one of those people who keeps papier mache made up and in the fridge) and tried my hardest to wait until they were dry to paint them... but I didn't.  So they were painted when they were still partially damp.  I painted a cut-out cardboard circle black and glued the rocks down in a circle.  I painted some paper towel tubes shades of brown and hot glued them in a circle to the rocks.  I scarfed up enough red, orange and yellow tissue paper to use for the fire and glued it in too.  Lastly, I had purchased a six pack of battery tea lights that luckily twinkle, stuck all of the in the middle and Waa Laa!  An indoor campfire that flickers like real fire!

So hopefully if I can stay on schedule I will share our summer camp days with you here next week.. that is actually going on this week.  I have so much planned for them that I hope I can tell you all about it. 

Livin Like We're On Vacation

A little thing I like to say about my husband and I and the way we live is "We live like we are on vacation" so there's really no point in going anywhere.  We have our farm, the woods, our garden, our pets, our jobs, not to mention... each other.  This past weekend, we made ourselves a "get away" spot in the woods.  A little hide away where we can go to chill or camp or cook... all outside.  A little woodsy nook just for us.  Complete with bugs and all!

 

We gathered big rocks from piles that have been in the woods for... ever.  They were cleared from the fields and stacked by people farming the land here years ago.  I was leery of finding a snake so I wore my gloves.... it made sense then.  Plus I bite my nails so I like to keep unidentified dirt out from under them. 

 

We found out spot and cleared away the leaves.  I actually found my first Morel Mushroom while doing this.  Kicked the head right off of it!  Then I cooked it and we ate it with the quail for supper. 

 

We stacked the rocks in a circle to make our fire pit.  Then we went to a spot where we had a tree fall and got three loads of wood and made our wood wall.  It turned out the wood was too wet and rotten to burn very good that evening.  But the maiden voyage was had.

 

Shaun put out his fire pit cooking gear from his rendezvous days.  All cast iron pretty cool stuff.  Then we put our lawn chairs out and sat and drank us a cold one. 
Life is good here at the hide out!  We plan to vacation here a lot this summer! 
 

Sorry.. I cannot disclose the actual spot of the hide out on our farm...
it wouldn't be a hide out then, now would it?!

 

We plan to have different chairs and maybe wood benches.  As Shaun said "we can't do it all in one day.. that'll take the fun out."