Camp Busy Bees--part 1

Nature Angel, Little Princess, and I have been planning a 1 week summer camp at home for the youngest 1/2 dozen.

Studying, planning, shopping, prepping--we've been busy!

The first day of camp finally arrived.  I greeted the kids with, "Good morning!  Welcome to Camp Busy Bees!" as I tossed each child a camp shirt to start the day.

We survived the chaos of the first morning, simultaneously preparing breakfast, sack lunches, and bubble solution.

And we started!

We divided the kids into groups of 2: 
Little Minnows = Baymax + Lola 
Tree Frogs = Brother + Beowulf 
Blue Jays = Mister Man + Ladybug

We had three camp activities: 
Giant Bubbles
Ice Blocks
Body Painting 

We rotated our three groups through the activities.

(Here come lots and lots of pictures!)

Body Painting:  Paint, paper, and permission to do almost anything with almost any body part.  Nature Angel led this class that was an extreme success!

Yellow paint on their feet--ready for a race!

He's a certain superhero!

Ice Blocks:  The idea was to build, to experiment, to have a sensory experience.  What they did was smash them happily with hammers and have a sensory experience. :)  Little Princess ran this class.

Giant Bubbles:  I mixed 3 gallons of bubble solution in the morning, and we used it all up!  The kids had a blast with these bubbles, and even Nature Angel and Little Princess got in on the action between classes.

These two were a bit challenging that first day.  They got bored before their classes were over, but part way through this one, Lola tripped and spilled half a gallon of solution.  It got pretty fun for them when I got the hose out and made lots of suds rinsing the steps.

I had to demonstrate . . . right?

In the late afternoon, we brought out the mini water blobs that took me most of Saturday to make.

Some of the kids loved them; some didn't. 

I'm glad we tried them, but I will say this; we had a heck of a time figuring out what to do with them when we were done.  We ended up cutting off a corner of each one to drain them.  They're stacked on our porch, waiting for us to have the energy to refill them and retape them someday.

The first night, the Little Minnows were in charge of dinner.  They proudly and importantly carried down hot dogs, condiments, water, cups, and so forth and so on to the fire pit.  We roasted hot dogs and made s'mores, and the kids ran around until full dark.

Then we squeezed all 9 Busy Bees into our "big tent."

Girls on one side.

Boys on the other.  (I slept in the middle)

The kids did a good job, but the long day, the short night's sleep, and Day 2 of camp before us was a bit much for my crew.

Though Day 2 was really fun!

I'd managed to get the dirty clothes we'd worn all day into the laundry before climbing into my sleeping bag, so we had them fresh to wear again.  We had the same pattern:  3 classes, water play, dinner around the fire pit.

Archery:  I bought an inexpensive set that had good reviews.  It is not a quality set, but it is good enough for my campers, and it is fun for me to dust off my very dusty archery skills and give my kids a new experience.

Ladybug rocked this class!

First time with a bow and arrows, and look at her target!!

Brother has some skills, too!

"Mommy, you need a turn!  I will take your picture!" said Baymax.

"Smile, Mommy!"

Oobleck:  Little Princess led this class, and she was a master at accepting the process over product attitude and tolerating massive levels of mess.  The kids gave this activity 10/10 fingers!

The food color dot is "corona virus."

Lola and Baymax had a good time "killing" the virus.

Tin Foil River:  Nature Angel helped the kids create little soap boats and helped the kids build a new river for each class.  They carved, named, raced, watched, laughed, and exclaimed with delight.  Lola gave this class 15/10 fingers!

Our water play activity was pool noodle marble runs.  It wasn't a hit.  But they did play a little bit.

Mostly they enjoyed dumping the can of marbles on the driveway.

We lost quite a few.

C'est la vie

Brother and Beowulf were in charge of dinner.  They put tinfoil dinners together, and we baked them in the oven, as our fire pit is small.  They were just as proud as Baymax and Lola were to set up the food and dishes out by the fire pit.

Singing camp songs while dinner baked

These two were best dinner buddies both evenings.  I watched them for long minutes as they talked of their days.

We ended the meal with apple crisp and vanilla ice cream!

By this time, we'd had at least half a dozen melt downs by various kids.  Then Beowulf got dangerous.  He mimicked a lot of behaviors he's seen Brother engage in, and it took 3 of us to get him settled and safe again.

Kids were so, so, so exhausted!

We gave the half-dozen a bath or a shower (except Beowulf), read stories, and tucked them into their own beds.

Little Princess and Nature Angel elected to sleep in the tent again, but this time they invited their older sisters to hang out with them.  They watched a movie and played games and had a marvelous time.

Today would have been Day 3. 

Beowulf woke up just as out of control as he went to bed the night before, and some of the kids slept in an hour and a half. 

We just couldn't do our planned outing, nor could we handle another scheduled day.

We're taking a break.

We still have lots of fun plans, and my counselors and I are talking about a more manageable way to finish our camp and have our awards ceremony.

We'll see . . .