Monday in Late September

My husband works for a business that runs 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Currently he works from 7 a.m.- 3 p.m. and his days off are Sunday and Monday. 

Sunday mornings start with church and I stay afterwards to teach Sunday School. After a quick lunch, he usually takes a nap while I catch up on laundry and run to the grocery store. We have supper and watch whatever series PBS is featuring (have you seen Indian Summer? - I am loving it!). 

Mondays we care for at least two of our young grandchildren during the day and I have a church meeting on Monday evenings. So basically, we do not often share a day off. 

Monday, September 28 was a day off! 

We decided to head north about 15 minutes to a small town on the shores of Lake Erie. This is a very popular place during the summer with home and cottage rentals, several condos, at least 2 beaches and several restaurants. 

This hot spot located right on the boat basin is usually crowded with boaters, boat watchers, vacationers, day visitors and night party-ers.  But not on a sunny afternoon in late September! We had the patio to ourselves!

As we enjoyed the weekday boaters coming into the boat basin from Lake Erie, we enjoyed a nice lunch. Prices are a little better in late September, too. Monday's special was a burger, fries and a beer only $6.00! 

After lunch, we took a walk up to the opening to the lake. We squinted, but couldn't quite see Canada! It was a wonderful sunny and warm day, not too hot, not too chilly. I hope everyone has as peaceful and enjoyable day as we did. 

Gramma Mimi's Wild West Cousin Camp Days 3 & 4

It's our final full day of Gramma Mimi's Wild West Cousin Camp 2015! I think the twins are getting tired of posing for pictures! The three oldest grandchildren live out of town, so they stay as overnight guests. The youngest three come over after breakfast or morning naps. But Day Three starts with a field trip and all parents (and car seats) are kindly requested to help participate! We live on USA's north coast and 30 minutes from a small beach. Entry is only $5 a carload and we have discovered if we go the minute the beach opens, we are are the only ones there! By the time other beach goers arrive, we are hot, tired and ready to roll on. 

Breakfast of Cackleberries and Silliness!

Then it was off to the Beach!

Boys versus Girls for a volleyball game!

We loved the professional stance of this volleyball players. 

Middle son as supervisor

Mommies and Babies

Some of us were unimpressed with the outing. 

Dipping our toes in Lake Erie

Building Sand Castles

Then we headed out to lunch!

Excuse the exhaustion on the faces of our chaperones while we dined at our favorite pizza place.

Then home for a movie and a nap. 

Our snack was "Build your own Teepee"

This is right before we started applying chocolate frosting to our faces. 

We colored "leather" Native American bags and laced them. 

This pinterest activity told us to draw a picture in glue on parchment paper, add watercolor paint for color and allow to dry. You were supposed to be able to peel off the design. Note: You can't. 

Supplies for Sidewalk Puffy Paint

Then squirt the paint on the sidewalk to create designs. 

Some of us can get overwhelmed with all the activities. But after a moment alone, we recover. This is one of my absolute favorite camp pictures!

Then squirt the sidewalk with vinegar to make your designs POP!

This is what it looks like even when dry. It did not rain for several days and all the walkers would step around it. A gentle rain washed it all away. 

Cowboy stew, corn muffins and moo juice for supper. 

The cowpokes made their own s'mores for dessert

The next morning the twins discovered a Fairy Door in my living room! They had to leave pennies on the doorstep as a gift. 

They told me waffles were their favorite, but somehow chose cackleberries as the breakfast of choice. 

Then it was time to pack up and go home! Another successful Gramma Camp in the books.

Gramma Mimi's Wild West Cousin Camp 2015- Day Two

We started the morning with waffles with strawberries and mounds of whipped cream. 

Then we headed outdoors to pan for gold!

A gold nugget!

We sprayed the nuggets with vinegar and voila! We found gold dollar coins!

Which we took straight to the dollar store!

Then we headed to our local history museum to see some arrowheads. 

We listened intently to the tour guide. 

The museum had us pose for a picture as we left for home. 

After lunch, we painted Lone Star birdhouses.

Some of us needed a little help painting. 

These cowboys are making trail mix for snack. 

We went outside to play and touch up our birdhouses.

For dinner we had git along little doggies, buckaroo baked beans and tombstone taters. 

And Lone Star pies for dessert. 

We made lightening bugs after dinner. 

They really light up!

The babies went to bed and the older campers got a surpise.

Their favorite characters . .. .

were featured at the drive in!

Settled in with snacks for the movie!

Gramma Mimi's Wild West Cousin Camp - Day One

This was the second year of my annual cousin camp! Here are the Fun Filled activities from Day One! Please comment if you would like directions or instructions on any of the events, experiments or crafts and I will respond.

Everything is labeled for Wild West Camp

I make my own t-shirts with computer printed iron ons and everyone must have a cowboy hat!

The chaos can be confusing so this year I posted an activity list. 

All campers arrived by lunch and enjoyed a Wagon Wheel Casserole.

Campers got right to work painting milk jugs for our totem poles.

The two youngest went for naps while the older campers got to use glue and scissors to create cowboy paper bag puppets. 

We took a brief moo juice break. 

We made corn hop in our jars with this experiment for Hopping Corn. 

We created horses from pool noodles for our rodeo. 

There were some scary moments with these desperadoes!

We had a snack of "cow cakes". 

Everyone ended up on a wanted poster. 

And everyone posed as a real cowboy. 

A one dollar pack of mustaches was a great purchase!

We captured all the desperadoes in this great jail that grampa cut from underlayment. 

One of the rodeo events was throwing a snake in a boot. Some of the campers figured out it was easier to just walk over to the boot and drop it in. 

I made rope rings for lassos and the cowpokes tossed them on a cone. 

Admiring our totem poles - we put them on metal fence posts. 

Boot scootin' bbq with cole slaw, corn salsa and chips. 

We screwed golf tees into a piece of scrap lumber - put ping pong balls on the tees and had a shooting range with our water pistols. 

We also popped the pig! Pink balloons with pig faces drawn on!