The fun begins! The grandchildren who live 20 minutes away came to town for the first Grandma Camp for this summer. Typically we would go to a neighborhood park to play to start the day; however, it was a very hot and humid day. There is a local church with an indoor playground and walking track. They invite the entire community to use this fantastic facility. My grandchildren and I started the day by going there. They have monkey bars, climbing bars, slides, a merry-g0-round and so much more. Plus there are other children eager to play and to have newcomers join their play areas and groups.
Then we went to my house for a treasure hunt. I told my grandson and granddaughter that they were to work as a TEAM figuring out the clues and following them until they uncovered the hidden treasure. I thought that would prevent running and pushing and shoving to be first. It did work.

First clue – Where does Andy look for an ear of corn? Off they ran to Andrew Henry’s corn cafeteria. (Introducing Andrew Henry – 2011/02/16.)
There they found – Where does a tired Thomas go to sleep? Off to the train drawer in the playroom.
There they found – It is where Grandma grills her hot dogs. Off to my outdoor grill.
There they found – Little Blue has the next clue. Off to Grandma’s Library to find the copy of the “Little Engine That Could.” (Welcome to Grandma’s Library – 2011/06/05)
There they found – Look for a happy 4th of July Cat. Off to the cat (not the real one) that they dress up for holidays.
There they found – A kitten smelling catnip keeps the treasure warm. Off to a flower garden where a small concrete cat sleeps next to a catnip plant. AND under the cat was the treasure – Tootsie Pops.
Both children yelled, “Let’s do this at our next camp.” They even gave me ideas of good places to hide the clues the next time.
Time for lunch. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit for lunch. While we ate, I read a new book from the public library to the children, “Three Hens and a Peacock” by Lester L. Laminack and illustrated by Henry Cole. The illustrations are so amusing.

Flag Day is approaching. It is June 14 so Flag Day was our theme for the day. I told the children about Betsy Ross and showed them a picture of the flag that she had made at the request of George Washington. My granddaughter had studied this flag in first grade so she was familiar with it. We counted the stripes, and we counted the stars. Then they colored copies of Betsy Ross’ flag that I had printed. When they were fnished, we taped them to bamboo skewers. They ran around the front yard waving their completed flags.


My shy 5 year old grandson shows off his flag.
Time to bake. The chldren took stools into the kitchen, and we mixed up some cake mix. 1/3 of the batter was colored red; 1/3 was colored blue; 1/3 remained white. Then we (well, actually I because it can be a messy chore) layered the batter into cupcake papers. Blue on the bottom; white in the middle; red atop. Into the oven.
When the cupcakes had cooled, each child frosted 5 cupcakes and sprinkled the tops with red or blue sugar. The final touch was inserting an American flag pick into each cupcake.

As you can see from the split cupcake, grandma should have left more batter white. But they are red, white and blue.
While the cupcakes were cooling, back to the craft table. We made pin wheels for Flag Day. I used instructions from Sherri Osborn’s craft column at about.com.
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/creativepaper/ss/pinwheel.htm?nl=1
I only made one change. In this column it was suggested that you attach the pinwheel to the eraser of a pencil with a push pin. I tried that and found the point of the pin came through the other side of the eraser. Not a good idea to have a sharp point there. Think, think, think. My solution – I put a wine cork on the end of a bamboo skewer (love those bamboo skewers) and then attached the pinwheel to the cork with a pushpin.

Perfect.
Our finished Flag Day craft items.

We all sat down and talked about what we’ll do at the next Grandma Camp in July. My granddaughter who is 7 is happy if we have crafts and free time. My grandson who is 5 had a whole “bucket list” of items called “the things that grandma never let’s us do.” Those things involve water, sand and play dough. We’ll see.
Then it was free time until Mommy came to pick them up.
I hope that my grandchildren who live 3 hours away visit soon so we can have Grandma Camp also.
Thanks for visiting. Stop by soon to see what I am sending to my granchildren’s mailboxes for the 4th of July.