JOYRIDE JUNKET & LETTERS LANE Our busy camp day began with a field trip to Jesse Owen’s Park with colorful bags labeled A B C to search for items from the Friday Farmer’s Market that began with those letters. Max, what do you see that begins with an A? Tomato? No, not tomato.  What sounds like a a a (Nana makes the a short vowel sound). Well, I was going to say apple first, but I only saw tomatoes! What can I say – the kid was right.  Apples are not in season here, but we did find some apple chips and apricot jam and broccoli and beans and cauliflower and two baby carrots with, much to Abby and Max’s delight, still had the little soft greens attached.  Bags in hand, we headed for the car and a quick (not so much) trip to the grocery store to pick up items for dinner. Max and Abby insisted on the cart with a car attached to the front.  It took me a while to realize that every time another shopper stopped in front of us, the toy car horn would make a series of HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK until the nice shoppers moved from in front of our cart!  I quietly explained to the sweet children that it was not very nice to honk at people because they were just shopping for their dinner as well and probably did not realize that they were in our way.  Max calmly stated that it was also not nice to block people and also not nice to say “outta the way…outta the way”.  Once again, right on both counts.  So, if I were keeping track;   With a big old “L” on my forehead, I head for home with the toddlers in an effort to escape my shame.  Once home, a new project. ARTIST AVENUE Painters paper is taped to the floor and long white cardboard strips are laid out nicely on top of the protective paper.  Max helped to pour out washable finger paints in different areas of the paper.  Abby’s turn first … I painted different colors on the bottom of her feet and helped her press er, smear her footprints on the white cardboard.  Camp Nana Tip:  try not to use cardboard that is on the shiny side as it smears rather easily.   ]Max was next, and after a practice run, ended up with footprints of every color!  After the projects dried, Max thought of things he and Abby use their feet for while Nana wrote them next to the prints.  He was very particular about coming up with different suggestions for Abby and him.  He is such a creative and smart little guy! CULINARY CORNER Although was not too creative this week, Max enjoyed spacing the cookie dough just so and making certain that all the dough balls were approximately the same size.  He was also quite accurate on telling me when the oven temperature reached 350 and was ready to bake treats to be enjoyed at a later, cooled down, time.          

 

Lunch time. A little rest time. A little STORYTOWN time with Biscuit, the dog.

WET & WONDERFUL WATER PLAY

When the sun moved from the play yard, out came the bright pink pool and the towels.  After the pool was adequately filled, Max climbed up on the bench (a grownup bench for Nana and Poppa to observe water play) and the next thing I hear is cannonballlllll and since the bench is only a foot from the pool, and Nana was on the bench … well, I guess you can surmise the results.  Later, I was sitting by the pool on the lawn picking up some toys for Abby to play with.  Max has a little rubber fishy in his hand and a twinkle in his eye as he coaxed me “Nana, just lean over here a little bit”.  And with that, I receive a long stream of water squirting from the fishy mouth directly to my face.  As I holler and try to block the stream with my hands, I hear a belly laughing grandson.  Time for Nana to dry off and get out of this danger zone. Soon, we are dry and in fresh clothing and indulge in a bit of play dough time around the kiddie table.  We relax with books and a little Zoodles and some good all around quiet time until daddy Jeffry arrives.  Just another wonderful day at Camp Nana.