Bubblemania Camp

We had our first session of Summer Fun Day Camp this week.  Pinterest.com was a great source of fun bubble ideas.  We ended up with fifteen campers and we had lots of bubble fun!  I was especially proud of the older children who were really good sports.

Bubble Snakes

 Bubble Snakes were very popular.  Who knew you could cut the end off a bottle, cover it with an old sock, dip it in bubbles, and make long bubble snakes?!?  

Human Bubbles!

"Human Bubbles" were lots of fun too!  I filled a small wading pool with a couple of inches of homemade bubble solution, and added a Dollar Store hula hoop.  The bubbles were really amazing!  The children also used the hula hoop as bubble wands.

Choose Your Bubble Wand!

Everyone brought household items to use as bubble wands.  The children tested everything from spatulas to fly swatters to see what would make the best bubbles.  We also used straws and yarn to make big bubble blowers.  

Bubble Art

 

The children blew bubble solution mixed with tempera paint.  A partner caught the bubbles on paper to make art.

We also tested out three different bubble solutions-- Walmart, Dollar Tree and homemade.  Almost all of the children voted that the Dollar Tree solution made the best bubbles.  That is good to know!

Eli enjoyed the "Key Lime Cupcake Eating" station!

Camp Johnson

Summer day camps are very popular around here.  There is everything from sports camps to scout camps to museum camps... and the list goes on!  I think most of the camps are really good, but the thought of taking my children makes me very tired!  Five different people headed in five different directions for five different camps makes me twitch (and the thought of paying for all those camps makes me twitch even more!).  So, up to this point,  I have just pretended that summer camps do not exist.

A friend texted me to find out if Anna Grace was going to do museum camp.  She wanted to know if her daughter would have a friend there.  I jokingly responded that we were going to "home camp" this year and have exciting themes like "bubble camp" and "water fight camp".  We both chuckled and moved on.  

The idea stuck in my head and I did a little thinking about it.  I decided having summer day camp at our house might be fun!  It would be cheap, the kids would have fun, plus I might actually do some of the things on my summer bucket list.  I talked about it with a friend, and she volunteered to do a couple of our "sessions".  We brainstormed some old fashioned fun activities, and I put together a simple flyer to make it "official".  We decided to invite children from the girls' book club and their siblings.  That gave us a total of twenty campers.

Our Bubblemania session at Camp Johnson is this week.  Hopefully it will be lots of fun!  Here is our flyer--

The Johnson and Pitts families are excited to present the first annual

SUPER SUMMER FUN day CAMP SERIES

 You are invited to join us for some old fashioned, frugal fun!

Bubblemania

We will spend the afternoon experimenting with different household

objects and homemade bubble tools to create one-of-a-kind bubbles.  We will also test out a couple of homemade bubble solution recipes to see which ingredients make the best bubbles!

Supplies— Bring homemade bubble blowers or common household objects you think will make cool bubbles

Playdough

Make up a batch of homemade playdough and come join us for an afternoon of sculpting fun!   Prizes will be given for—brightest playdough, best smelling playdough, most creative playdough sculpture, etc.

Supplies— homemade playdough

Sidewalk Art

Join us as we create sidewalk masterpieces out of chalk and paint.

Supplies needed—cheap paintbrushes, muffin tins

Wild Water Day

Come join us for some fun water games.  We will end our time with a good natured water fight!  Come dressed to get wet!

Supplies— Your favorite water gun and filled water balloons.

Family Carnival Night

Get ready for an old fashioned family carnival.  Bring your favorite carnival food and a carnival game to share!

I have been working on our summer bucket list for 2013.  I like writing it down early in the summer, while I still have energy for summer time activities.  It seems more likely to get done if I put it in writing on the refrigerator!  We will see what we are able to cross off!  I took suggestions from the children and  Isaac suggested the giant water slide-- we will have to wait and see about that!!!

SUMMER BUCKET LIST

Pick blueberries

Have a water balloon fight

Make giant bubbles

Make homemade playdough

Go swimming with friends

Make popsicles

Visit Nana, Grand-Bob and Mamaw

Have a sidewalk chalk day

Make homemade ice cream

Catch fireflies

Get donuts

Play on a slip and slide

Library reading program

Wash the cars in swimsuits

Eat banana splits for supper

Make frozen bananas

Have each child plan and cook supper one night

Scrapbook with the girls

Have a family game night

Play in a sprinkler

Have lots of play dates with friends

Pick plums

Make dirt pudding

Play with shaving cream

Summer singing class

Go skating

Go to a movie

Play in a creek

***? Rent a giant water slide?***

Catching Up-- Anna Grace and Olivia's Baptism

Olivia and Anna Grace were baptized on December 23.  They chose to be baptized at Grand-Bob and Nana's church in Tennessee.  It was a blessing to be surrounded by family during this celebration!  I am so thankful they love God and I pray they will seek Him all of their lives!

Catching Up--Bailey's Baptism

I took quite a blogging break -- ten months to be exact!  I want to get back to recording our family history, so I am going to recap some important events of the past ten months.

One of the most important events of the past ten months was Bailey's baptism on October 6.  She and two of her friends decided they wanted to be baptized in the White River.  She had a broken arm, but the handy dandy cast cover kept it nice and dry.  It was cold and rainy, but it was a truly beautiful day!

 

We really enjoyed hiking at Petit Jean State Park.  A few parts of the trail were a little scary, but it was so beautiful!

Our New Hobby

We have really branched out since we moved to Arkansas.  It all started when we chose not to live in a subdivision, and instead bought a house "in the country" with three and a half acres.  Mark started saying the word "tractor" a lot, and we all started using the phrase "going to town."  Our truly country friends laugh at us, but for us, we stepped way outside our comfort zone.  We branched out even more a couple of months ago, and bought a new (to us) pop-up camper.  

We went tent camping for the first time as a family in October.  I really liked it, but did not enjoy the tent part so much.  So, I asked for a pop-up for Christmas.  I did not get one (it was not in the Christmas budget), but I did start searching Craig's List for possibilities.  We stopped in Jackson, TN on our way home from Christmas vacation and looked at a camper. We really liked it, so we put a deposit down and went to pick it up when our income tax return arrived.

We took our first trip this past weekend.  We headed to Petit Jean State Park.  Despite the rain, we had a wonderful time.  I have suggested that we name our camper Addie, short for Adventure.