Kid Kamp~Week 4~Princesses & Knights

Princess and knights...I have been waiting for this one.  I have a lot of fun stuff planned.  Or maybe I should say HAD a lot of fun stuff planned.  First, the book that I was going to focus pretty much everything around, The Paper Bag Princess, was taken out of the library.  Do you believe it?  Here's the funny thing.  I went yesterday with my daughter to get it and the librarian told me that the book is NEVER taken out. No one ever borrows it.  Ugh!  Well, we did get a few other really good ones.



 


I recommend all of them, especially the The Paper Princess ones.  There is a third as well, The Paper Princess Flies Again--with Her Dog.  The Paper Princess books really did the trick.  We made our own paper princesses.

I copied a picture of the paper doll and then traced the outline.  I am not an artist, so we needed the help of an outline.  We cut them out and stuck them on popsicle sticks to use as puppets.

As you can see there is nothing about knights yet.  My son is in the middle of potty training so he is focused on the potty, not on knights right now.

We are planning a trip to Medieval Times on Friday.  I am hoping he will be trained enough to make the trek.  It is over an hour a way.  I am bringing several changes of clothes with me and the Potette, which if you don't have one and have young children,  I definitely suggest the investment.  It is a portable potty. It is so worth it.

There is still more to come.  Hopefully, I will get to it.  I posted now because I actually had the time.  Stay tuned--more to come--fingers crossed :0)

Kid Kamp~Week #3~America (Sorta)

Well, America week didn't really happen..  We were really busy, hence the lack in posting on my part. We went on vacation to PA Dutch, Lancaster county.

I themed everything around America being that it was the week of the Fourth.  But, really other than a BBQ and fireworks, we didn't do anything that I planned.  Eh, it was all good.  So, instead of posting about all the Kid Kamp stuff, I think I will share what we did out in PA.

First, I have to say PA Dutch is a great place to vacation with a young family.  It is super friendly to nursing mothers as well.  Pretty much every place out there has a nursing station.  PA Dutch was the first family vacation we ever took.  I only had two kids at the time.  My daughter was 2 years and my son was only 3 months and still nursing.

The second thing that is so wonderful about PA is the place that we stay.  We stay on a dairy farm in a guest house.  My kids just love it.  We stay at Meadow View K Farms Guest House in Mount Joy.  One of the things that makes it so great is the owners, Barry and Sharon Krieder.  They are so warm and welcoming.  Next thing, is the fact that it has 3 bedrooms, full kitchen and they have a washer/dryer.  We always bring food and eat many of our meals there.  Now, I am just going to list all the other wonderful things that they offer...

1. Kids get to feed the baby calves
2. Kids get fresh farm eggs right from the chicken coupe
3. They have a pony named Sunny
4. Barry will give the kids a barrel train ride
5. They have corn fields surrounding the farm house
6. It is an old farm house with an old barn which just adds to the ambiance
7. You look out the kitchen window and there are cows right there in the meadow or "medda" as they say
8. They have several John Deer mini-tractor toys for the kids to ride on
9. There is a really cool wind mill in the front yard
10. The farm has beautiful light in the AM
11. Lightning bugs, lightning bugs, lighting bugs EVERYWHERE
12. Swing set in the back
13. About 3 minutes away from food stores
14. About 15 minutes away from most of the attractions

Only a few of my favorite pix from the Farm

Every year that we go out we try to hit at least one new place.  This year we went to 2 new ones.  We live about 2+ hours away, so we like to stop somewhere in the middle to break up the drive.  This year we stopped at the Crayola Factory.  I can't believe we never went there before.  Just in case you plan to go and have never been, plan on staying there for a while--at least 3+ hours, probably closer to 4.  We got a late start and didn't get to see the whole place.  Now we know for next time.  

The Crayola Factory I think is a must.  And it wasn't terribly expensive--$12/person & children 23 months and under are free.

On our way home, we stopped at the Lancaster Science Factory.   This was another great find.  Affordable ($8/adults, $6.50/kids, 2 and under free) and fun.  If you are a teacher, bring your teacher ID.  Teachers get in for free.  My husband and I are both teachers so we only had to pay for 2 of our kids.  This is a single floor, open space science play land. When we first walked in, I was a little disappointed because it wasn't that big.  Well, three hours later, this was one of the best places that we hit out there.     

Yes, that is my awesome water tornado in the upper left corner there

Another great place, new to us last year, is the Turkey Hill Experience.  Again our kids had so much fun.  Plus, you get to sample some yummy ice cream.  We were also able to score some discounted tickets off Certifikid as well.

Another reason I love this place is because of this

You get to make your own commercial and your own flavor of ice cream.  Mine was Twisted Caramash Cake Crunch.  Now you don't actually get the ice cream but it is fun to create your own idea.



There she is.  Beautiful!

Other than my top three above, we also love....

1. Dutch Wonderland
2. Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
3. Strasburg Railroad
4. Choo Choo Barn
5. Strugis Pretzel
6. Wilbur Chocolate
7. North Museum of Natural History

We also really like...

1. Hands-on-House
2. Elmwood Park Zoo
3. Cherry Crest Farms
4. Hayloft Candles and Petting Zoo (homemade ice cream)--FREE

Places that we plan to visit in the future

1. Valley Forge--FREE
2. Washington Crossing National Park
3. Bube's Brewery and Catacombs (the art gallery is free)
4. Herr's Snack Factory Tour--FREE
5. Hershey's Chocolate World--FREE
6. Nissley Vineyards and Winery Estate--FREE
7. Take a buggy ride
8. Sight and Sound Theater
9. Dinner theaters
1. Dutch Apple Dinner Theater
2. Rainbow Dinner Theater
10. Living the Experience Underground Railroad Reenactment (reservations)
11. Indian Echo Caverns (no strollers)

Plus, I am sure there is a ton more as well.

I hope if you are traveling to PA Dutch this helps out a bit.  

KID KAMP~DINOS Cont.

Well, I counted today, Sunday, as a part of Dinos week.  We didn't get to everything I planned so I dragged it out a bit.  Still never made the paper plate T-Rex, eh, if we get to it, we get to it.

To put the finishing touches on Dinos week we did the DIY fossils.  Those turned out really great.  We also made fossil cookies.

For the DIY fossils I followed this recipe.  It was pretty much perfect.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup dirt
• 1/2 cup sand (play sand works the best)
• 1 cup water
• 12 tiny plastic dinosaurs
• Plastic wrap-lined cookie tray

I did change it a little.  I divided everything in half so that each of my kids had a share.  But, I added double the amount of play sand--1/2 C each of the flour, sand, dirt and water.  I also lined my cookie sheet with tin foil.  My kids had so much fun doing this.

They mixed all the dry ingredients first.  Then I added water and they loved squishing it until it became dough-like.  My 3 yr old was really good at it.  

Next, the kiddies and I wrapped up the mini dinos in the dough. We rolled them in a little extra play sand, then set them out on the cookie sheet to dry. It rained the day we made them, so I had to keep them in the garage overnight.  The next day, I set them out early in the AM in the sun.  After dinner, we broke them up.  

I wound up making double the amount because they thought it was so cool.  

When they were dry, the kids donned their safety glasses and "hard hats" once again.  Armed with their hammers, they went to work. 

Love this pic of my son.  He looks like a geologist inspecting an all important rock.

I was really happy with the way the fossils turned out.  I say this is a definite 2 thumbs up.  My kids loved the ice fossils, but I think they really liked this one better.  

Another fun thing we did yesterday was make fossil cookies.  Idea from here. I totally did not follow her recipe at all.  And, yes, I will admit, hers look a whole lot better than mine.  

Hers

Mine

All I did was follow Betty--love her; Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix in the bag.  I followed the cut out recipe, but I did add more flour.  I should have added even more. We also made a lava fossil cookie--just add some Nutella and raspberry extract. I used a mini ice cream scooper to portion out the dough.  Each kid got some, balled it up and placed them on the cookie sheet. We pressed tiny dinosaurs, centipedes and other bugs into the dough.  Baked them for about 13 min @ 375 and poof, fossil cookies.  


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KOOL-AID ICE PAINTING

Getting back to the Kool-Aid painting...we finally did that, well, we finally made them.  Tomorrow we may get to paint with them.  


We needed more tiny dinos for the fossil cookies, so we headed over to The Dollar Tree yesterday.  Whilst there, got a ton more than I actually needed, I scored a Popsicle mold.  Here they are.

Never mind the mess on the island there.  Just haven't had the time to be too tidy.  I am working on that though.  

First, they smelled awesome.  But, taste-wise, I added no sugar.  Kids were rather disappointed and shocked that they tasted so bad.  Pink (pink-lemonade), blue (blue/rasp-lemonade), red (cherry) and orange (orange) were our palette.  I made the colors pretty intense.  I only measured out the amount of water I would need to fill 2 Popscicle sections per packet.  It was about a 1/4 C of water.  Each kiddie had a measuring cup with the water.  I added in the packet.  They stirred and they poured into the molds.  They are set in the freezer and they are frozen.  We just now have to paint with them.  


I hope all that makes sense.  I am pooped.  Between double classes at Gymboree, running through the "Leaky Lizard" (a lizard shaped sprinkler) in the backyard, and the beach after hours, I am done.  I have no idea how I have made it this long.  


Ok, I am out...TTFN. Tomorrow starts POND week.  

"Colorful" Classmate Gifts for Pre-Schoolers

Here are my son's gifts for his classmates.  I got this really cute template from Chica and Jo.  Chica and Jo originally intended it to be an invitation.  I changed it up a little bit and made it into an end of year gift.  It opens right in Word so it is super easy to manipulate. I put some crayons that I got from Walmart in the boxes.

I took the pix with my phone, so they are a little blurry.  I typed the children's names on the front.  Plus, this little phrase..."Wishing you a very colorful summer."

I also added some activity pads.  Got those from The Dollar Tree.  Love The Dollar Tree.

To the back, I added some fun things to do with crayons besides simply coloring with them.

I wanted to add more, but only three would fit.  I chose...

1. Rainbow Crayons--Put oven on to 225 and "bake" for 10-15 min

2. Sun Catchers--from Notes from a Mom in Chapel Hill

3. Push-Pop Crayons--from Infarrantly Creative--she melted her crayons in the microwave--genius.  I gave instructions for the old-fashioned double boiler way.

My son only has 10 students in his class including him.  These classmate gifts only cost me $4.50.  I had the cardstock, so I didn't count that.  The activity books were 3/$1--I needed 9.  The crayons were $0.49 for a pack of 24--only needed 3 boxes. I am going to tie them up with some ribbon and poof!  My son's class is done.  Now on to my daughter's class gifts and teacher gifts.