Grandma's Camp

For 3 days all the Mitchell women and children got together and had a fantastic time at "Grandma's Camp."

This year we tie-dyed shirts...

and then wore them to Stone Mountain where we got to see the Laser Show.  Cade was a baby the last time I saw it, so that was fun for me.  Not so much for my kids because of the fireworks, though.  Ali said they were too loud "booming" and Cade was afraid they were going to fall on him and burn us all.  Oh well.

Aunt Jana was kind enough to braid all the girls' hair - even Ali's!

Thursday morning the crafts started early.  Grandma had some clay that the we rolled into coils and stacked up to make a toad house.  And when I say "we," I mean "I" with my kids'.  Cade actually helped with most of his, just had some trouble figuring out how not to break his coils.

Here he is taking his toad house out to dry.

We made coasters that afternoon with glass and plaster.  Again, when I say "we," I mean "the kids told me what they wanted and I did it."  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures... maybe I was too busy cutting glass and trying not to cut myself.  Cade wanted a great white shark (which I thought turned out great) and Ali had a pink flower.  I tried to talk them into all of us having one with an "M" on it for Mitchell so I could have a matching set of coasters, but they didn't go for it.  Better luck next year, I guess.

That night was movie night.  I fell asleep before the kids did.

Friday the fun began again with making boats for the boat races to be held later that day and painting tiles.  I was really happy with the kids doing these projects mostly on their own.

Here's my tile.  I was pretty happy with it.

Here are the kids painting their boats - 

 Ali's, of course, is pink and Cade's was a pirate ship with treasure on it.

In the afternoon the older boys set up a relay race.  The older girls had to ride on the scooters around the cones set up on the driveway, then back to the pool where they tagged the next group who had to swim across the pool barking and doing the dog paddle.  After they swam they tagged the girls again who scootered over to the little kids who then ran between some little cones after grabbing a life jacket.  

These kids took their training seriously.

Let the race begin!

After the relay races it was time for the boat races.

They had to blow into their sails and the first boat to touch the end of the pool was the winner.  There were obvious victories...

And some very sad losers...

And some kids who just made creepy pirate faces who were happy to be racing...

All in all, we learned that competition games should not be left to the last night when everyone is tired and cranky.

After the races, we had the talent show.  All the kids did a great job and it was a lot of fun to see what they came up with.  I was especially proud of Cade and Ali for singing their songs.  Ali went right up with her little lamb and sang, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" all by herself, nice and loud.  Cade was nervous about singing his song (one of his favorites from a Joe Scruggs CD we have), so Ali went up with him and sang right along.  It was so precious!

And what did Eliza do this whole trip, you ask?  Just a lot of laying around...

It wasn't too tough to find a volunteer to hold her.

A great big THANK YOU to Grandma Mitchell for all the fun.  I am so blessed to get along so well with my in-laws.  It makes me happy that my sisters-in-law can get together with our husbands' parents and have such a good time.  I know not everyone has relationships like that with their in-laws and I truly do count that blessing.  Thanks to all of you for the fun week!