Valiant Warriors Mini Camp

This week's mini camp was based off of learning about the armor in Eph. 6:11-17. Aaron learned the first verse of this passage and what the pieces of armor represent. Andrew chimes in with the right words occasionally. My husband and I made the armor out of cardboard and a reusable grocery bag, and the boys decorated the pieces over the course of the week. With just two boys this project was very easy. We also read different famous battle stories.

We encouraged the boys to try to act them out too, but they the two year old didn't always think that was fun. The most successful attempt at a "reenactment" was when "David" hurled a kitty cat from his sling at "Goliath" and then ran away really fast. And of course we weren't able to get that part on video.

Oh well, Aaron really got into all of the stories and making the armor. I'm sure in a another year or two if we do something like this again Andrew will be more interested too.

Valiant Warrior in Full Armor

Cooking Mini Camp

I have definitely gotten behind in all the things I'd like to write about here. When I have the most to write about, I am also doing the most other stuff and therefore have less time to write about it. Oh well, such is life. I'll be trying to post more recipes and DIY projects soon, but I thought I'd share a little more about the projects that we did for our mini cooking camp that we did last week.

The boys are actually getting to be somewhat helpful in the kitchen. Now they can work together to set the table for every meal and Aaron can actually do a few simple jobs that are truly helpful to me. They can make scrambled eggs together and Aaron can peel carrots, both with supervision of course. Aaron can also get his own breakfast of granola and milk and make his own PB&J sandwich. Aaron can also help Andrew enough to get him these meals too.

Together we also made mac and cheese, whole wheat tortillas, potato chips from scratch, homemade donuts, marshmallows, graham crackers, s'mores, granola, oatmeal raisin cookies, and stove top popcorn. We also practiced reading a recipe, measuring correctly, and setting the table correctly. The boys will of course continue to need a lot of practice to get good at any of these harder activities and recipes, but at least they've got a good start. And they had so much doing cooking camp! Andrew keeps asking to do more cooking camp and Aaron keeps telling me he wants to learn how to make this and that all by himself.

More Family Outings

The boys have been continuing to work hard doing their summer fun school program to earn their daily treats and weekly outings. Their favorite treat to pick has become suckers that are shaped like tiny feet, but have much better flavors.

The last two weeks we've tried to take the boys to a little kids swimming pool that we heard about, but that option isn't going to work out. We may have Nate try to take the boys to a bigger pool nearby that is supposed to be pretty good, but we'll see.

So instead the past two weeks we've done two mini outings, instead of one big thing. Last week we had a picnic and made s'mores and also took the boys to KFC for ice cream and play place time. This week we found a new playground and did KFC again. The boys are still little enough that these were still major highlights for them and they had a great time. We've really been enjoying our family time together this summer.

Frugal Family Fun: Really Homemade S'mores

I'll write more about this week's cooking camp soon, but one of the favorite things we did was to have a campfire and make s'mores. We made the graham crackers and marshmallows from scratch together as a family. The boys also didn't seem to remember roasting marshmallows at all from before (it has been quite a long time), so they were just generally intrigued and thrilled with the "new" process as well.

We also shared a little with a few neighbor kids who had definitely never eaten s'mores before. The neighbor girl really enjoyed hers.

The homemade s'mores were really, really good. One thing we did notice was that our marshmallows didn't really catch fire for us like store bought marshmallows would have. I think that is a positive attribute of them, but my brother might be disappointed by the fact that he couldn't just quickly light his marshmallows on fire to efficiently make s'mores.

Olympic/Sports Mini Camp

This week partially in honor of the Olympics we have been doing a Olympic/Sports themed mini camp for the boys. The had a lot of fun and got a lot of energy out in the process.

I already mentioned that the first day we did an Olympic ring bean bag toss.

The second day was really nice outside so we went out the boys did some track and field events. They did some short sprint races, discus (mini frisbee) throwing, and tried out this "javelin" throwing activity from I Can Teach My Child. neither boy could really get the hang of throwing the "javelin" though, and Andrew much preferred to simply "shot put" rocks into the puddles the whole time. Then they played a little baseball.

The third day we brought down a playmat that we had put up for a while and let the boys do gymnastics on it. Andrew was so excited when we were getting it out he kept saying, "it's Andrew's birthday!" I love how easily they get excited over things. Nate showed them how to do a few simple gymnastics. Nate took gymnastics and karate as a kid and was really good at both, and quite amazingly he can still do the splits. Somehow the gymnastics turned into a wrestling match at the end. The new baby seemed to be joining in on the fun too as it was quite active inside of be, but I refrained from joining in any gymnastics as baby needs to stay inside for a little while longer yet.

The fourth day we set up an obstacle course in our living room. The boys really got into this and kept going through the course over and over for more than 45 minutes on their own.

The last day was nice again so we went outside and did more track and field. We did long jump, high jump (over straws taped together), running around moguls, and an Olympic torch relay. At the end we gave each boy a gold medal for their excellent participation. Aaron loves that he got a first place medal. Andrew would have probably been more impressed if the medal had been made from a chocolate coin.