Cousin Camp Tidbits

Of course, I've been going over Cousin Camp in my mind these last couple days and I wanted to share three  random events:

#1  On the 3rd day of Cousin Camp just as we'd arrived back home with Little Caesar's in hand, we had company.  What a nice surprise it was too when one of my older nieces, Kristie, and her husband, Tim, showed up to just say hi.  They'd left sweet little Jayna with Grandma and were in Denton doing some errands and just enjoying a day off together.  They didn't have to make room for us but they did and I sure appreciated their thoughtfulness.  Kristie jumped right in and helped pass out drinks and Tim just stood around being friendly and happy, as usual! : )  Thanks you guys for coming by to join our chaotic camp.

#2  Right when we got to my house on Tuesday to begin the fun, Sadie handed me an envelope and gave strict instructions to not open it until after Cousin Camp.  Being the obedient aunt that I am (any of you that know Sadie will snicker and completely understand what I'm talking about) I put it safely on my desk and carried on with camp.  But after the last person was gone and the quietness was hovering all around me like a cool spring morning : ) I remembered Sadie's note and opened it.  And your idea was right, Sadie!  It was exactly what I needed to read AFTER CC.   Here's what she wrote:

to:  my #1 Aunt  Thank you I had an awesome sumer and I can't wait tell next sumer  I Larnd so much this week and I Love you very much     Love Sadie

It doesn't get much better than that!  (Sidebar:  Her attitude teaches me that it would be so great if I could go to God in prayer, thanking Him beforehand for the answer, being that confident of the joy He has in store for me)

#3  Then Bobby came home.  I had set up the Cousin Camp store in Bobby's room this year and so when he arrived and put his things away he asked if he could have some of the candy he'd found there.  Well, apparently he had a pretty good time going through the items because here's what I found later that afternoon, Bobby laying on the living room floor playing with army men!  It just warms this mom's heart!!  When Kaylee asked him sarcastically if he was playing pretend, Bobby said, "No, I'm setting them up strategically!"  Yeah, this is my soldier!

Cousin Camp 2011 Day 3 & 4

Cousin Camp 2011 is officially over! My house is a wreck, my body is groaning all over, my cupboard is bare, but it was oh so worth it!  It was the last year for Amy, Erin, and Lily and they were my originals five years ago along with Mimi who has long since graduated.  So this year was particularly bittersweet.  But I have big plans for the oldest nieces next year.  Yep, it's back to Niece Camp and it will be new and improved!  

But back to this year......Kathy, you asked in a comment on a previous post who pushed the button at Sonic!  I had to LOL at that because that is one of the many little things that make CC such a joy and so much dad gummed fun.  And, by the way, Hannah had the coveted honor this year of pushing the button.  Gotta love it!

Yesterday morning we were supposed to participate in a ministry project but there was a lack of communication and the outreach ministry we were scheduled to help didn't need us after all.  I called a couple of other places to see if they could use a few willing adolescents but, alas, it was not to be.  Erin, if fact, commented that maybe it just wasn't in God's plan for us to do a ministry project this year!  Huh!!  The wisdom of the young.  After deciding she was probably right we just made our way back home to play.  Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if God was using this as a vehicle to alert me to step back and breathe since we had been so busy.  So we did.  For an hour! : )  

The rest of the day included a trip to Michael's to partake in their free summer craft project, Little Caesar's pizza at home, swimming all afternoon at my friend, Deanna's house (thanks Deanna), and then back home to get ready.  Get ready for what, you ask???  Well, last night is the most waited for and loved of probably all the Cousin Camp activities.  The annual scavenger hunt.  

Kaylee and I decided on a road rally this year.  She took one team and I took the other and we made our way to places like the park, Walmart, Dollar General, Kaylee and Bobby's old high school, Kaylee's house, and finally, to downtown Denton where we concluded with ice cream from Beth Marie's.  I can't decide which is more fun: creating the scavenger hunt or watching them participate.  I was pretty much smiling ear to ear when after they finished the last assignment Amy said, "Thanks, Aunt Jeanne, for all the hard work you did making this".  Now, it doesn't get much more satisfying than that!

After the final stop at the Cousin Camp store at home we finally got to sleep and then woke up to monkey bread for breakfast and a much anticipated trip to the Denton water park.  Parents picked up at 3:00 and that was all she wrote for another successful and fun Cousin Camp.  

But the craziness continues!  Kaylee's actually moving back in tonight.  She'll be looking for a house to buy and, in fact, went and scouted out her first one with a realtor this afternoon.  Eeeeeekkkk!!!  My daughter is an adult!  Well, we'll see.  I did say she was moving back in and she hates cleaning bathrooms so we may revert back to middle school days all too soon!  And Bobby's also home for the first time in about a month.  Fun times to be had all around on the Jacobs' Journey!         



Erin and Amy helping with breakfast and making yummy pancakes.



We can't have Cousin Camp without the fingernail painting session.  Yeah, that's Damien's back.  He's joining the fun too.  That's what happens when you're surrounded by a bunch of girls for four days.

One of the scavenger hunt assignments was to pose in a picture with a JoAnn's Fabric employee.

Another assignment was to pose with wearing a hat from Walmart.  Oh, Amy!

These are supposed to ultimately be rugs made from t-shirt strips but some came out as potholders.  Whatever it takes.  Hannah thought it would be pretty hung just like this on the hula hoops.  I agree Hannah!

Mystery Meal time.  If you can read them can you tell what they might be code for?  As an example, #12 was "green with envy" and was actually a pickle!  Kaylee thought up all the codes and made this poster.  Kaylee is definitely my right hand man for Cousin Camp and I relish her encouragement, ideas, and help.  Thanks, sweet girl!   

At the Mystery Meal table.  The kids were pretty good sports about the whole thing.  Mimi came and helped with the prep and serving.  Couldn't have done it without you, Mimi!  Thanks!

Lily and Hannah were on the same team and here's where Lily was posing in a hat!  Silly!



Here they are taking turns choosing items from the Cousin Camp Store.  It wasn't actually a store this year as I didn't use the lanyards and cousin dots.  When my eldest and much loved niece Stef was down last fall she brought a very cool spinner that she'd made to play with the cousins so I decided to go that route.  Depending on which color they landed on, they could choose from a certain shelf.  This is a VERY serious affair.  We have the Cousin Camp store every night. 



Sadie and Erica posing at JoAnn's.  Amy was taking the picture.

I'm exhausted!

Erin says:     

The night of day 1 was probably the most exhausting night I have ever had. I have a crick in my neck, and I feel like I could go to sleep at any moment all day today! I think anyone could. We had some mixups of medicine, need of a heating pad, and people talking too much. Thats pretty much it. We started waking up around 7:30 and we had these corney dog things for breakfast that we pretty much had to eat on the way to the train station. Yes we actually rode a train to dallas to go ice skating. The place that the ice skating rink was in was so big! It wasn't a mall but it was almost just like one. It had food courts and stores that you could shop in. And of course, the ice skating rink. Everyone loved to ice skate! Not very many people fell down a lot but thats just because they were holding on to the rail. After we finished skating, we ate lunch there in the food court, and then we ice skated some more. We got tired of it after a while, so we rode the train back to the car and went back to the house. When we got there, we got a craft box out and did some things from it while Aunt Jeanne was making a mystery meal. When we had the meal, it was so cool! We had a menu with things like red and yellow sweetness and dipper and we got to pick what our 1st course-4th course was. The food was so good! After dinner, we watched Amy and Sadie dance a little while and then we got ready for bed and went to the cousin camp store.

 That was Erin!  I was so happy that she was willing to post the update tonight and I'll just add a little ending.  What she didn't say was that we're too pooped to..........what is the word anyway?  Pop????  Oh well, you get the whole idea right?  I was going to add pictures to this day but there's bad news and then there's worse news.  The bad news is that I left my camera on last night after posting so the batteries didn't have time to charge this morning.  The worse news is that I thought I was taking pictures with Erin's camera but, alas, the technical flunkie strikes again and even after Erin's careful and precise instruction, I apparently didn't take a picture one!  Man, what a bummer. 

Kaylee was with us tonight and actually took a few pictures of the mystery meal so maybe I'll get around to posting those.  By the way, it's pretty funny watching the kids attempt to eat if they unknowingly ordered three items of food but no utensil to eat it with.  It was a blast!  Another fun memory was created! 

Two down, one and a half to go!  But whose counting?!?   (Me! )

Day 1 of Cousin Camp

Whew!  First day down.........well, till somebody else comes in to say they can't sleep or they need to change beds, or, well, just whatever might come to mind in order to stay up just a little bit longer.  Yes, Cousin Camp has started and I love it!!!! 

 First thing we did was meet at CiCi's Pizza in McKinney. Lily came to my house and the two of us picked my friend, Erica, up (she'll be joining us) and we met the others for pizza.  Here are Suzy and Catherine in the background just counting down the minutes till they can escape (and I was right in there with them) because there were about 900 other people there also.  How do they make so many pizzas so fast?? 

 A friend of mine invited us to come and swim at the Yacht Club outside of Little Elm.  It was a very nice pool and we were the only ones there so it was really great.  We even had a breeze which helped it seem not so..........well, actually nothing can make it feel not so hot these days. 

The ones you might not recognize are the girl on the far left and the boy next to her.  Those are the grandkids of my good friend Carmen.  Jarvis and Madeline were very friendly and hit it off with my kiddos.  The girl next to me is Erica, a friend I've been hanging out with for about a year and she's a big sweetheart so I asked her to join us for Cousin Camp this year. 

Carmen treated us to a walk down to the dock to see one of their sailboats they keep out there.

After swimming we came to my house, got settled into the sleeping arrangements (which was no small task), had a cold popsicle and started our trek down the street to Sonic.  Yeah, I know!  Anybody is crazy to walk anywhere in this heat but walking to Sonic on our first evening is apparantly an unalterable tradition.  So here we are for the fifth year posing with the carhop of the moment.  It was the first time we've ever had a guy.  He was a pretty good sport about being in a picture with a bunch of crazy cousins!  

I did convice them to let Bob come and pick us up though.  Only after promising them they'd get to ride around the block in the back!  Hey, I'll make deals when I have to!

  The last thing on the list for the day was craft time.  This year Kaylee found this great little rug idea that we made on a hula hoop.  Kaylee and Erin were the only ones to finish.  We'll work on them again tomorrow.  Hopefully!
So finally it was bedtime. Let me just tell  you.  It's no easy task getting seven hyper kids to go to sleep on demand!

I'll tell you what else is harder and more frustrating!  Trying to maneuver pictures and paragraphs on this blog to try to make it look any kind of decent.  So tomorrow night I think I'll let Erin or Lily do the blog.  After all, they're 12 and that makes them much more suited for the task.



Cousin Camp 2011 Eve--Another Dedication

It's time for our fifth annual Niece/Cousin Camp and it starts tomorrow!  The key words are fun, FUN, and more fun!  We'll be swimming, ice skating, mystery eating, crafting, learning about God, and helping others.  Pretty great stuff!

Last year I dedicated CC to my Aunt Eddie who was influential for my crafty side as I grew up.  This year I'd like to dedicate CC 2011 to the queen of creative auntdome, the one, really, at the feet of whom I learned, my sister, Linda!  Aunt Lindy to the nieces and nephews!

I remember when I was barely married and not even really thinking of my role as an aunt, Aunt Lindy was hard at work entertaining the family.  Christmases were full of creative and fun ideas that allowed our family to start traditions that we still enjoy.  She was my role model as I watched her raise her daughters, creating and inventing new ways to make people happy and enjoy life.  

When she moved away about fifteen years ago there was a huge void left that had to be filled.  So when my kids were mostly grown I invented first Niece Camp and then Cousin Camp.  I don't think I come close to filling Aunt Lindy's shoes but it's been fun trying and I love to bounce my ideas off of her when we talk on the phone to see what she thinks and to get encouragement.

The plans are made and everything is prepared.   So here's to you, Aunt Lindy!  And thanks for all the lessons in fun!      

The Happy List

My happy list simply cannot be ignored when the day is chock full of happy things!  The first happy thing is that SPAN didn't need me to come in to drive today.  Now I don't know what the reason was but, hey, all I need to know is that it was an unexpected day off and that is always a good thing! 

The next happy thing is that later this afternoon, after a much needed morning of cleaning and then fun lunch with a friend, my dad called to say that he could now go home from rehab where he's been rehabbing from a broken hip!  Woo Hoo!!  We didn't expect him to go home so soon but, again, I'm not asking!  I'm just reveling in the joy of having my dad home and recovering quickly. 

While he was eating supper at the rehab place just before we were to leave, I packed his things up and then went for a quick treat at Starbuck's around the corner.  When I arrived I got in line behind three other cars to wait my turn.  It didn't even occur to me to be frustrated about the wait which wasn't even that long but when I reached the window and tried to give the benevolant barista my debit card he informed me that my grande caramel frappuccino was free because I'd had to wait so long!!?!  Did you catch the fact that I'd ordered a grande!!!  What a deal!  I love free stuff!

It was indeed a good day for the happy list!