Another Year!

Today was the last day of Camp Sweetie-pie 2012.  The kids are gone and Joe, Anne and I are packing up the tent, rolling up the pool and picking up bits of water balloons.   It's really hard to believe that next year Eliza will be 4 1/2,  Gia will be 10, Ethan will be 11 and Eva will be an official teenager!

The day started with a project called S.O.S.  The kids were told their ship had sunk and their life boat had landed on a island.  They had to work as a team and show us that they could find food and water, make a fire and shelter.   Eva is a girl scout and has learned her survival skills.  She set to work starting a fire with a magnifying glass that is in her whistle that she wears around her neck.  (we stopped her short of actually starting a fire as the fire danger is so high in the canyon).  Gia worked on the shelter and Ethan built snares and traps, all the while complaining that his arms and legs hurt.  (yeah,  yeah - it's just from leaping into the pool and sliding down the hill on his knees on the Slip n' Slide).

A check of the trap lines and the kids discover they've caught a bunny for dinner.  Eva has found a tin can washed up on the beach and uses the sharp lid to take off the poor bunny's head - then proceeds to gut it.  Meanwhile, Ethan's groaning has gotten the best of Sweetie-pie who has ordered him inside to lie down.

 Off with his head!

 Roast bunny for dinner

Gia reinforces the shelter with plastic found on the beach

Eva and Gia show that they've learned their survival skills this past week - though Eva taught us more than we taught her.  Now it's time to fill water balloons for the FIFTH ANNUAL WATER BALLOON WAR!  Ethan drags himself outside to participate, meanwhile Sweetie-pie is thinking, 'maybe he really IS sick?'.

The kids have built elaborate water-balloon resistant bunkers.....

Bombs away!

Ethan rallies!

At the end of CSP, the kids love to empty the pool by collapsing the inflated ring and riding the tidal wave over the edge.  

 

You'd better run fast Poppa Joe, because there are three kids after you, each carrying a bucket of water!  

And so, another Camp Sweetie-pie comes to an end with the lowering of the flag and each kid tracing their hands on the flag and writing words such as "Camp Sweetie-pie is AWESOME"! which makes all the work worthwhile.    If not for three great grandkids, Eva, Ethan and Eliza - and good friends Joe and Anne and their fabulous granddaughter, Gia, there would be no Camp Sweetie-pie.  Here's to next year - the SIXTH ANNUAL CAMP SWEETIE-PIE!!!!   p.s.  I discovered Ethan really was sick.....he has a fever.

Day Five!

It started out as a quiet day at the Camp Compound.  I think the kids are tired.  Gia learned how to crochet - Eva crocheted some sandals - and Ethan played darts.  Part of the reason for Camp S'pie, is that by spending six days with your grandkids, you find out who they are.  I think Joe and Anne have had similar insights into Gia.   I've learned that if Ethan isn't interested in something, it's hard to talk him into it.  But if it's a project that does interest him, he becomes totally focused and won't give up on it; a trait that will serve him well when he's grown up. Eva is good-natured and generous.  Today Ethan only had four beads (bonus bucks) and Eva had six. When the camp store opened, Eva bought something for Ethan with one of her beads. 

Every morning after I post the day's schedule, the kids try to figure out what the cryptic titles of some of the activities mean.  Today, KIDSICLES was on the schedule. A couple of days before camp started, I thoroughly soaked (perhaps too thoroughly!) three of my old CSP t-shirts, rolled them into a ball, and put them in the freezer.  I handed each kid a plastic bag with a frozen t-shirt.  The first kid to wear the t-shirt is the winner. 

They immediately thought of water - the swimming pool - garden hose, solar shower. 

The t-shirts were still frozen solid.  They tried beating the shirts on concrete and tree trunks,  with rocks and hammers, then holding the shirts against hot surfaces....the barbecue lid, a boat. 

Finally, after at least 30 minutes.....

Eva is the winner!

The contest gave the kids a shot of adrenalin - so the crafts and darts were abandoned in favor of badminton and dancing to Gia's ipod.

I'm posting this late - on the morning of the last day.  Today, we pack up camp in the afternoon and the kids head home.  It might be a little too quiet at the Camp Sweetie-pie Compound. 

Day Four - CSP 2012!

Eliza went home this morning and Eva spent the day away from camp due to a prior commitment with the Girl Scouts. With only Campers Gia and Ethan, we'd planned a hiking trip to West Fork not far from the Camp Sweetie-pie Compound so they could learn about using a compass, but we heard that poison oak is abundant at West Fork this year.  Plans were changed and we headed off to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. 

Later, back at camp, Gia and Camp Staff Beeka play a little pictionary while Camp Staff Joe teaches Ethan the finer points of darts.

 

 

Today it is Camper Gia's turn for KP duty

Finally Camper Eva returns in time for the camp store to open and then it is an all out ping pong war on the front lawn with new camp store purchases while the Camp Staff supervises (and relaxes with CSP-certified refreshments).  

 

Finally it is time for lowering of the flag and the nightly questions;  what are we doing tomorrow and what's for breakfast??

Day Three - We're Pooped!

 Artwork courtesty of Gia

The eldest and youngest of the campers (Eva and Eliza) were both asleep this evening by 7:45 pm.  Ethan and Gia are holding out - they're watching a movie but I noticed heavy eyelids at dinner.

We had another fun day!  It started with the raising of the flag (Gia's turn today!) and camp calisthenics lead by Poppa Joe.  

After flag-raising, the kids head to the bulletin board where the day's schedule is posted along with announcements, camp rules, mail and daily KP duty assignments.  Eliza discovers that today she is on KP duty which means she has to put the pepperoni on the pizza for tonight's dinner!  (We even have an official CSP KP apron).

"Don't Let the Rain Come Down' on the schedule, turns out to be a class on how to make a shelter if you're lost in the wilderness.  Earlier we covered the lessons the Hug-a-Tree program teaches kids - should they become lost.  Today's class carried it a step further....keeping things like wind direction and weather in mind when building a shelter.  What can they use for insulation?  (pine needles!) etc.   Conveniently, Joe and Anne have a giant spruce in their front yard which was perfect for the emergency shelter.   Eva is whittling a four-pronged fish spear so they won't be hungry tonight. 

 

Half the photos I took today have a mysterious blob on the lens.  Jello? My apologies for the blurry photos. 

The next class was 'fire making'.  After all, the theme for this year's Camp Sweetie-pie is SURVIVOR!   Joe shows them how to start a fire with a magnifying glass.....and even the little magnifying glass that came with the whistles that we gave the kids, had dry tinder smoking within minutes.  Eva showed how you can use a baggie full of water or ice, which works in much the same way as a magnifying glass - and finally Joe demonstrated using flint and steel.

Next on the schedule was "Use Your Noodle" - which is sort of like field hockey or soccer using pool noodles and a half-deflated ball - no teams - it was a free-for-all.   The goal was to get the ball into the bucket.  

The best money invested in Camp S'pie was the $50 I spent on the pool about four years ago.  It's small (12' across) as there isn't much level lawn for a larger one - but the kids love it.  It comes with a pool filter and I check the chlorine level twice a day. 

It's even more fun when they cram all the boats into the pool and do their best to sink each other.

Get him!

There's time for games.....

And projects at the creativity table....

Then a watermelon-eating-competition!!

Then a little more R & R and back to that all important question, 'Who am I going to marry'?

The annual Camp Sweetie-pie makes me painfully aware of how quickly these great little kids are growing up.  Twelve-year old Eva and ten-year old Ethan have said they'll keep coming to camp, even when they're 'old' (16 or 17) so that their little sister, Eliza, can have the experience too.  I told them that I hope they pass it on and do a Camp Sweetie-pie for their own grandkids. 

Tonight when the Camp Store opened and the kids cashed in their bonus bucks, three-year old Eliza was so excited when she bought a pair of swim goggles, 'so that I can hold my breath and go under the water'!  I didn't have the heart to tell her that this is her last day at this year's Camp Sweetie-pie though this is only day 3 and the older kids are staying for another 3 days.  But when I first started Camp S'pie, the length of camp was determined by the kid's age.  Every year I added a day.  Eliza is three - so she only stays for three days.  This is fair as it gives me time to spend with the older kids....but I will really miss her.  

It is Camp tradition that on the last day, the kids trace their hands on the flag.  It puts a lump in my throat when I see the accumulation of all the little hand prints, getting bigger every year.

Good-bye Eliza!  It was so much fun having you at camp this year!   You get to stay FOUR days next year!!