When Leigh and I were discussing doing a Summer Camp theme I told her I wanted to make ice cream in the ground. I knew I had heard of this and was going to try it. I looked it up online and could not find it anywhere! That’s when I remembered…it wasn’t ICE CREAM in the ground…it was jell-o in the ground. Jell-o, ice cream—whatever! (I still can’t find the jell-o in the ground recipe, but I KNOW my mom did it at camp one year!)

However, I know of another fun way to make ice cream. Not in the ground. Not with an ice cream maker. Just a few basic ingredients:

4 quart sized plastic zip bags
4 gallon sized plastic zip bags
2 cups half & half
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups salt (rock salt is suggested but if you use regular salt, just use a little less)
1/2 c sugar
ice
gloves (for your sensitive kiddos!)

Instructions:

1. Whisk sugar, cream, half & half and vanilla together.

2. Pour 1 cup of liquid into each quart sized bag.

3. Put sealed quart sized bag inside gallon bag. Add ice–enough to fill gallon bag about halfway. Add salt.

4. Shake the bags for about 5-10 minutes. Asa was our muscle man and did 2 at a time. Lydia used gloves to keep her hands warm!

5. Grab a spoon and eat out of the bag!

This was so fun! I love making food in unconventional ways. This would be so fun to make on a hot day…bring the bags outside, shake ‘em up and eat it all on the porch!

Thanks so much for coming to our 2 Weeks of Summer Camp! Hope you had a great time! Don’t forget to write!

Hiking is a huge part of summer camp!  I remember hiking every day it didn’t rain… and I loved every minute of it!  We currently live in central Virginia, and we are only an hour or two away from some fabulous hiking trails that I can’t wait to explore.  I also grew up in a pretty rural area with a lot of forests and a lot of time to explore them.  But how do you share that experience with a 4 year old and a 2 year old in a fully developed urban/suburban area?

Hike your city’s parks!

Armed with our sit-upons and some creative hiking ideas, and accompanied by a friend, we visited a park in Richmond, VA that we typically don’t get to visit.  It’s a lovely park that’s a bit further away from our house than our regular park - and because we don’t typically go there, it was fresh and new!

About a hundred feet in to our hike, we were greeted with a fabulous bridge…

…that took us deeper into a little forest.  It is wonderful how cities can carve out pieces of land in the middle of all the development so people can still escape to the woods if they’d like.

There were so many things to explore in our little city park adventure that we didn’t even have to pull out any creative ideas for our hike.  They boys were fascinated by everything we encountered and asked plenty of questions without any prompts!

The little creek that the bridge crossed was easily accessible from the other side of the bridge, so we had to go visit the creek and have some fun…

There were several downed trees along the way – so the boys got a quick lesson on the rings of a tree…

…And there were these tree identifying signs along the way that helped us know what we were seeing.  I love that – I can tell what an oak tree and a pine tree is, but that’s about it.

The paved sidewalk ended, and we chose a dirt track that I thought would take us around the park in a big circle – and we ran into the creek again!  This time, we got to hop over rocks to cross the creek.  It was easy to forget that my boys had never done that before – they talked about the creek for the rest of the day!

The trail wandered along the side of the creek for a bit, and we hopped over a couple downed trees until we got back to another paved track…

…that brought us back to the beginning of our hike again.

Another bonus to hiking a city park?  The playground awaits you at the end!

I clearly remember the year my mom helped me make a sit-upon for my Brownie troops’ camp (I remember it as well as I remember the smell of the ancient canteen I used to have to take with me to camp…. but that’s a story for another day….).  What’s a sit-upon?  Well, it’s… something… you sit upon.  Hmph – that was easier to explain in my head.  Here, let me show you…

Back in the day, Mom and I made my sit-upon out of a black plastic garbage bag and newspaper.  I wanted to improve on the design a bit, because while I remember making it and using it, I have no idea how long that black plastic sit-upon lasted, and I remember not enjoying it being tied around my waist.  I was told that it was to be worn around my waist so all I have to do is sit down and it would be in the right place, but even then I thought that was silly.  Maybe I don’t sit down like everyone else, but that sit-upon was too tight around my middle and always had to be adjusted when I sat.  So here’s what I came up with…

Gather your supplies:

• an old vinyl tablecloth or a shower curtain (the dollar store has shower curtains a-plenty!)
• newspaper
• a hole puncher
• large plastic needle
• heavy duty string or cord
• ribbon

Using your newspaper as a template, cut out a rectangle (or two or three – however many you will be making) on a fold of your vinyl tablecloth/shower curtain.

On a fold?  Fold your tablecloth/curtain in half and use that fold as one of your edges.  You will wind up with a 2 layered piece of cloth/curtain, and you will only need to sew up 3 sides instead of all 4!

Take a hole punch and punch holes spaced evenly around the 3 cut edges of your cloth/curtain through both layers.  You will be whipstitching the sides shut – see the picture below?  You just “whip” your needle around the back of the cloth/curtain and bring your needle and thread up through a set of holes, repeating the process over and over.

And I did say “you” will be stitching… Elias gave it his best shot, and did pretty well for his first time sewing anything by hand.

He wasn’t too interested in doing it “correctly” – so I just had to back up and let him do his thing.  He “finished” one side, and I finished it from there.

So I mentioned I never liked the sit-upon being tied around my wait – I wanted to make these so they slipped easily over a shoulder and could be plopped down on the ground wherever needed.  I used a length of ribbon for each sit-upon – and look!  My hole puncher could punch through ribbon!  Who knew? Punch 2-3 holes in your ribbon (depending on the width of your ribbon).

Sandwich the ribbon in between the layers of your cloth/curtain before you sew up a corner, then sew the ribbon in with the sides.  I added extra stitches around the ribbon so it would be reinforced, since that part of the sit-upon would potentially take more stress and strain than other parts.

Once you have 2 sides sewn up, stuff the sit-upon with newspaper.  My one from back-in-the-day only had flat newspaper layers in it, and I never thought that gave any cushioning for a little hinder.  So I just added some fluff to it – sandwich some crumpled up newspaper in between 2 layers of flat newspapers.  Sitting on it will flatten the crumpled layers out anyway, but in the meantime it will be a bit more comfy.  After stuffing, finish stitching up the sit-upon and tie off the end of your string, clipping any loose ends.

This step is optional – and can also be easily done before the sit-upon is sewn and stuffed – let your little ones decorate their sit-upon!  Super fun, and one thing I never got to do with my black plastic one.  Use permanent markers – you don’t want marker or paint coming off on little hind ends during your hike.

Here are ours, all ready to go!

This really was a walk down memory lane for me, and the boys have already had fun with the sit-upons… well, sitting upon them, amongst other things.  I wonder how long these will last…

linked to WFMW at We are THAT Family, Creative Share at Trendy Treehouse, Hoo’s Got Talent at Night Owl Crafting, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design, Gettin’ Crafty on Hump Day at Nikki’s Nifty Knacks, We Did It! Wedensday at Sew Much Ado and Idea Sharin’ Wednesday on Women Who Do It All!

One of my favorite camp crafts each year were those awesome leather bracelets.  Remember those?  Then I would wear it the rest of the summer and try to make it last to the school year… I thought my boys would like to hammer the letters and shapes into the leather bracelets as much as I did, so I set out to make some special memories.

Instead, I made a fun craft really hard.  If you want to do this activity, plan ahead and order these.  It will honestly save you some time and money… I had a bunch of random things laying around that helped defray the cost, but I spent more on some wider leather strips than the imitation leather craft bracelets cost, and they don’t need assembly! I didn’t have time to wait on an order to come in… Next year we’ll order some early and have them ready.

Now, if you want to do it the hard way, gather your supplies:

• some leather scraps (sold at most large craft stores – or reuse old leather purses or belts!)
• buttons/snaps
• scissors and wire cutters
• heavy duty needles
• a hammer
• some metal stamps sets (like this or this - the larger one would be better, I think)
• other random metal bits you have laying around the house (just for fun… I had a set of tiny “cookie” cutters for polymer clay that made some great shapes)
• some permanent markers

Once you get your leather scraps, cut them to size.  For the kids’ size, cut them to about 7 inches long, and for adults, cut them about 9 inches long.  In the pictures below, the kids sizes are the dark gray leather, and the adult sizes are tan.  You can make them any width you’d like!

Decide if you’d like to put snaps on your bracelets (hard!) or buttons (much easier!).  If you’d like to do snaps, get really frustrated with the first couple attempts to pass the prongs through your leather strip, then do this… poke the prongs into the leather just to make an imprint.

Then take a heavy-duty needle and poke through each imprint for each prong, and then work each prong through the poked holes individually until they are all the way through.  Install the rest of the snap according to the package’s directions.

Once you’ve done that enough times, you’ll have a pretty cool closure to your cuff.  But you’ll also be really tired, so you’ll move on to the buttons.

Using a heavy duty needle and heavy duty thread/cord/embroidery floss, sew a button on to one end of your bracelet on the front part of the leather.

Take wire cutters or snips or something sharp to start a hole in your leather.  My scissors wouldn’t do it alone at first, so I started the hole with the wire cutters and finished it with the scissors.

See? Finished button hole.

If you have a wider bracelet, you could make it adjustable by putting 2 buttonholes on it like this:

OK!  Now that all of your prep is done, you can give your child a hammer and some metal stamps, punches, etc.

Make sure your work surface is protected, because this could get messy.

Let them bang away for a bit… I think this would be a lot more fun for the boys if they could spell out what they wanted, but Elias didn’t have the patience for that.  He pounded out his name, and added some fun shapes, and he had a great time with it!

He did decide it was a bit plain, so he asked me to draw on it.  He didn’t want to draw on it himself, though.  This is where the permanent markers come in.  Draw around some of the hammered shapes to accent them, or do a new design!  Donovan’s bracelet was stamped with the 1/8 inch steel stamps, and it says “Jesus loves Donovan.”  I used the same stamps for mine, and I just stamped “Be Still.”  I need a constant reminder.

Elias wasn’t too excited to get his picture taken, but I think this was a fun one for us all!

At least, it was fun for me again once all the prep work was done.  Let’s see if I can make mine last until fall!

Can I just tell you all how excited I am about our 2 weeks of Summer Camp?!? Like Amanda, I always loved summer camp, and these two weeks are taking me way back!  Don’t be surprised if I break out into old camp songs… My kids and poor hubby are already inundated with the old tunes.

The first thing I knew I wanted to make were hobo meals!  When I came home from camp, I always had mom and dad make these for us – I loved the way the flavors melded together in the little foil packets of goodness.  So here’s what you’ll need:

• ground meat (beef or turkey)
• carrots
• potatoes
• onions
• any other veggies that would roast well (mmm, broccoli! asparagus!)
• salt and pepper
• butter
• cheese (optional)
• aluminum foil

Cut the potatoes and carrots into bite-sized pieces, and slice the onions up however you like them!  I left them kind of big so I could pick them off the kids packets in case they didn’t like them.  Make a 3-4 oz. patty with your ground meat and place in the middle of a piece of aluminum foil, and salt and pepper the meat patty a bit.  Line up your ingredients and then let your kids add the veggies to their own packets…

Notice the only things in Elias’s packet are meat, carrots and cheese.  He decided he didn’t like potatoes – but that’s OK, because he ate everything he put in it!

This is what a real hobo meal should look like – pile the veggies high, add cheese if desired, put a pat or two of butter on top and sprinkle with more salt and pepper.

Wrap the aluminum foil up around the food, folding at the ends, and let your 4 year old “write” each person’s name on the top of their packet.  If you are adding this to a real campfire or a fire pit out back, wrap your packets with 2 layers of foil.

Bake in your oven at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes (ours only took 45 minutes), or grill or place on a campfire for 15-30 minutes, flipping once. Open your foil packet, and you can eat right out of the packet – no need for cleaning plates!  I have no “after” pictures for you, because the after shots looked a lot like the before shot… but I can tell you that these things are delicious!  The boys each ate everything that they put in their own packets, and I scarfed mine up quickly, too!  We will be having these again soon.

What were/are your favorite camping meals (besides the s’mores, of course!)?

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Camp crafts usually consist of leather, pine cones and POPSICLE STICKS. I think the more politically correct term is craft sticks. Or if you are medical, you might call them tongue depressors. I just think they are fun and easy!

So, here are my Favorite Camp Crafts from Popsicle Sticks!

1. Picture Frame

I love this one from 3d at home. It’s actually a 3d rendering of the craft. But he includes a pdf tutorial! I love the layering and the little stand. You could use colored sticks, plain sticks, decorate it or paint it. It would be cute no matter what you do to it!

2. Flowers

These could easily be stars, too! Just think if they were painted yellow with a little glitter on top! {Check back for a link to a special tutorial and more embellishments coming soon on No Time For Flash Cards!}

3. Snowflakes

I know this isn’t very campy–it fact, it’s the opposite of camp. But it’s just so pretty! It is just beautiful when decorated with buttons and puffballs like this one from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

4. Photo Puzzle

What can I say? I love this thing. You could do a photo from camp, a memory verse or even a logo of camp!

5. Chinese Stars

My husband introduced me to this amazing one  but super cool BOY-FRIENDLY popsicle stick craft. Here’s a mini-tutorial for you…

a. three sticks with the middle one on top.

b. fourth stick in the “letter A” position. make sure its ends are underneath the two outside sticks.

c. fifth stick on in the “bottom of triangle” position. make sure its ends are holding down the outside sticks.

Then you throw it up against the wall and let it break apart!

Isn’t that fun?! I’m so proud of my husband for contributing a tutorial to this blog!

6. Spool Knitting

I had a “knitting knobbie” at my first year of camp. It was a big memory maker for me. So, this tutorial to make your own knitting spool?! Oh my goodness.  I LOVE THIS.

7. Tic Tac Toe

Lydia made this one up on her own. No joke. Just glue some popsicle sticks in the shape of a tic tac toe board. Then take it with you wherever you go and you’ve got instant tic tac toe. You could use rocks, m&m’s, sugar packets or erasers as markers. How cute is that?

8. Coaster

This is not rocket science but for some reason this coaster from No Time For Flash Cards adorable to me! And if you turned it on it’s side, added a string loop to the top, it could be a banner, a doorknob hanger or a hanging picture frame, too!

9. Necklace

I made these friendship necklaces at camp one year. I love them!

10. Puppets

You know I love a good puppet. Here’s the links to the ones above: NorthStar Stick Puppets, Butterfly Puppet (this would be cute with all the leftover craft foam pieces I have…you could make tons of bugs, animals, fish, etc!) and Pirate Puppets (the coolest part of this is the arms, check out the 2 step tutorial on that!).

What’s your best popsicle stick craft? If you have one on your blog please leave a link in the comments! We’d love to see!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Summer Camp posts!

linked to ohAmanda’s Top Ten {Tuesday}

Welcome campers! Today begins 2 weeks of the best (at least we think so) camp crafts and activities for you and your kids to try—AT HOME. I have always loved summer camp and cannot wait until my kids are old enough to experience s’mores, cabins, camp crafts and just hanging out in God’s creation! So, I decided, I’m not gonna wait! I’ve taken some of my favorite elements of summer camp and introducing it to my kids right now. Each day for the next 2 weeks, we’re going to share camp crafts, activities and even books all with a wonderful campy feel to them!

Today we’ll start off with a bang! The very best and most camp-y thing of all: S’MORES. My favorite way to make a s’more is by lighting the marshmallow on fire, letting it burn and expand, then blowing it out and smashing the newly blackened marshmallow in between the chocolate and graham crackers. YUM.

A few years ago I read about this cool s’mores experiment and have kept it in the back of my head because I was determined to try it. The idea? S’mores baked by the sun…or as Family Fun calls it, Solar S’mores. We had a camp playdate for some of Lydia’s friends last week to try them out!

All you need is a shallow box with a flip-up lid. A pizza box would work well. I used a shipping box. The first step is to cut a new flap on the top…about 1-2 inches around the inside edge.

Once your new flap is open, spread glue all around & cover with tinfoil.

Try not to get any creases or wrinkles in the tinfoil. You want it to be as smooth as possible. This is our main reflector.

Next, layer more tinfoil in the bottom. Then cover with black paper. (I didn’t glue or tape any of this.)

The last step is the hardest: find some thick plastic like a plastic sheet protector. (Mine was from an old scrapbook…that I never ever finished.) Tape this onto your new opening–make sure to use clear packing tape to seal it on nice and tight.

And the yummy part: layer the s’mores inside!

Finally, send the kids out for a giant stick. You’ll need this to prop up your sun-reflecting top!

It’s time to sit back and relax for about an HOUR!

The result: Well, we didn’t have direct sun. So, after about an hour and a half we opened up the box and the marshmallows were soft. Not melted. Not roasted. Just soft. Kinda the same feeling as if you left them in the car for an hour or so.

I think if you put them in blazing hot sun, directly pointing onto your marshmallows and maybe even sealed the entire box with tape, you’d get a little more “greenhouse effect” going on and they’d melt quicker.

So, we threw them in the oven to broil for about 14 seconds and they browned up quite nice!

The kids were our final judges. And they were pretty happy with them:

How do you eat a s’more?

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I’m so excited to be a part of 2 Weeks of Summer Camp here at Impress Your Kids!  Summer camp has always been a part of my life.  I went to lots of different types and styles of camps and I loved them all.

Today, I want to share with you some different variations of the ole “hike through the woods”.  This is great especially for those times when you need something last minute to do because most of these require materials that you already have lying around the house.

1. Flip the Penny Walk – Get a penny and assign each side to be LEFT and RIGHT.  When you come to a juncture, flip the penny to see which way you’ll go.  Make sure to keep track of where you came so you know how to get back!

2. Micro Walk – Take a rope or string about 3 feet long.  Every so often in your walk, stop and make a circle with your rope on the ground.  Examine what’s inside the circle.  Kids could even bring sketch pads and colored pencils to draw what they see in the circle.

3. Color Walk – Choose a color before you leave.  Try to find things that match your color.  You could take pictures or have kids sketch what they find.  When you get back, you could make a collage from the pictures or drawings.  Another variation is to use paint strips.  You know, like what you would pick up at Home Depot or Lowes.  Choose shades of greens, browns, yellows…shades you would find in nature.  Try to match nature items to colors on the paint sample.

4. Egg Carton Walk – Give each kid an empty egg carton.  You could also cut one in half if you didn’t have enough whole ones for every kid.  At the bottom of each egg cup, write a descriptive word…like “hard”, “smooth”, “rough”, “fuzzy”, etc.  On your walk, have kids fill their egg carton with nature items that match the words.  When you get back from the walk, compare what everyone found!

5. Monogram Walk – Make sure each kid knows all 3 (or more) of their initials.  On your walk, have kids find items that start with each of their initials.  Another variation, is to find objects that are more pliable (like pieces of pinestraw, tall grasses, etc) and have kids form them into the letters of their initials.  When you get back from your walk, have each kid make make a display by gluing down their objects in order of their initials.