NANA CAMP DAY FOUR

DAY 4 – July 19

 

All of the kids loved the Rattlesnake Saloon today. It was something very different. The kids screamed as loud as I have ever heard them in the back of the truck that was taking us down the steep hill to the eating area. You would have thought they were on a wild amusement park ride. I do not know what the driver thought, but when we started back up the hill after we had eaten, there were many people who were still enjoying their lunch that got a thrill out of the squealing kids on the truck. Grampy gave me a “look” and I just thought to myself, “This too shall pass.” Actually decades ago if I had been a kid on that truck I would have been the one leading the squeals and loving each and every minute. LOL

 

I am left with little doubt that this year’s Nana Camp will go down in history as the prank feud between The Skunks and The Possums. I think both sides spend an hour daily just plotting out their next move. Tonight is going to be very interesting.

 

Grampy has gone back to the store several times to replenish our Popsicle supply. I asked Macy this afternoon how many she thought she had eaten just today. She smiled the biggest smile and reminded me that, “Whatever happens at Nana’s stays at Nana’s.”

 

I think Caley enjoyed the Coon Dog Cemetery the most. It seemed like she read every single tombstone there and kept calling all the others to come and see the ones she thought were the most unique. Her precious Molly, a golden retriever, lives inside with the Busby family and I know they could not do without her.

 

Joshua and Carter have been the perfect big brothers for everyone. They are all “into” different phenomenon and loved talking about space and things. We talked about the “Bermuda Triangle” several times in the car on our way to places today. As soon as we got home they did some more research and listened to some videos about it.

 

We took the kids by “The Wall.” It is a massive mile long hand-build stonewall made by Mr. Tom Hendrix as a tribute to his great grandmother who was a Yuchi Indian and was forced to leave her home near Florence during the Trail of Tears. She escaped and returned to Alabama. Each stone represents one step of her journey. It is near the Natchez Trace. Most of the kids knew all about the Trail of Tears. They asked tons of questions. Abbie wanted to bring him back a special stone he could add to his collection.

 

Our duck brood has ended up with close to 20 new baby ducks. We almost lost all of them last night though. We filled a little pool with water to let them take a swim. After the ducks had been swimming for about ten minutes many of them starting having extreme difficulties. The water for too cold for such new little ducks. They practically fell limp. It was Grampy to the rescue. He took some of the weaker little ones to the bathroom and starting warming them up and drying them off with my blow-dry. During the night Grampy was up three times checking on the poor little things. He was afraid the morning was not going to hold any good news about the baby ducks and he did not want to disappoint the grandkids. The kids were upset seeing the little things wilting. The next morning every single one of them had recovered and was doing great. Whew! That was a close call.

 

Tomorrow will be Sunday. Where has the time gone? It has been another successful day. All is well.

 

 

 

NANA CAMP DAY THREE

DAY 3 – July 18

 

All of us are disappointed that will be not be camping tonight as planned, but it is okay. The rain is needed and we are blessed to have it.

 

We went bowling for a few hours today, then went to Five Guys to get burgers for lunch. We stayed inside the rest of the afternoon and night. The boys chose a movie on the television to watch. I made a big dinner with mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, chicken tenders, corn on the cob, rolls, cantaloupe, macaroni and cheese, and a few other things. After dinner I made homemade ice cream.

 

Staying in does not deter the kids at all it seems. They enjoyed the day. They occupied themselves for an hour or two by picking up where they had left off with the pranks. The boys wrote about 20 notes and taped to the girls’ door. I think the one I enjoyed the most went something like this. Skunks Rule! Possums Drool! Possums swim in the baby pool! The note was signed, Joshua, Carter, and Noah, The Skunks!

 

Can things get any better than that? The Skunks are awesome. The girls (The Possums) decided to fix everyone some grape juice with their snack and add extra things like chocolate syrup, orange juice, water, milk, Hawaiian Punch, and things like that to three special cups that would go to The Skunks. Yes, Nana handed out the juice to everyone, without the three boys suspecting anything. I immediately saw Carter and Joshua look at each other, but neither said a word. Noah quickly told me that I had not given him grape juice at all. With all the laughter from the girls the boys immediately knew the girls had pulled a prank on them. I sort of felt bad when Noah told me hours later that his days of drinking grape juice were over. I do plan to make it a mission to see to it before he leaves next week that he will once again love grape juice.

 

I had card games and several extra games for the kids to play today just in case something like this happened, so the day was not a washout as far as I was concerned.

 

We do have 14 new members of the duck clan that has hatched thus far. The kids have continually checked on them all day. I do not like having the incubator in the bedroom at all, but there was not a good place to put it. The garage and the sunroom make the temperature fluctuate too much and the laundry is a definite negative since the kids are in and out there all the time. By Sunday we should have all the ducks to hatch that are going to. It amazes me that the kids worked everything among themselves about which duck would belong to whom and they named everyone of them. They know all the names of each duck.

 

By the way, my friend Judy, who brought the cookies over, is the one who suggested the names for the cabins this year. She is much more creative than I am and she has two precious grandkids, Luke and Andrew.

 

The kids are allowed to stay up a little later tonight especially since we were planning the camp out for tonight. Tomorrow looks like we will be marching on with our Nana Camp Day 4 plans.

 

This Nana is happy.   

 

NANA CAMP DAY TWO

DAY 2 – July 17

After about three hours sleep last night I was ready to start our day. There is really no reason for not being able to sleep except I guess I was just too keyed up.

 

First thing this morning Joshua informed everyone that this was pancake morning and he was very excited because they are one of his favorite things. His other Mimi is queen of pancake making. Joshua, Marah, and Macy continually talk about how delicious she makes pancakes. I must get Debbie to teach me someday. Since I was well aware that Joshua would eat several pancakes I decided to fix him one monster pancake. He seemed very excited to get it, but a few minutes later he was in the kitchen with his monster pancake in stow asking me if toothpaste was inside the pancake. I looked at him and asked him if it tasted like toothpaste and his only response was, “not really.” I was thankful for that. He continued to tell me that he thought the girls had played a prank on him because the inside of his pancake was very gooey and tasted yuck. I guess the next time I make a monster pancake I had better make sure it is done inside.

 

I think you can see the way this morning started. The boys are all on high alert watching the girls like hawks to see if they will now be the recipients of some well deserved pranks by the girls.

 

After breakfast Noah informed me that the boys planned on being the winners of the Nana Camp Prank Award. I assured him Nana wasn’t giving any such award, but he assured me, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the boys would be the winner if there were such a thing. He was also upset a little later in the morning because he heard a rumor that the girls were planning on waking up in the middle of the night and cutting the boys hair. I tried to calm his fears and told him that was not allowed. I am not sure I did a good job because he just knew the girls would be very clever.

 

Sweet Abbie told me this morning that she figured out why pranks had been started this Nana Camp. She said it was because skunks and possums do not get along.

 

This year I had changed around the room assignments and Grampy and I had taken down the bed in one of the bedrooms so all the girls could sleep together in one room. That left the other bedroom for the boys. I loved the idea because the den wasn’t used and every morning it was actually clean to start the day. I also gave the new room assignments new names. The boys’ room was Cabin 1 – The Skunks. The girls’ room was Cabin 2 – The Possums. The kids all noticed the change immediately when they came in the house. They had been use to The Magnolia and The Daffodil bedrooms. Change is good. Nana changes things frequently with little notice.

 

Therefore, Abbie was sure she had the answer as to why the pranks had even begun. Noah told Abbie he had decided to help the girls with their pranks on the boys because he did not want to be a skunk. I think Carter and Joshua tried to assure him they had rather be a skunk than a possum. Oh well! This too shall pass.

 

We were going to a movie this morning and then having water day for the rest of the day, but things change, and that was certainly true today. Most everyone did not want to see the special movie for today and I gave them the option of watching a movie at home or having water day all day. The unanimous vote was for water day.

 

Carter and Joshua ended up going to Cross Point for a few hours for some fun water activities there. Noah decided he needed to stay with me to make sure the girls did not try to put something in their room while the others were gone.

 

The entire day was filled with tons of fun games. The girls played on the slip and slide and filled hundreds, yes hundreds, of water balloons, while the boys were gone. (Here is a great tip for anyone that gets frustrated trying to fill those tiny balloons with water. I had bought those water things at Dollar General that you can fill with water and shoot like a water gun. They have some that are about 24 inches long. They also have some smaller ones that are about 12 inches long. I filled a baby pool with water and it was the perfect refill for their water shooter. They just put the end of the water balloon over the tip of their shooter and shot water right into the balloon in a second. It was great. I had been dreading doing all the water balloon because they can be such a pain.)

 

We played Balloon Toss, Water Balloon Smash, Sponge and Bucket Race, Footloose Relay, Splash Volleyball, Water Tag, Beach Towel Toss, Back-to-Back Balloon Dash. Quarter Run, and many more games. We also caught up on the Popsicle Towers and Disco Down. They had tons of fun at the splash pad tonight. Our stargazing activity will have to wait. It was just too cloudy outside.

 

Some games are always so much fun. Others can end up duds, and then there are those that fall in between. I like trying new things and the kids are all amazing. They do everything I want them to do even though it might not be something they are a fan of.

 

Sarah Taylor loved every minute of playing with her cousins. Later in the day when the kids were in the house and Carolyn went to check on her she said, “You can go on Mimi and leave us alone and go talk to Aunt Vicki.”

 

When I tucked them in bed tonight Carter told me he couldn’t believe all the things I had planned for them. He told me thank you and it brought tears to my eyes. That is what it is all about. I was a little concerned this year because the kids would not be able to go here and go there for extra activities. Being with them all day long by myself is actually refreshing. I enjoyed the day tremendously. They are jewels. There has not been one squabble among them, except for the pranks.

 

The girls have already prepared their prank for in the morning. Tomorrow for breakfast is cereal and the girls pulled the bags that held the cereal out of the boxes and switched the cereal inside. They are so excited. The talk among the possums is that the boys are in for it tomorrow morning. They are convinced when the boys pour their cereal into their bowl, and it is not the cereal they are expecting, the boys will be very upset and they will have gotten them back tenfold for the pranks the skunks have pulled thus far. This prank is okay with both me and Grampy. Things could get much worse.

 

My friend Judy brought over three containers full of cookies. How sweet is that! This Nana did not even have any cookies at all in the house, so this was a real treat.

 

Tomorrow night we are suppose to camp out at our friend’s house, Ronnie and Gail Roberts. Their son Robbie has loads of fun planned for the kids. Rain is in the forecast. We may be changing plans, but I am not giving up hope until I see the forecast in the morning.

 

This Nana has had a long fun day. I am looking forward to another one tomorrow. These grandkids are such a joy. I am so happy to have them here.