Elliot turns 11!!!

Sweet having Meg and Brett with their cute little girl Madi up this week!!  We started Elliots birthday by French toast at camp!

Carrie was excited to give Isaac his late birthday present - drywall stilts!!  

Here they are lowering them .... Not low enough lol!!!

Thursday morning coffee before she hits the road for her Quadra Island girls weekend .... Love morning coffee! It's my favorite and it's even better when she's around.  

Elliot making icing for his birthday cupcakes!!  Isn't he gorgeous?!!  11!!!!

He's a very loved little boy !!

Trent brought his gorgeous Jeep cake that he was given for his retirement party to help celebrate!!!  

See the 11?! Talk about a cake working double duty!!! Retirement AND 11 years old!!

Brother in law .... Awesome !  Arrives even when he wasn't feeling well, in between doctors appointments .... Meant a lot that he came .....

Elliot and grandma just hanging out ....

Grandma helping with these stilts!

We went to visit the boys at their cabin!

These two had a great week together!!

Such a great kid .....

Barn Dinners and Crafts and firesides ...

Chris plans the most magical events....here are over 100 junior campers all ready for their 'dinner in the barn' and Chris drives the tractor in with all the cooks on the wagon with their huge pots of Chilie and corn bread!  Western music blaring .... so fun!!

He has done such a bang up job on this space!!  Here are the campers getting served their dinner! 

Carrie and I decided to take some time to do a little crafting of our own ...



Mine ....

Hers .....

Ellie and her mom exchanged crafts for eachother! ;-)  So cute ....

Nothing better than sitting around the fire with old friends meg and brett and a cuddly little niece on your lap .... its pretty nice having my sister up during these times ....

Happy Ellie!!!

A beautiful happy girl holding onto the dresses of auntie and mama!!!

Crafts day 1!!!

It was a hit .... Super sweet Rachel texted me picture through the morning to show the progression of the session because I had a voice that hasn't left my head saying this craft wasn't good.  Funny how you can hear so many positive comments about something but the one that stays on repeat is the negative one .... all the work that went into prepping, with buying and cutting the wood (I'm good with a chopsaw now), and getting all the supplies and the samples ..... looks like it was all worth it once some of these pictures came in this morning! 

 

Isaac and Elliot and Marty were great helpers to the campers ....Here is Elliot helping a camper pick out his supplies.  I typed out the order the instructor should use when explaining everything.  Step one was choosing your base and writing your name on the back!!  All very simple and straight forward (because crafts can easily get chaotic, especially with this age), but the kids just seemed to run with their creativity which was the goal!!

Isaac had a line up of kids who asked him to draw something that they wanted to do ... he was happy to do it ... so cute!!  And can you see Marty's cow?

I sent this picture to my friend Nikki who texts back immediately "Jorja is OBSESSED with camp!!  She's so excited!" .... so that was fun.  These girls are such good friends and I love that they come on their own together without their families now (because they got their start at family camp!!)



Some of the sweet creations!!


For those who finished early, Isaac ran a soccer game ....

Hour one done!! 7 more to go!! ;-)

Juniors Day 1!!! 2017

Been starting the day at 6 with Chris .... when we got back from his Timmie run first thing, he put me to work photocopying over 1000 envelops for "The Pony Express" game he is running tonight!

Sister came down and kept me company ....

Came home to find someone enjoying their day!

Oh! And Isaac lost his hat and we were all pretty sad, but then he found it under the sink by the garbage in the kitchen!!????  Anyways ... it is found now!! Here was the picture a moment after we found it!!  So happy!! 

Just a random camp prop .... I wonder how Chris will be using it this week?

Carrie and I polished up these chairs to get into the café, but we haven't been able to get them actually DOWN to the café yet ... so we are enjoying them in the yard ....

Kick off 2017!!!

Chris prepping for The Pony Express ... doesn't he look like he is asking Becky for a hug ?  She isn't so sure ... lol

So the game was AWESOME!! Here is Chris, with a western accent and everything, explaining the game to the kids! At the end of the explanation, he asks "Everybody understand?", and all the kids nodded and all the adults at the back were super confused .... pretty funny!!

My boys are awesome ... they have grown up being taught that chasing is better than catching!  It makes the junior feel like they are so fast and that they have a story to tell!  "I outran all these Outlaws who tried to catch me, but they couldn't!!!" ... it's so fun to listen to their conversations with eachother....

Oh this beautiful boy ... look at these eyes!!!  He is enjoying his last 2 days of being 10.

Crafts for camp 2017

Chris has had no luck/time to put together a sweet craft for this summer. His program team was tasked with it and the initial thought was fidget spinners but quickly realized it was going to be too labor intensive to create. So, Thursday I was put to work to find a craft.  Sharyn Sowell and I bounced ideas off each other and came up with a list of 12 ideas which I shaved down to 6 which Chris shaved down to 3.... And we came up with wood signs that can be stamped with the hundreds of stamps we were given!  We will also be doing 'bean art' ....  Yesturday was purchasing the supplies and today was cutting the wood and making the samples.  I got up when Chris got up and was down at the craft hut just before 8am. Beautiful out that early .... So here was what I created through the day. I hope campers will be inspired to create their own!!

I finished at 5 ... And the day flew ...and being unsure if boys would like this craft, the boys were all over the other day and they eagerly grabbed the stuff I had in my yard and went to town and here are their projects! So creative!  So that was a relief to see their reaction because there are some who think it's not a good craft. The boys are actually all going to be helping the campers during their craft hour to make sure everyone is successful.