Camp Runamuk and the Winter Wonderland

Some people are addicted to crack. . . my name is mommy and I’m addicted to planning ridiculous projects that make a complete disaster of my house and make me go bankrupt because I cuss when they don’t work out like I thought they would. 

As we were getting ready to leave for our trip today I had Camp Runamuk with six kids, two projects and a lunch with my 92 year old grandma.  All of which had to be accomplished before 2pm.  I think my mother truly didn’t believe I was going to get everything accomplished when she saw my kitchen at 11am that was full of glue and tissue paper.  It was at that moment that I realized I need to admit my problem . . . I actually like to create chaos in my life. 

Today’s projects involved making sugar cookies and also snowmen with glue, tissue paper and apple juice bottles.

Here’s what I learned when you try to recreate winter in your kitchen and rush through sugar cookies:

1)      DO NOT use those cookie pan molds that you buy on a whim in Target when you’ve got so much already in your cart you won’t notice one more thing.  If you do, they will turn out like bloated piles of cookie sh*t that don’t even get cooked all the way through.  Of course, the cookie pan had absolutely no instructions, so I figured I’d just put some dough in there and hope for the best.  Now I’ve got a dozen half baked cookies that I’m going to have to frost so much that no one notices they aren’t fully cooked. 

Husband from Heaven decided to eat one "pre frosting" and said to me - "those are chewier than I like."  No sh*t!!  Serves him right for eating them before they were frosted.

2)      When you go to get paint brushes for your project, make sure that your 4^th grader hasn’t donated all your paint brushes to her 4^th grade class for a Mission building project.  Apparently we made a significant donation of about 10 paint brushes so that the Superego’s class could build a Mission project. I had to actually pull out the watercolor paint brushes for the project.  Have you ever tried to teach a five year old how to paint a bottle with a brush that has about 6 bristles?!  F*#&. 

3)      Black tissue paper makes your fingers black when you try to glue it onto an apple juice lid and then you pick up your snowman by the lid.  D@mnit!  Forgot it was still wet!

These turned out so cute!

4)      When you allow the children to decorate sugar cookies, is it inappropriate to ask them “would you like some cookie with your sprinkles”?  The children put so many sprinkles on that I think the cookie sheet got more decorated than the cookies.

In defense of Maddy and Maddie who are pictured here, their cookies were perfect.  It was the other children who went crazy with the sprinkles.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of their handiwork, so this is the photo you get!

Recommendation for today –

1)      Don’t get creative with your cookies.  Stick to the cookie cutters that are your old standbys and let the children go to town with the sprinkles.  Just be ready to soak the cookie sheets.

2)      Make a Southern California snowman – you know, the kind you have to manufacture.  Here’s what ours were made of (this was a project I found in Disney’s Family Fun):

a.       Small apple Juice bottle, cut out the bottom and you can put an electric tea light in it.

b.      White and Black tissue paper torn into scraps

c.       Scrapbooking embellishments (i.e. bows, sunglasses and buttons) you can get at Michaels or any craft store.  We also used small pieces of orange felt for noses.

d.      Ribbon for scarves (any ribbon you have laying around will do, you don’t need much)

e.      Glue and water mixture (mix together white glue and water until it’s creamy, but watery)

f.        Put the glue/water mixture on the bottle, cover with tissue paper, cover with another layer of glue/water to make it stick.  Let that layer dry.

g.       After that layer is dry, add embellishments (we used a glue gun)