Just chillin' . . . Runamuk style

Today was the first day of the first full week of Camp Runamuk, and like many mommy bloggers, it’s 11:56pm and I’m just sitting down to write my post for the day.  It was such a busy day that I couldn’t get to the pool until 9pm for my swim workout (I have a triathlon in 2 weeks, otherwise, trust me, I wouldn’t have been there).  But, here’s what I discovered . . . all the cute single boys are at the gym at 9:00 at night.  Who knew?!  Well, I’m sure BFF Molly and I knew that in college, but those days are so far behind me, I had forgotten.  Do you think Husband from Heaven would get suspicious if all of a sudden I started working out at 9pm?!  I guess I just outed myself, didn’t I?!

Ok, back to the kids . . . This week’s theme is “Just Chillin”.  Well, as you will see, we did anything BUT “chill”.  We did have several ice themed projects and here’s what I learned about trying to “chill” with your kids:

1)      When you select the date for camp to start, make sure it’s not the same day that you have a 7:30am meeting, your landscaper comes, your housekeeper is trying to clean up as quickly as your kids are tearing your house apart, oh, and the contractor is coming in to fix your house’s foundation.  If you do this, you MAY end up leaving your purse at the previously mentioned 7:30 meeting so that you can’t pay any of these people.  D@MNIT!!!  Do you think any of them would have taken some of the children?  I had 11 of them that I could sell.

2)      When you decide to have your children use fabric paint IN the house, make sure you are clear with the instruction that “you cannot paint the back of your shirt until the front side is dry”.  Had there not been 10 kids and 2 parents present, the Superego (oldest child) would have lost her birthday after she laid her shirt with wet paint on the tile floor.  Yep, HfH just fainted – it’s ok honey, we got it all out!

By the way, if anyone’s kids got paint on clothing it’s not supposed to be on, one of the moms shared this link for getting it out.  http://www.ehow.com/how_4857218_remove-fabric-paint-clothing.html

3)      “Wax on, wax off” is not a reference to what you should do with your tile floor when you are trying to make “ice candles”.  This was one of those “sounded great on paper” projects.  Implementation, however, was flawed when the cups got too hot to hold and were dropped on the floor.  HfH just fainted again.  But, again, never fear, we did get it out.  I think after this post HfH is going to put in a nanny cam to see what I do at the house that I don’t reveal.

Here's an approach they won't show in the magazines . . . if you run out of the wax to melt, just throw in some left over candles.  Oh, and who knew that crayons were the best way to get the color?!!

All the candles as they are drying.  And yes, we had to pour out all that melted water.

The candles actually did turn out pretty cool.  Not quite the store quality shown in the example, but it will do!

4)      When string is put on ice and salt is poured on it, it WILL NOT stick unless you hold the string on for about 10 seconds.  I tried to follow this experiment where we had the ice in water, held the strings in the water, poured in salt and it was supposed to magically stick.  Yeah, my @$&!  We did have some very clever children, er mommies, who decided to cheat and put their string through the hole in the ice.  I’m not going to name any names, but the child’s picture is right here!!!  I gotta give her momma props for ingenuity!  If you can’t beat the ice, outsmart it!

She's so proud!!  And she has no idea her momma cheated at this game!  :)

Ok, we're at desperation point now!  Btw, notice the earrings, ring and necklace.  Every good camp counselor should really accessorize.  Ok, I was running so much from my meeting I barely changed out of my clothes.  I forgot about the accessories!

 

Woo hoo, it worked!

5)      Who needs all this entertainment – give the kids some pool noodles and let them beat the crap out of each other!  It was all fun and games until someone got hurt, but those kids could have done that for hours.  Kinda like on Christmas when you spend all that money on presents and the child ends up playing longer with the wrapping paper tube.

And of course, you gotta round out your chillin' day with snow cones.  Other than pelting myself with the ice because I couldn't get those d@mn mounds on top, there wasn't much disaster with this one.  

Ok, it's now 12:53am.  Momma’s gotta get to bed!  So she can be ready to go for round 2 - the Water Park!!!