Twas the Night after Hallo-Giving Chrismakuh . . .

. . . and all through the house, all the creatures were STILL bouncing off the f*&#ing walls because mommy DID NOT  manage their sugar intake and in fact she made sure they ate so much sugar it was going to take 4 days to de-tox them!!

In true Runamuk fashion mommy and the girls hosted a mish-mash holiday party with a purpose.  This time it was Hallo-Giving Chrismakuh and it’s now November 12^th and we’ve done all we need to do for the holidays, right?!  We’ve celebrated all of them and we even added our standard charity component that wouldn’t be Runamuk if it didn’t combine a canned food drive meets extra candy drop off meets toy drive!

Mommy’s been away from blogging for a little while (something she’ll explain in the next post), but she thought she’d start up again with a bang so you all didn’t wonder if she had a lobotomy or fell down a holiday rabbit hole!   

Here’s what I learned happens when you mix 32 kids + 12 mommies + 22 TONS of sugar (and I’ll explain at the end how we did it all):

"Hunt"ing for Camp Runamuk fun!

Yesterday (ok, actually it was now 2 days ago because I have been fighting with my internet connection for the last hour - AND, E.B. has to get up in 5 hours to hide the you know whats, and boy is he going to be cranky!!!) OK, back to the show . . . Friday was the last day of Camp Runamuk and I decided to host the First Annual Dugdale Trifecta Easter Egg Hunt.

Here’s what you get when you have 4 mommies + 14 kids + 225 eggs + 12 tons of sugar =

Camp Runamuk . . . I had an Epiphany . . .

. . . about how to celebrate every holiday between Ephiphany and Mardi Gras all in one day and one meal.  The kids had the day off from school, so we all know what that means . . . Camp Runamuk.  On Friday my type A brain decided we needed to celebrate Ephiphany (that actually takes place on January 6^th), Chinese New Year (January 22^nd – February 6^th), Valentines Day and Mardi Gras. 

I know, I’m smoking crack!

But, as always, it was an adventure.  So, here’s what happens when you celebrate New Mardi Valphany:

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

Before I get to MLK Day, I forgot to mention yesterday one of the most important lessons I learned about cleaning our house:

When de-childproofing the house, remember not to shut the pantry door when removing the childproof implement.  The door handle may fall off with you inside!  Yep, locked myself in.  Thankfully I was on the phone at the time and therefore could have had someone rescue me; but, alas, I did figure out how to work the mechanism before that had to happen.  Not one of my prouder blonde moments!

Anyway, today, in my quest for family fun, I decided to schlep the family down to the Martin Luther King Jr. parade in downtown San Diego. 

Here’s what we learned:

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:

Family fun in 32 minutes or less

I am always on the search for family fun that will be great for the kids, but not take forever with set up and clean up.  Plus, today we were running around so much that I didn’t realize until we got home that I only had 45 minutes to do family fun and leave to our next appointment.  Today, I found TWO projects that accomplished this task – chocolate covered candy canes and joyful tea lights.  Oh, and I found a use for the 32 pie plates – holders for all the elements of my family fun projects.

Here’s what I learned about turning things into your pantry to family fun: