Camp Tonsofun 2021 - Day 2

Day 2 of Camp Tonsofun was Canyon's Day.

He found these adorable Haribo Mario gummy candies at Edeka the other day & wanted them to be his special treat for Camp Tonsofun.  He wrote individual notes for each of his siblings & drew pictures of their favorite Mario characters for them.

When the all the kids finished reading for 30 minutes that day, he hid his treats next to the bookshelf.  

SO CUTE!

Today's big chore was the laundry/garbage room.  This room gets messy really fast with all the laundry we do & all the garbage we have to sort through & recycle here in Germany.  Did you know that Germany has 5 garbage cans?  We have to sort ALL 5 every single day.

We have:

Bio - basically a compost pile of food

Gelb Sack - plastics, aluminum, recycleables

Paper - cardboard & boxes, paper, etc.

Glass - glass sorted by color: brown, white, green

Restmüll - basically everything else

We also have a clear bag of Pfand plastics too.  In germany if you save your plastic bottles from soda/juice/water bottles, you get 25 Euro cents for each one your return to the store.

The kids spent a lot of time organizing all our garbage bags, cleaners, laundry soaps, etc.

We washed windows, doors, & walls too.

Lorien LOVES to clean the fridge.  She took everything out, deep cleaned all the shelves, then re-organized everything again.

All CLEAN.

For Canyon's activity we worked on his Mario diamond painting.  The kids love doing diamond paintings.

For his baking treat he wanted to make brownies.

And for his special dinner he had Southwestern Pasta Salad, veggies (mushrooms are his favorite food), & brotchen.

Day 2 was a HUGE success!

 

Camp Tonsofun 2021 - Day 1

YAY FOR CAMP TONSOFUN!!!

**Disclaimer: This year's camp happened in the middle of the hustle & bustle of summer/traveling/work/church/& other responsibilities so it wasn't a big & elaborate as it usually is.  You'll also notice I took fewer pics each day as the week progressed just because we got SO busy.  SO just know we had a blast & got a TON done, even if there's not a lot of pictures to show it.

This year because I was SO busy getting seminary, singing time, work, & other things done, I allowed each of the kids to plan one day of camp tonsofun themselves.  They had to come up with a big chore/project to clean, an activity to do together (games/projects/crafts), something fun to bake, & a treat/reward for doing a particular chore each day.  They had to pick a treat, then come up with a cute saying to put on them.  They had a blast with this.  And at the end of the day, they got to pick their favorite dinner to eat as we spotlighted them for that day.

Day 1 was CRAIGER'S special day.

We started the day with our activity which was making a homemade volcano.

(which took FOREVER, but was a BLAST to make).

We mixed up the plaster, poured it into a mold & let it dry while we did other things.

Once it was dry, we removed the mold & sanded down the sides so it didn't have rough edges.

The favorite part of the volcano was PAINTING it.

While the volcano was drying, we went upstairs to tackle our cleaning project of the day which was the big living room upstairs.  Things have gotten out of hand since school got out & we needed to organize, wipe, sweep/mop, & clean the whole room so we could enjoy having friends over again.

All CLEAN.

Craiger made these cute little notes to go with his Sweet Tart Ropes treats.

For our baking project of the day, we made Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter cupcakes.

The kids each frosted their own (to learn how to use a piping bag).  Then we enjoyed eating them.

For Craiger's special dinner we had Mac & Cheese, carrots, & apples. . . his favorite.

 FUN FUN FUN for Day #1!

Happy 40th Birthday to Me!

Happy 40th Birthday to ME!

My birthday is July 6 & this year was a big one for me.  I've been dreading the big

4 - 0

for a while now, but now that it's here, I'm realizing it's not TOO bad.  I still feel young & full of life & that's what matters right?

My kids & husband spoiled me with a big birthday breakfast, dinner at my favorite restaurant, & pampering all day.

My friend Nancy sent me all sorts of fun surprises for my birthday.  She always spoils me rotten every year.

I got my hair done for my birthday.  That always makes me feel great.

One of my sweet little piano students stopped by & brought me flowers, macarons, & a painted picture of a music note because she knows I love music.  That little picture means the world to me because I know how much time she spent on it.  Sweet thing.  I just love my piano students.

The one thing I wanted to do for my birthday was paint for a few hours without interruption.  I'm taking watercolor classes right now to brush up on my art skills (I'm not great, but I really really enjoy drawing & painting).  I painted a door against a brick wall.

I try to pick out one thing I like best about my art to help me stay positive & avoid the negative things.  I was very excited about this pot.  The shading, shapes, & colors I was able to mix were spot on & I was THRILLED it actually looks like a real pot.

I also wanted to cross stitch for my birthday.  I told the kids I wanted peace & quiet while I cross stitched which resulted in all 3 boys in pajamas next to me reading.  Not really what I had in mind, but it was cute that they wanted to be near me all day for my special day.  They stayed quiet (for the most part) & I was able to do a lot of cross stitching.  Sweet boys. I love them so much.

Overall, it was a great day.  40 years & still loving life!