July 13, 2018 · 8:43 pm

Mom Camp Day 16: NBA all day! (Or should I say 5 hrs)

When the NBA Summer League comes to Vegas and you have kid who will watch any and all sports, you head to the Thomas and Mack!

The Princess spent the day with Queen Gram while Cinco and I went to check out a few basketball games. For the price $35 you can stay all day and watch as many games as you want!

We arrived just before the 1:30pm tip off and watched the Knicks vs Pelicans. I, of course, routed for the Knicks given my suburban New York upbringing. And, yes the Knicks won 102 to 81!

After a giant ice cream cone for me and an Oreo blizzard for Cinco, we headed to our next game– Wizards vs. Mavericks. This time it was harder to pick a team (having lived in both DC and Dallas). But I went with Dallas. And again, my team won!!

Our final game of the day was Timberwolves vs. Nuggets. We’d already watched 2 games and this game didn’t start until 5pm. While watching the event, I did stand up and start dancing trying to earn Cinco a foam #1 hand… I didn’t get the hand– but did make enough of a spectacle to get on the Jumbotron…. so you know, that’s something!

I agreed to watch it for 1 hour and see how it was going…

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July 11, 2018 · 8:41 pm

Mom Camp Days 14 and 15: Jurassic Park Dino Days

In honor of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s release earlier this summer, Cinco and The Princess had a few days full of all thing Jurassic Park and World related.

dinosaur evergreen figure garden

Photo by Mikes Photos on Pexels.com

Over the course of three days we watched all three of the Jurassic Park films AND the first Jurassic World movie.

We also “hatched” our own mini dinos, which I purchase in the Target dollar section.  (NB: The Target dollar section is responsible for at least $200 a year in dumb purchases of junk I do NOT need.)  While at Target we also purchased Cinco the full set of Jurassic World, dino themed, Hot Wheels.  (Because, you know everyone needs a Triceratops shaped Hot Wheel.)

The best part of our Dino Days was Cinco’s idea to make our own Dino themed board game!!!!  Drawing the game board was Cinco’s project while The Princess and I worked on the game board pieces.  Each player chooses a tiny dino egg which she and I hand painted.

The basic rules are as follows:

  1. The oldest person goes first and rolls the dice.   (Get doubles and roll again!)
  2. Depending on which square you land on, you choose a corresponding card. (Red=Danger, Yellow=Challenge, Green=Lucky Day, White=No Card).
  3. Then you follow the directions on the card.
  4. When your turn is over the next person rolls.
  5. First person to escape wins!

As you can imagine, the Danger cards are bad luck, Challenge could go either way, and Lucky Day is, of course, something good.  Here are a few of the cards the kids came up with:

Danger:

Rescue mission gone wrong.  You are forced to move back a space.

        Eat a poisonous plant and skip a turn.

Challenge: 

Power goes out.  All dino cages open.  Roll the dice.  4 or better move forward 1 space.  3 or lower go back to start.

Who can make the loudest roar?  1st places gets a Lucky Day Card. Last place gets a Danger Card.

Lucky Day: 

You found a map of the island.  Move forward 3 spaces.

Catch a ride on a Triceratops. Move forward 3 spaces.

All of us worked on coloring the board and typing the cards.  Then it was time to play…

We recruited The Captain to join us. And, in an intense game I WON!!!!

Pretty sure The Princess earned her games Fun patch!

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July 4, 2018 · 12:00 am

Flat Juliette Comes to Mom Camp: Days 11-13

AS you have no doubt figured out, The Princess is a Girl Scout.  This summer each girl in the troop is spending a week with Flat Juliette.  She is the Girl Scout equivalent to Flat Stanley, only she is Juliette Gordon Low (founder of American Girl Scouts).

img_5819Juliette’s First Day: Relaxing in pool, followed by a top-off Jeep ride and dinner at a Vegas Classic, Bob Taylor’s Ranch House.

img_5823Juliette’s Second Day: Another Jeep ride this time to Mount Charleston to commune with nature as the real Juliette might have done.  She also enjoyed a breezy mountain side afternoon lunch and a few rounds of Cinco’s new favorite game– Coup.

Juliette’s Third Day: We planned take her to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.  But when we drove by in the morning and again in the afternoon, we decided the line was just TOO long.

In between drive -bys, we took her to Shark Reef on the Vegas Strip inside Mandalay bay.  She got the chance to explore the water’s wildlife and learn about the arctic at the Polar Experience.

Back at the house, we watched a family movie.  I kept suggesting Jaws or even the Poseidon Adventure.  But, the kids said the Poseidon Adventure sounded a lot like the Titanic only worse and over ruled me on Jaws as well.  Though they did recall seeing the Jaws shark at the Universal Studios tour — two summers ago at MOM CAMP!!!  So we settled on the film version of Roald Dahl’s Matilda (we will be going to the musical version in August).

 

Who knows what our next few days with Juliette will bring…

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June 29, 2018 · 11:15 pm

Mom Camp Day 10: It’s all about the hockey!

When your sister is at a Girl Scout Camp sleepover and you’re done with band camp, it’s time to head to the hockey rink. I mean it’s 105 degrees so what better way to cool off.

Cinco and I went to catch a development scrimmage for the Las Vegas Knights! In true Mom fashion, I drove straight to CityNational Arena after band camp and of course wound up being about 45 min early for the event. And yes we did get good seats.

As an added bonus, ‘cousin’ Jack Dugan took the ice!

I did have a few flash backs to NHL 2018 Xbox while at the scrimmage. I kept wanting to ‘announce’ the plays and more importantly when a guy almost staked into the goal I felt a LOT better about my Xbox hockey playing skills. As I frequently crash into the goal! So my playing is highly realistic!

After we went for a mother-son dinner.

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June 28, 2018 · 7:38 pm

Mom Camp Day 9: Two Years Since The Titanic Incident (or why my kids have a few weeks of real camp)

For those of you who are long time Mom Camp followers you may recall that Cinco and The Princess rebelled against Mom Camp in 2016 over what historians have termed — The TITANIC INCIDENT.

New followers may ask, what is The TITANIC INCIDENT?  Well on this day two years ago we started what was supposed to be a three day session on learning about the Titanic.  We only got to TWO DAYS…

img_3789Everything was going great.  We made a mini sinking paper Titanic, The Princess colored in paper dolls and outfits that matched the historical period, Cinco did a worksheet learning about primary sources related to the Titanic.

You can check out day one here: Day 1

And then… we hit an iceberg! 

I foolishly showed them the James Cameron movie, TITANIC!  All of a sudden, the kiddos were crying and going on and on about what a depressing film it was.  They would NOT stop complaining about it and said I was terrible for showing them the movie.

img_3795Of course, I didn’t let this stop me.  I pressed on with day two.  We did a packet on the Titanic and made our own candy portholes!  Hello, who doesn’t like eating gummy octopus and swedish fish?  Mind you, these were underwater porthole as the ship did SINK. (Click here for directions on making your own gummy porthole.)

But No…  this was not good enough.  Cinco and The Princess would NOT stop talking about how horrible the movie had been and the simply refused to carry on with day three.  I planned to take them to the local Titanic exhibit in Las Vegas.  But they kept protesting that they NO intention of looking at things that belonged to DEAD PEOPLE.

After that Mom kinda hit the rocks….  In fact it was so, decimated that we didn’t even blog about it in 2017.  And, it is the reason the kids also have to attend “regular camp”.

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Which is a LONG way of saying that while The Princess was attending Girl Scouts Day Camp, she learned to cook stir-fry.  And, so Mom Camp Day 9 is all about cooking,
We started by shopping at ol’ Trader Joe’s (broccoli, peas, carrots, rice…).  At home, I acted as assistant and The Princess gave plenty of orders.

Cinco decided that in order for it to be a real ‘celebration’ we needed some starters.  (Side note, is Cinco British or something now?  Starters?  On this side of the pond we call them appetizers…)  He decided we needed add ramen soup.img_5794.jpg

The meal went off and The Princess was very proud of her accomplishments.

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June 27, 2018 · 8:15 pm

Mom Camp Meets Girl Scouts Pool Party (Day 8)

After selling more than 7000 cookies, The Princess’ Girl Scout Troop got to have a summer pool party! This meant that Cinco had to tag along along with my co-leader’s son (who will now be known as The Boy Scout).

We actually spent 5 and 1/2 hours at the pool, having lunch, attending the party and staying after for swim lessons. Let’s just say it was very water logged day…

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June 27, 2018 · 12:18 am

Mom Camp Day 7: The Fairies Arrive

After many days of carefully creating fairy habitats, it was time for the big night!

In honor of the event, The Princess even read a special fairy book.
img_5781Normally, we assemble the fair village outside but sadly this year the wind did NOT cooperate and were forced to set up inside in the dining room.

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My awesome mushroom hut!

Cinco’s clay fairy huts lined a path leading to the golden castle and several small boxes painted with metallic colors were also displayed.

The castle also had many lovely embellishments including feathers and the famous golden fairy wings! A small bottle of fairy beads was also laid out for the visitors.

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Additionally, my attempt at a milk jug fairy home was also included off to the side.

Fairy Forest Cafe (FFC as Cinco called it) had several tables and chairs set out in front of it and included a Fairy Forest Cafe sign (not pictured).

And, many lovely dishes of fairy food were set out as well.  I was particularly fond of the mini-cinnamon rolls and tiny bread.

When we awoke in the morning, The Captain reported that both the front and back doors were flung open.  NO JOKE!  Whether it was the fairies or the wind who can say?

In true fairy style, they left a note, presents and of course fairy dust.

Both children were gifted magical glowing necklaces.

And, Cinco received a mini hot-wheels set (how perfect), as well as puzzle from the mischievous Puck. They also left behind a few wolves to inhabit the dog house that Cinco made.

The Princess was given a cute fairy wand and a paint your own fairy statue. I was forgotten yet again by the fairies.  But then, I suppose those over 21 don’t get magical prizes.

 

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June 25, 2018 · 6:45 pm

Mom Camp 2.0 Fairy Days (Days 5 & 6)

Now this should have been our final day of prep prior to the big night…  but you know at the last minute The Princess decided she wanted to add a cafe for the fairies.  Because, you know, they might get hungry.  So, it was back outside to the patio to craft a clay fairy cafe.  (Called the Fairy Forest Cafe– Cinco did his best to convince The Princess we should call it FFC for short like KFC, but she would have none of it).

While the stand was drying, Cinco and The Princess got to work making a few food items for the cafe.  These included bowls of fairy food and a few cinnamon rolls crafted from leftover clay.  Of course, the cafe needed a canopy and then we needed to add chairs and tables for the fairy guests to enjoy their treats.

Again, we had to wait overnight for the clay to dry so we could properly paint the food stand and the food. We also crafted another “platform/garden” to house the cafe area.

By the end of day 6 we were ready for the fairies to arrive at our village!

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June 23, 2018 · 12:19 am

Fairy Days Mom Camp 2.0 (Days 3&4)

Days 3 & 4: Let the crafting begin

Creating the house took two days. One to craft the clay and allow it to dry and one to paint and decorate the homes.

Cinco and The Princess dove right in and started making their clay creations. The Princess opted for a castle decked out in gold and a series of small boxes.  She purchased several boxes in different shapes –hearts, square circle– at the Dollar Store and painted them to the homes of “The Nobility”.  As she explained, you really can not be a fairy King and Queen with a few nobles to boss around.

Clay Huts

Meanwhile, Cinco made a small collection of mini-clay fairy houses.  He even went so far as to craft a small clay dog house– I’m sure fairies have dogs too, right?

Cinco also insisted that I learn how to make a fairy hut and gave me through instructions on creating a house. I also used a bit of my left over clay for some small logs to set outside the house.

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I, on the other hand, decided to stand by the traditional recycled fairy house.  I started with a milk carton and had a vision of decorating it in wooden shingles for the roof and stone pebbles for the walls.  That was a hot mess.  The shingles looked horrible and the pebbles kept falling off the carton NO MATTER how much hot glue I used.

 

 

On my second attempt at the recycled house, I just used paint. I added a few embellishments, like a flower roof and made a nice garden to go with the house and called it a day.

And, after a massive clean up effort boths day, we all ended up in the pool until dinner time.  Better than a shower to get all that paint off, right?

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June 21, 2018 · 11:57 pm

Fairy Days Mom Camp 2.0 Day 2

If you know ANYTHING about Mom Camp, you know that we always make fairy houses (or sometimes a village) to celebrate the summer solstice.

You can see some our old fairy houses here: (I think my favorite fairy “house” was the year Cinco built a baseball field for the fairies….

We Interrupt this Mom Camp to Bring You Summer Solstice Day

Fairies, Fairies Everywhere…. Mom Camp Days 10-13

Mom Camp Days 12-13: Summer Solstice 

We did skip last year because we were traveling in Italy, but this year we are back in force!  And, the solstice happens to be TONIGHT!  Stay turned for what we did for this awesome fairy spectacle.

Supplies

Every good fairy house craft begins with a trip to The Dollar Store as well as Hobby Lobby for supplies — and we spend months saving boxes and any other “interesting recyclables” that come through the house.  This year Cinco and The Princess were set on making houses out of clay.  (A new project for Mom Camp Fairy Days) So, we left Hobby Lobby with 5 lbs of clay, lots of metallic paint and several decorative embellishments for the houses — including golden fairy wings!img_5767

After about 3 hours roaming stores — yes they can spend forEVER in Hobby Lobby— we made it home to unpack and swim.

 

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