William's 9th birthday: A boat ride

William's 9th birthday fell on a Saturday this year so we celebrated as a family by going on a boat ride. We got the boat ready and Dode decided to check the battery before pulling out of the driveway.  Totally dead.  He spent an hour charging it and it was still dead.  He'd washed the boat a few weeks before and Miriam had been playing up in front.  She'd left the radio on and we'd drained the battery until it was absolutely spent.  So, on the way to boating, we detoured to Costco to purchase a new battery.  We always avoid Costco on Saturdays and for good reason, it was crazy.  You have to purchase the battery in the tire area and the four people standing in line in front of me were all purchasing tires.  So, the wait was long while they decided which tires, which extras they wanted.  Then, after purchasing the battery, I had to stand in the customer service line to get my core charge back.  Finally, we were on the road with a running boat, several hours behind schedule!  We launched from the Highway 20 boat launch under the bridge connecting Fidalgo Island to the mainland.

We boated down the channel to LaConner, passed under the rainbow bridge and landed at Goat Island.  Goat Island at one time was the home of Fort Whitman.  Fort Whitman was used from 1911-1944.  It was built to guard the Deception Pass and  Saratoga Pass entrances into the Puget Sound.  It contained one gun battery with 4 disappearing guns, Battery Harrison. When the fort was decommissioned at the end of World War 2, all the salvageable metal was removed and it was deeded to the DNR.  It was simply abandoned, there is no visitor's center, interpretive signs or even any formally built trails.  We knew about it because Dode had visited there with Isaac years ago and Elizabeth and I were just there when we took a boat ride with Captain Dave in the spring.  I knew the rest of the children would also enjoy exploring the fort.

 We walked up the user built trail to the old fort on the island.  We ate our picnic lunch there and did some exploring of the gun batteries.  Miriam was hesitant to go into any of the dark tunnels, even with her parents.

Trees, moss and ferns are overtaking everything.  William is standing on the stairs the lead up to the area where the men could load the ammunition into the guns.  

The structures are fully covered in graffiti

our birthday boy

We knew there was a sighting structure somewhere on the island so we used Dode's phone to search the internet to see if anyone could tell us where it was located.  The trail to the sighting area is definitely not used as much as the trail to the fort but we made it to our destination with no problem.  The children enjoyed climbing around it before we headed back to the boat.

Where the soldiers used to look out over the water for enemy submarines.

side view of sighting structure

Miriam wore her swimsuit all day.  It looked a bit funny to see her hiking through the woods in just a swim suit!

Dode thought Miriam needed to use the bathroom so we started to head over to the South end of Goat Island where there is a campground with a pit toilet.  (He didn't know that she'd used the bushes.)  Unfortunately, it was really shallow in that area so we decided to turn around and head back.  We were almost back to deep water (literally 5-10 feet from it) when we hit a rock and damaged our prop.

The damaged prop, ouch!

After that, we couldn't do top speeds in the boat without feeling a lot of shimmy but we still had a fun day.

Anastaya relaxing on the boat

The water of Puget Sound was smooth enough for some tubing.

We boated under the Deception Pass bridge and stopped at Deception Pass State Park where we played on the beach for a while and everyone used the bathroom.

On the way back under the bridge, we towed the girls in the tube.  People on the bridge looked down and waved.

It's a warm day when you're swimming in the sound!

Here's our route.

Once we were done playing at the state park, it was time to head towards home.  Jacob was home from work by then so we called ahead and he had a pancake dinner waiting for us.  It was a nice way to end the day.

2013 Day Camp Days 3 and 4

Days 3 and 4

Monday is always the most chaotic day of camp with everyone trying to figure out what they are doing, both den leaders and station leaders.  Tuesday usually runs pretty smoothly as the station leaders have all run through their classes for a complete day and the den leaders feel more confident.  Wednesday is the 2nd most chaotic day as we change to new classes which means things might not work, supplies might be missing, the boys might not be interested.  Here's what we did for days three and four.

Space Ships

I'd ordered flying disks from Dollar Tree that they could decorate but they ended up on back order.  We made foil covered paper plates instead.  They actually fly really well.

Trying to land their space ships at the "space station".

Car Launchers

Decorating her launcher.

My step dad Greg cut and partially assembled the 150 launchers for us.  Each boy got to decorate their launcher and select a new hot wheels car.

We don't have any pavement at camp so I bought a sheet of plywood the boys could race their cars on.

Robots
They rotated through some fun games: giant kerplunk, ladder golf and knock over the laundry baskets.

They also tried to work together at their "robot factory" to pass a marble from one piece of PVC pipe to another without dropping it.

Giant Kerplunk to test their precision as robots.

Aliens

They decorated alien visors from Oriental Trading.

They built popcycle stick and rubber band catapults and launched their aliens into space.

instructions here

Cooking

Eating "zero gravity" food

We also made campfire eclairs.

Day camp has many variations on the "food on a stick" genre.

After baking their crescent roll, they filled it with pudding they made in a bag and frosted it with chocolate frosting.

The Moon

Oreo phases of the moon

 Race to the moon relay

Two teams with their flags planted on the moon

William modeling the astronaut outfit ahead of time.

The boys dressed up in tyvek astronaut suits complete with 2-liter bottle rocket packs, rubber moon boots and 2 gallon bucket astronaut helmets.

They had to dress like an astronaut, make their walk to the moon, then return to their team, take off the astronaut outfit and help the next person dress like an astronaut.  It was a fun game, and I thought it up myself!

during the relay

Blast Off

Kool-Aid squeezers paper rocket launchers

Balloon rocket races

Nature Walk
Every year the boys get to take a nature walk down to the river.  This year, on Tuesday morning I asked the property manager if the trail was ready for us.  He said he thought it was but he'd make sure.  It wasn't long before I saw a truck load of workers head down to the trail and soon we heard weed whackers and chain saws running.  They worked all day to get the trail ready for us to use the next day.

Here's part of the path.

How many camps get this kind of beauty so close by yet don't have to worry about it during the regular part of camp?  The nature walk was some of the adults favorite part of camp.

This large tree is on the nature walk.

Repeated from days 1 and 2:  flag football, archery, bb guns, den time

2013 Day Camp Days 1 & 2

Classes for Monday and Tuesday

Map and Compass

The cubs learn how to orient and use a map to find different locations around camp.  They eventually found a treasure box with shiny necklaces in them.  I found a great resource for map and compass type activities this year.  link here

Jedi Training

Our obstacle course.

I reused a lot of the same features from last year.
When I went around camp later asking the boys what their favorite class was, this is the one they chose.
Details of the obstacle course features here.

Each boy built a pool noodle light saber.

retrieve the alien ship without activating the self destruct sequence

(the retrieve the idol painted silver and reused from last year)

A funny thing happened with the obstacle course class.  Last year we couldn't find our balance beam anywhere.  Dode finally decided we must have hauled it to the dump so he made another one.  When we set up camp this year, our now very weathered balance beam was leaning up against one of the trees. It had been there for two years!  This class also gave us a last minute headache.  We re-used our "Dangerous Passage" from last year.  Dode had good intentions to test it out before camp started but life got busy.  The day we were loading the trailer to go to camp the following day, he realized that all the many wires were corroded and would need to be re-soldered.  He and Isaac spent at least an hour repairing everything.  

Then, we got it out to camp and it worked fine in the morning.  But, by the end of the Saturday night orientation (with siblings playing on it while their cub scout siblings attended the meeting), the horn stopped working.  It was a big part of our obstacle course and I couldn't bear to retire it.  We talked about it as we drove home and decided that if we purchased a new horn, Isaac could install it Monday morning.  

So, Monday morning when we got to camp an hour early, Isaac's job was to take the back off the dangerous passage once more and solder on the horn.  We don't have electricity at camp so we use the inverter Dode installed in our van.  Isaac had been waiting forever for the soldering iron to heat up and finally came to get me (in all my busyness) to tell me it wouldn't work.  I went over to find that when the extension cord was plugged in, another cord was stuck under it between the prongs so he wasn't getting a good connection.  Isaac took a few tries to get the horn working correctly but he got it up and running with minutes to spare.

Archery

A perennial favorite of the boys.  We have to find hay bales each year to use as our target backstops.  This year I used part of my budget to buy a straw archery target.  I figure if I buy one a year, in four years, I won't have to borrow hay any more.  It was supposed to be here the week before camp, I'm still waiting.

BB Guns

Another favorite of the boys.

Mission Control

A series of fun team building activities.  In this photo they are using sticks and rocks to build a tripod to support some leaves.  I also bought those grabbers people use to pick up trash on the side of the road.  My sister-in-law Sheri bought me a huge box of ball pit balls and their mission was to sort as many balls from the large bin into color coded bins as possible.  I found a lot of ideas here

Solar System

In this class they built a comet and edible model of the solar system.
My inspiration was here.
To make our comets, I used wiffle balls from the Dollar Tree that they decorated with curling ribbon.

Cooking

biscuit wrapped "rocket" hot dogs

Stars

Learning about stars.

Making their own constellation

They also got to use the power of our star to pop a balloon with a magnifying glass.

The station leader also brought supplies for every boy to make a bracelet with UV beads.

Solar System

The station leader for this class did all the planning for the class.  She brought rocks and fossils and helped the boys earn their geology belt loop.

Flag Football

The cubs learned about flag football and were able to earn their flag football belt loop.

Day Camp 2013: Space Odyssey Overview

Time for day camp again!  It was my 12th camp to plan in 11 years.  I realized that this year that I've been doing camp longer than the cubs that are now attending (ages 6-10) have been alive, wild!  The month leading up to camp is always extremely busy.  The children get tired of me buying fun things and treats and hearing, "It's for day camp".  I tell them to just assume that everything that comes that looks like something neat is for camp.  Camp definitely takes less planning than it used to since so much of it carries over from year to year but the classes are new each year.  I have to plan 22 different classes, make sure the instructions for the activities are clear, and purchase all the supplies for the classes.  

This year our theme was Outer Space.   I had a lot of fun developing an outer space program.  I found lots of ideas that I organized on Pinterest.  Here's my board with 209 pins!  I'll give an overview of the classes later.  This year, the favorite class was our obstacle course, which I titled Jedi Training.  I think it was a favorite because the boys got to make pool noodle light sabers.  

My friend Audrey Schilatey painted the mural above on a 4' x 8' piece of plywood (it doesn't look like plywood anymore does it).  We used in the center of our gathering area to hide all my PA paraphernalia.

Our secretary's pack did an outer space blue and gold pack meeting and gave us all their left over planets.  The camp director, Lisa Johnson, has a vinyl cutter so she fancied this planet up for camp.

The big build this year was this rocket.  It had been an old oil tank that we pulled from the swamp next to our house and totally transformed.  Dode was 100% responsible for the rocket.  The boys spent lots of times playing in it.  The plan was to always have adult supervision at the rocket so no one would get hurt.  After our Saturday night parent orientation, I walked up to the rocket to find it absolutely jam packed with scouts, inside, standing on the back, standing on the top, hanging from the front.  I told them, "The rocket is closed. Everyone out."  Boys started climbing out and I realized that the rocket wasn't just full of the scouts I could see, there were two boys crouched down in the front and two crouched down in the back.  We were way over capacity!  I learned that I needed to ask a youth helper (teenager) to sit on the ladder and keep boys off of the rocket during the opening and closing parts of camp or we'd have things like that happen again.

I didn't get any photos of it at camp.  Here it is at its permanent home, on top of our hill.

Darth Vader watched over camp all week.  It was funny to drive in in the morning and see his life sized self standing watch over camp.  The cubs loved pushing the buttons on his control panel to make him talk and amazingly the batteries lasted all week.  I'm pretty proud of how my home built Vader turned out.  Here's how I made him.

One of our lunch time presentations, a mad scientist

.

I've seen some videos of Steve Spangler doing science demonstrations on the Ellen show and thought it would be fun to do something similar at camp.  Here's one you can watch if you'd like.  

My friend Brian Murray agreed to come up and do the presentation.  He was amazing!  In the photo above, he is holding a quart jar filled with water above the cub scout's head.  Air pressure is holding a piece of paper to the bottom so that the water doesn't flow out.  He's getting ready to remove the paper and wonder of wonders, nothings comes out because there's a screen across the opening.  He also did something similar to the air blasters you can see in the Ellen show clip and he demonstrated the Bernoulli effect with a leaf blower and a beach ball.  The hardest part for me with the demonstration was boys rushing the "stage".  I had to keep stopping Brian to walk up front and tell the boys, "Go back to your seats."  They were so excited they just couldn't do it.  I knew I had a lunch time presentation later in the week that included a magic trick so after the mad scientist chaos, I spray painted a line in the grass that they could not go beyond.  Problem solved!

Isaac and I bringing around the snack wagon.  We hand out snacks twice a day.  I've found that the boys are really hungry about an hour into camp.  We also send a snack around the last hour of camp, when people are getting tired and grumpy.  He's modeling the hat I wore all week.

Our snacks for the week:  

Pretzels and string cheese

Tortilla chips and salsa

carrot muffins (parents baked for us)

Apples and granola bars

oranges and sandwich crackers

leftover granola bars and sandwich crackers with go-gurt

popcycles

Lisa's daughter Kayla and my daughter Miriam being the jesters so the boys can tell jokes and receive a piece of laffy taffy.  Miriam liked being the jester so much that she missed the classes she could have gone to one day just to be the jester!

practicing for their flag ceremony  

I love to see how seriously the boys take their roles when it's their turn to be the color guard.

We have different riddles every day.  When they solve the riddle, they get a piece of candy.  Here is Thursday's riddle:

Aliens Among Us:  Can you identify these aliens?

1. I came to Earth as a baby from the planet Krypton. I disguise myself as a newspaper reporter.

2. I came to Earth to collect specimens and was left behind by my ship. I was found by a group of children. I have a fondness for Reese's Pieces.

3. I was created as the result of a science experiment. I have the ability to be cute and charming, but also can be very destructive.

4. An evil villain who wants to take over the universe, I am the sworn enemy of the galactic alliance.

5. I am a super intelligent alien who came to earth as an infant and now lives in Metro City. I begin my life as a villain but through a series of experiences, I become a hero.

6. We are very handy and and have a telepathic link to one another, powered by the Uni-Mind.

7. I am a hairy, non-English speaking co-pilot to a man who saved my life. I am always armed.

8. I lived to be 900 years old. I lived in exile on the planet Degobah after one of the students I trained turned out badly.

These riddles were definitely age specific.  None of the children could get the second riddle while all the adults thought it was easy.  Few of the adults could get the fifth but Metro City gave it away for the cubs.  The third riddle was hard for everyone.  I thought it was easy, but I must just love that movie a lot! 

The thing Dode was happiest about this year, and that took many many hours, was the trailer he built to haul stuff back and forth.  It began life as a boat trailer but he's turned it into a flat bed trailer that held everything we needed to bring to camp, with room to spare.  

See how big it is?  It absolutely dwarfs my cargo trailer.

We could have fit everything in his new trailer but I insisted I wanted to take my cargo trailer to use as an "office".  Two trailers to haul to camp with only one van with a hitch, what to do?  He went to the junk yard and found a hitch for our little van.  He tested the new hitch out with our bike rack when he and Isaac went to Canada for their high adventure.  The cargo trailer really jerks the little van around, but we didn't have any problems getting everything out to camp this year.  As we packed up when camp was finished Thursday night he said, "I love my trailer!"  Usually our cargo trailer is stuffed, the van is stuffed, his pick up is more than stuffed, the children are packed in with things under, on and over them, and we barely fit everything in.  This year we had extra room in the trailers and we had nothing in the van but kids.

It was a successful year.  We never had a cub scout have to come to headquarters for a disciplinary time out.  We didn't have any adults get overly frustrated and loose their cool.  We passed our inspection to be a nationally certified camp.  But, it was a very exhausting year for me.  I don't think I ever got more than five hours of sleep a night the week leading up to and the week of camp.  I'd be in bed for longer than that, but I'd spend hours with my brain spinning.  I'm finally feeling like I've got my energy back.  And, I've already got a Pinterest board going for 2014!