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Mega-Messy Summer Fun!

If you're like me, you're already thinking about how to fill those long summer days with fun stuff for kids.  In this post, I want to share one of my all-time favorite things for my kids ... ever.  We call it Cousin Camp!

For the past several summers, all of the cousins on my husband's side of the family have gotten together for a fun-filled "Cousin Camp."  Eight kids ranging in age from four to ten, all in one house for one week of super-crazy, mega-messy fun!  Hubby's sister teaches private swimming lessons so once we have all the kiddos signed up in their lesson slots, we start planning the fun!

The last time we were all together we planned "Messy Week" ... five days of the craziest, messiest fun we could think of.  Here are some highlights:

Color Me Happy

At a cousin's baseball game, we let those in the audience draw on themselves -- and others -- with colored ink pens.  They had a blast drawing pictures, writing notes, and copying tattoos!

   

Creating fun tattoos!


Fun Dipper Dinner

Dinner was on-the-go this day so we planned portable fun dippers for all.  The menu included:

Homemade chicken nuggets
Carrots
Sliced Apples
Strawberries
Grapes

Dipping Sauces:

Ketchup
Ranch Dressing
Chocolate Dip
Caramel Dip
Yogurt


    
Yummy Dipper Dinner!


Summer Snowball Fight!

Later, the kids enjoyed a summer 'snowball' fight.  We cut ladies' stockings into sections, tied a knot at one end, filled it with flour, then tied a knot on top.  The kids had a blast tossing these at each other and watching the 'poofs' of 'summer snow' as they went.  ** One note: the household dog, a labrador retriever, loved to eat these!  We had to keep her away from them as she would gobble them up.  So if you think you might give this a try, you might want to put the pets up first.



   
Fun Summer Snowball Fight

This represents only one day of fun, so I'll post more later, but I hope you enjoyed it.  The kids had a blast and there was no moping about being 'bored' for us!  Happy Summer-to-Come!


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Comments

  1. SaraMarch 29, 2010 at 6:49 PM

    Thanks for your comment! I believe the woman who made those margarita glasses bought one of the sets from Khols or Ross or one of those other type of stores, then painted the glasses herself. Regardless, I love them. Heck, even my husband wants to use them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PaulaMarch 30, 2010 at 12:46 AM

    Love the snowball fight! How creative.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HellcatBettyMarch 30, 2010 at 2:54 AM

    Such cute ideas!! I love it when people let kids get messy... after all, that's what childhood is for!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My Army LifeMarch 30, 2010 at 9:53 AM

    Thanks, Sara. Don't know if I'll be hand-painting my own, but I'll be on the lookout for cute sets!

    ReplyDelete
  5. My Army LifeMarch 30, 2010 at 9:56 AM

    Paula, I'm much better at researching fun ideas than coming up with my own. I'm sure this idea was found online somewhere ... but thanks! It was a ton of fun. And Erica, we're never afraid of a mess ... in fact, it's a way of life. =)

    ReplyDelete
  6. DawnaMarch 31, 2010 at 9:53 AM

    Wow! That DOES sound like A LOT of fun! Might have to do a bit of thinking on something similar. At least that we can do as a family.

    Two of my kids are older (13 and 16), but the littlest one is nearly 4. I still think they would all have quite a bit of fun having an opportunity to just get dirty and messy for awhile.

    Thank you for sharing such wonderful ideas!

    ReplyDelete

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