Camp Vernon

Fall Break

October 2010

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CAMP VERNON

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Our Tucson friends Christine and Neil had a wedding to go to during fall break... so we volunteered to have their kids stay with us for a few days. To make their stay fun, we planned CAMP VERNON. We sent them an official Camp Vernon welcome letter and itinerary for their stay. My kids were so excited looking forward to "camp".

Friday Night: Wacky Spaghetti, No Hands-Dessert and Shaving Cream Art

DINNER

We lined 2 tables up and covered them in butcher paper, gave them each a Wacky Utensil, even blindfolded them for part of it, threw their spaghetti portions out in front of them on the table... and that's really how they ate dinner...

Baby Sophie LOVED "Wacky Spaghetti" night... ha ha, she thought this is how we should always eat!! She helped herself right on up to eat spaghetti with her hands! Since this was even before she started feeding herself, it was especially a treat.

*If you notice above, there is coloring on the butcher paper. I was trying to get dinner all ready for them to start... and between me taping the butcher paper to the table and going inside for 5 minutes... Logan colored with washable markers all over the butcher paper. With 10 kids here, there was no time to re-do the butcher paper.... so ha ha, we just threw the spaghetti on top of it! It was like smearing, and some of the noodles were blue, etc... it was dark though, and the kids didn't even care. Gross. What do you do?

DESSERT

After dinner was finished, we ripped off the spaghetti butcher paper and lined the tables with fresh clean butcher paper... tied the kids hands behind their backs...

And they were ready for dessert!

In front of each of them was placed a fresh from the oven GOOEY brownie topped with ice cream, chocolate syrup and whipped cream and sprinkles...

All they had to eat this was their faces, ha ha!

SHAVING CREAM ART

After dinner we once again ripped off the butcher paper and gave them EACH their OWN BOTTLE of shaving cream to make art with their hands on the table.

It started out so in control...

... the "ART" was really filling the table...

... and then things just sorta went out of control... ha ha

WHAT A MESS!!!! ha ha. Do you look at this above picture and think, "How in the world do you get all these kids cleaned up???"

Even though it was October and kind of cold.... this is what we did:

This night was so fun. The kids had a great time... they loved all the "hands on" sanctioned "mess making" night... I am pretty sure they were convinced thats how kids were meant to live!

Picture Day

My friend Haleigh Rhoner just took all of my kids pictures.

It was SO fast and painless...

two words not usually associated with "picture day"

I TOTALLY did not plan on being in the pictures... or I would have done my hair! However while there I looked down and saw that both Sophie and I were wearing grey stripes so I had her snap a picture of me reading to Sophie in the rocking chair. One thing I LOVE about being a mom is reading to my kids. I've messed up a lot of things, but at least I read to all my kiddos pretty regularly when they're little!

Laser Tag Day

Logan turned the BIG 8 in October....

hooray, next month he is getting baptized!

On his birthday we told him we were taking the whole family to a "special" place to eat...

We had never been to "Logans Roadhouse" and kept telling Logan "how did they make a whole restaurant just for you"... ha ha.

And lucky duck Logan had a Laser Tag birthday party during fall break. I had never played laser tag before... it was kind of fun. However in the end when you get your scores for everyone... my score: a BIG ZERO. Seriously, not a single point scored. The worker really told me that my gun must have not been working, but Bruce and my kids didn't believe that. They just think I am a Laser Tag Loser. ha ha.

And I made Logan a homemade ice cream cake for the party, per his request... just like my Grandma Blake use to make... mmmmm so yummy!

Pretend Camping

In October Lily turned FIVE!

This year Lily had a mock

CAMPOUT BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Bruce set up the tent in the backyard and we had a fire pit where the girls roasted hotdogs for dinner. They each got their own flashlight that they loved running around with and even used to go on a NIGHT WALK (in the dark park behind our house). They had dirt cups for dessert and we told "scary" stories in the tent. Then the girls went home at 9:00pm.

My older kids LOVED helping as "camp counselors" at the party. My boys especially loved "scaring" the girls while they were playing in the tent. The girls loved it.

Bruce gets the award for BEST DAD this weekend because after the party was over our kids begged to sleep in the tent. And we would have let the older kids sleep out there alone, but Lily really wanted to sleep out there with them. So Bruce said his last birthday present to Lily was giving up a night of sleep... and he slept out there with them so Lily could camp out too!

This is late at night and Bruce is in here asleep with all our kids.... aaaw, sweet dad:

Note Crazy

So I happen to take a picture from October General Conference weekend... this is Sunday morning, what it looked like watching conference at my house. How many Vernon kids can you FIT on a couch? ha ha. I can still taste the homemade cinnamon rolls.

I LOVE Conference weekend where we watch the Prophet of the Lord and His apostles speak to us. So beautiful. I LOVED all the messages about family this fall.

I want to record this for posterity... my dear sweet 15 year old daughter and her friend Vanessa you can see above taking notes during conference. Ashlin told me that it's easier to pay attention if she takes notes. That precious child of mine took, I AM NOT KIDDING, 23 pages of notes from Conference!! WHAT??? And THEN she spent hours sunday evening typing ALL of her notes up!!! Bruce and I were cracking up... she ended up with 9 typed pages of notes from conference. Please remind me of this next time I am mad at her.... (like when her friends TP our house and spread shredded paper all over my newly planted flowers... yep that just happened) What joy to have such a good girl, and since you could use notes in our Family Home Evening conference trivia game... she rocked that game and got the best prize! :)