Back to School Playday!!

We had our Back To School Party yesterday.... oh what fun it was.

Some of the tags I used are from http://amandaparkerandfamily.blogspot.com/

and some are clip art I bought at the store... they have all kinds of things out there all ready printed for you.



We had lunch



and treat boxes- I took take-out boxes and added some embellishments, wrote their names on them & stuffed them with treats and school supplies. Tag from paperglitter.com





cheese & crackers snacks--

more treats... fruit snacks.  We don't get these alot, so they are really a treat!! 

Apple sandwiches... just spread peanut butter in between 2 apple slices

Always a FAVORITE!!!

and of course... milk jugs of MILK with striped straws & topped with chocolate striped cookies.

I hadn't had alphabet soup forever...... the  boys had fun finding letters

Enjoying the FOOD & FUN!!!!



This little guy was so excited to show us where he put his worm..... hahaha he liked the  pin the worm on the apple game!!


And lots of "kisses" to take home..... made with the printables from www.laurenmckinsey.com  Fun day with those little boys.... I can't believe summer is almost over.



Back Yard Campout!!

It was our Back Yard Campout this last week-end.  We did it for play day, only EVERYONE was envited.... and YES we had so much FUN!!

Welcome to Camp Hamblin....

The TREAT table

I filled tin buckets with frogs, bears, rocks, sticks, trail mix, popcorn, and licorice.  I picked the buckets up at Target, they have a chalk board square to write on- but I thought tags would be cuter and... you can print them off to use for your campout too



I wrapped the utinsels in camo napkins, covered mason jars with a paper label.. trees for the girls and camo for the boys. Put a fun jar lid & straw in them & you are good to go.



It wouldn't be a campout.... without s'mores and keep scrolling down to find a yummy new twist on the S'mores....

here are the jar drinking glasses... the little boys had a different colored strip of fabric tied around theirs.... the aduts had bigger jars with their inital on them. so they could keep track of their glass

the perfect topper for fishing....  we have the free printable for you too!  don't mind the colors, my printer had about had it & the color was fading-- but the little guys still loved them, they are more concerned about what's inside-- lol



I made a "Welcome to camp" board for the center piece on the table.. it says "Welcome to camp Hamblin"



Hobo sticks with a snack tied up in them for the scavenger hunt

I used to make these for my Boy's-- in fact I remember having them at one of MY Girls camps as a child!  They go way back--


close up of the labels on the cans... I had some other stickers and such in my stash... so I used them too!



trail mix... on these buckets I put a piece of paper behind the tag- it just adds a little bit more color to it!

scavenger hunt cans.  I wrapped a soup can with paper and glued the list onto the can- we left a couple of blank lines so you can fill in with other things you are hunting for!!

we played glow in the dark ring toss...  just put a couple of glowsticks into a bottle of water..it was a fun game, but they ended up carring the bottles around like a lantern all night.

we did cook s'mores on the fire, but these are my new favorite thing to roast.... rolo stuffed marshmallows  oh can you say yummmm?

Jars full of Fire flies, for them to put in the tent for a night light. Just use glow in the dark paint.... 

and hold them up to a flash light... and you have glowing fire flies. when I gave them to them in the tent, they were so excited & asked if they were real-- I said look they are glowing-- one of them replied- hey look they aren't moving!! I said they were tired & it was time for them to go to sleep with the fireflies--  Then I heard one of them whisper-- hey I think they're painted on!! LOL Yep they are getting smarter... but they still played along with Grandma!!

ready for the scavanger hunt... yes they were Happy Campers!!!

enjoying a piece of summer.... watermellon.  I will get the free Campout printables posted as soon as Jamie gets the files to me... she was making a couple of adjustments to them.. LOVE that I can tell her what I want and she does it !! Thanks Jamie.  Hopefully they will be ready for you today sometime!!  Until then get planning a campout at your house too!!  It was a lot of work-- but it was MORE fun!! They grow up too fast love them while you can!!

Summer FUN!! At Grandma's

It was play-day at Grandma's-- and we got out the big water slide!!!

when it's hot outside-- there's no better way to cool off

This water slide has lasted over 10 years, multiple parties and countless races with adults! This is a slide made by the same company because they don't sell ours anymore.

Of course there was a lot of FUN food-  these are our favorite treat, we LOVE them made with rolos- but you can make them up so many different ways = pretzel, chocolate melt, M & M's  like I said a rolo in place of the white chocolate melt is so good with a pecan on top.
Just put the pretzel and whatever you are going to melt on top- put them in the oven @200 for 3 minutes and then place the M & M on top after you take them out!!

then there was Taffy on a skewer-  I had seen them do this at a Baby Shower with Pink taffy, so I found some red, white & blue and thought that they would be fun.  Just poke them on the skewer and tie some curly ribbon in between for a really fun treat!

 and watermelon cut out with a star cookie cutter and put on a wooden stick always is a hit!!  Everything is better on a stick.  And they are so much easier to eat & less messy too.

 we love strawberries- so I just sliced these in an X on top and then stuck the tip of the canned whipping cream inside and filled them with whip cream... add a frozen blueberry and  you're in for a treat!!

 these were so fun to make-- I had bought some MINI cones awhile ago and wanted to use them somehow.. so I scooped ice cream with my mini scoop and filled the cones- then put them back in the freezer for a few hours- then I melted some chocolate and dipped them into the chocolate, put sprinkles on top, wrapped them in tin foil & placed them back in the freezer.   I will post a tutorial tomorrow on how to make them.

 and a couple of years ago in the Family Fun magazine they had the rocket dogs-- I changed them a little bit and added the cupcake liner for the bottom-- because I have a TON of cupcake liners...but they turned out cute & the little boys loved them.  Just put a hotdog on a skewer, wrap dough strips around them ( I used the canned rolls and flattened them out & cut them in 1/2 long ways so I had 2 pieces per roll) then bake them on a cookie sheet as the instructions on the can say.  Cut a piece of cheese for the top and slip a cupcake liner on the bottom-- very easy.  We used to make them look like mummies at Halloween doing the same thing with the dough.

 I rimmed the glasses with pop rocks.. so they had another surprise when they took a sip!!!  I find it is better to use Honey instead of just dipping the rim in water- to make them stick.  They are a little bit harder to get to stick, but you won't have a problem if yo use honey on the top.

Another FUN day with the little people I LOVE the most!!!!!

Water Sponge Balls

I made these water sponge balls for our play day yesterday- and said I would post how to do them, so here we go:

You will need some sponges, the ones I had were a couple of different lengths.  I think the longer ones work better, but they turned out okay with both sizes- so take your sponge and cut it in half like this

 then cut each half into thirds and you will have six pieces of sponge- it's more fun if you use different colors. I used 9-10 pieces of sponge strips per ball
  

after you have all your sponges cut, grab a handful together and squeeze them tight in the middle --

take a pice of dental floss and wrap it around them as tight as you can and tie it in a knot- clip the excess floss

 fluff them up by twisting them around...I made a couple of them with less sponges for the little guys to be able to hold onto better.  You can make them as big as you want.  Then soak them in water and throw them--- you'll have a water fight on your hands. 

BUG LUNCH playday!!

It was play day at Grandma's today!!!  I threw together some things I had on hand... BUGS are always a hit with the little boys!!  So I thought a BUG LUNCH would be FUN.

I put some butterfly nets in a bucket & a sign on the front porch.

Then inside the FUN began.......

we had spiders, caterpillars, and ants on a log

they had to make their own "bugs" for lunch... that's where all the fun happens.  Look how cute this little guy is putting those legs on his spider...

and there is nothing better on a hot day than Lady Bug Juice...

add a butterfly sandwich and you are good to go.....

here is worm dirt dessert-- made with crushed oreo's, pudding, gummy worms, candy rocks and an instant flower... 

and at every summer lunch you need a fly swatter....   these are made with jolly ranchers, I posted how to make them a few days ago

look at that plate so FUN to make & fun to eat....

oh my, that is a lot of BUGS!

this little guy ate everything as he made it.... he couldn't wait!

after lunch it was time for the water games to begin there were water balloons, squirt guns, sponge balls ( I'll post how to make them later) and the slide....

after all that FUN they were ready to kick back in the swimming pool and sip homemade slurpees!!!  Oh what a life... I think we might have to get a bigger pool!! What do ya think?
It was a very fun play day, and Grandma's tired!!  :)