Schools Out for Summer

When you have six school ages grands it really helps to have five of them in the same school when it comes to attending the science fairs, the Halloween parades, the school programs, and the end of the year awards ceremony.

My oldest grand moving on to 6th grade.
How can that be?
One of her awards was for being
"non-violent"
What the heck?

My very bright science olympian moving on to the 5th grade.
His friends checking out his cool certificate.
Awesome #2!

This little cutie received an award for her reading.
On to the 3rd grade!
Way to go # 3

It was perfect attendance for #4.
Broken arm and all!
Second fastest runner in the 2nd grade.
He was also recognized this year for
stopping some bullying on the playground.

Our soon to be 2nd grader received an award that
fit her to a "T".
She was recognized for being
kind, caring, helpful, and compassionate.
That's my sweet girl!

With the changes in schools next year I will still only have grandchildren in two different elementary schools and two preschools. Works for me!

School is barely out for the summer and the grands are already anxious to know what my Back to School Party ideas are for the new school year. They have plenty of their own suggestions and they all include some kind of overnight extravaganza. I don't blame them because last year's back to school party was a blast with our overnight stay at the water park resort with Papa and I.

What is the very best thing about the back to school party? It is a loved tradition between Papa and I and our school age grandchildren. You know that makes me smile and that their excitement about the annual tradition is right up my memory making, cousin family bond building, and tradition creating alley. Still smiling!!!!!

You Gotta' Love It!

I am lucky enough to attend church with my adult children and their families every Sunday. I am also lucky enough to have ten little grands who scramble to see who gets to ride home with my husband and I every week after church. We end up with all kinds of combinations in our three extra seats. Sometimes it is all siblings and other times it is a combination of cousins.

Papa and I field lots of questions from the backseat, we have played many different travel games, we sing songs, we have stopped to explain how underground irrigation works when they saw water bubbling out of an irrigation pipe, and we have taken short detours to check something out at the children's requests. I cherish the memories that we are making during our short Sunday afternoon drives.

Recently, we were telling a combination of cousins in the back seat about our upcoming cruise to Alaska. The all agreed that they would really like to go on a cruise. I said; "Wouldn't it be fun if we could all go on a cruise together someday?" ("We" meaning the moms and dads of the kids too!)

My grandson immediately piped up with a plan. He said: "Let's go on a cruise for our Back to School Party!" (The back to school party is an annual event just before school starts for our school age grandchildren with Papa and I. No parents allowed!)

All my husband and I could do is nervously laugh and say wouldn't that be fun!

Birthday Countdown

A really fun find at a great price has led to a new birthday tradition for my grandchildren this year. When I found these on clearance for just $1 each I knew that they would be a great addition to my birthday celebration resources!

There were three available and by doing some quick birthday calculating of my ten grands I knew that three would do the job. They are made of very heavy vinyl and what child wouldn't love the brightly colored birthday graphics?

I have already used them twice and they were a complete hit. The other grands can't wait to get their turn. The 11 year old birthday girl and the 3 year old birthday boy who are siblings both loved the festive countdown to their birthdays. 

The turntable mats start counting down a full month ahead of time. I deliver the birthday countdown mat to the birthday child a month before their birthday. They understand that the birthday mats belong to grandma and that they will each get their turn.

I personal each one before the delivery by putting their name on the birthday cake.

Kids love countdowns and something like this could be easily made using heavy card stock, scrapbook supplies, stickers, and by placing a brad in the center to create the turn table. I would look in the dollar store birthday/teachers supply sections for inexpensive inspiration! You could make it yourself and present it to the birthday child or you could even create it WITH your very special loved one!

We love the birthday streeeeeetch in our family.

This is a very simple way to add an entire month of 

celebrating for the little ones you love!

Back to School Party "ABC Bingo"

This is a store bought game that we play at our back to school party.

Although some of the grands are getting kind of old to play they still play along for the younger cousins. 

The older children like to tweak the game rules to make it a bit more challenging to get a bingo.

It is fun to use Skittles as the markers and the winner of the round gets to eat their skittles.

Back to School Party Game "Timed Memory Game"

Can you guess what time it is?

The invitation to the back to school party kicked off a party theme of "time"

This game was perfect for the occasion.

Timed Memory Game

These cards were from a deck of flash cards that teach children how to tell the time. You could make your own or have the children help make them.

There were 7 cards:

1. Time to get up.

2. Time for breakfast.

3. Time for school.

4. Time for lunch.

5. Time for dinner.

6. Time to read.

7. Time for bed.

To Play:

Scatter the cards around the room face down.

Start timing when the person who is "it" runs and looks at a card. He can only take the card if it is the "time to get up"card. If it is not the correct card he leaves the card face down and tries to remember which card it was and it's location for later in the memory race.

He continues to look at the cards until he finds the "time to get up" card.

Select a place or a person for the cards to be placed or given as they are found before proceeding to look for the next card.

The next card to find would be "Time for breakfast".  The player needs to remember if he has already seen that card or eliminate the cards that he knows are not the one he is looking for.

Continue until all of the cards are found in the correct order. When the final card "Time for bed" finishes the players stack the timer stops.

It is a race against time and your memory. The player with the quickest time wins. An inexpensive stop watch would be a good prize with a tag that reads "This TIME you win!"

Back To School Party Game "Guess What's Missing?"

We have a family tradition for Papa and I to host a back to school party for our school age grands. The party is geared around everything "school".

Almost any game can be tweaked to fit the occasion.

This is a game of  Guess What's Missing?

To play:

Place the collection of items on the table. 

This collection includes scissors, glue, glue stick, crayon, marker, chalk, rulers, paints, a reward sticker, pencil, and an eraser.

Allow the children to look at all of the items on the table. 

One child is blindfolded or leaves the room while an object or objects are removed and placed out of sight.

The child who is "it"  takes off the blindfold or returns to the room and then names what's missing.

It's Our Party and We'll Cry if we Want to!

We, meaning six of our school age grandkids and Papa and I were in our 21st hour of our annual Grandkid's Back to School Party when it was time to leave the resort that we had just surprised the kids with the afternoon before.

It was very sad to pull the kids from their water activities and to have to tell them that it was time to go because they were all still having SO much fun as were Papa and I.

We had asked for an extended check out time and the resort gave us an extra hour with the warning that if we went even a minute over that we would be charged another night for our two suites.

We squeezed every minute of pool time in that we thought we could before heading back to the rooms. Time was short and it took everyone's help to get us out the door on time. It was much more like an evacuation with the bags and gear being tossed just outside the door!

As we took our last elevator ride together, loaded the car with our things, issued water bottles, and got everyone buckled in  my eyes filled with tears. We had just shared an amazing time together with six of our grandchildren and I did not want it to end.

As I looked back at their sunkissed faces in the car it was evident that despite having so much fun to the very end that they were probably worn out and with that moods and behavior could be a changin' at any time. So, perhaps our timing was just right.

We had a stop planned for lunch at Taco Bell. I learned just how many different ways a taco could be special ordered when I asked the six kids what they wanted for lunch. Papa said I could not remember all of the orders in my head but I really thought I had it when I made the order. The soft drink fountain turned into a frenzy of activity when they all got their drink cups. 

Lucky for me I did get all of the special orders correct and I was able to remember who got all 23 items when I passed them out. We grandmas still have those mama skills!

Our grandson who is always busy inventing things was doing just that.

His resources were drinking straws.

Any ideas on where this is going?

His younger brother tweaked big brother's 

invention with a shorter version.

Every one of the cousins were good eaters and 

they ate everything that they had ordered.

We loaded back up for our final trek home.

We had about a forty minute drive ahead of us. 

A movie in the dvd player kept the kids 

entertained and quiet on our drive.

The "cousin bus" dropped each of the kids off at home.

The reviews that all of the parents got from 

the kids were very nice to hear.

Papa and I  have to agree with the kids;

"This years Back to School Party 

was the best ever!"

And the 2010 back to schoolers?

Well.....

They are the BEST ever too!

Have you ever had a time when you were having such a great time that you were not ready for it to end?

Back to School Party 2010 (Part 4)

This is the 4th part of a 24 hr. Grandkids Back to School party post series. I have included many details of our fun filled time together and even more must see pictures. This is because this blog is both for my grandchildren and an avenue to share the joy and the richness that family traditions can bring between the generations with others.

If you have missed reading the first three posts you can begin with this link.

We and our six school age grandchildren had been together since 4:00 the previous afternoon. We had already shared lots of swimming, a water slide, playing in the water, a pizza dinner, a surprise sleep over in a hotel, breakfast, more swimming, and a workshop pool side by the wildlife zoo but, Papa and I still had a couple of surprises left for the kids.

The kids had all been amazing. Following the zoo workshop we headed back to our hotel room for a late morning snack of string cheese, crackers, juice boxes, chips, and cookies to hold us over until we stopped on our way home for lunch. After our snack time we shared another back to school tradition with our grands.

We presented each child with a few back to school supplies and a bag of m&m's.

It wasn't much but as part of the gift Papa and I had spent quite some time hand selecting notebooks for each one of the kids. It turns out we know them pretty well. Our selections were right on in both colors and styles!

We were now within a couple hours of having to check out of the resort.

We had already been to the pools three times but the kids were anxious to get back.

There was one thing left on their to do list too. That was to get grandma on the water slide.

My last experience on a water slide ended up being very embarrassing but I had learned from it and I would not make the same mistake again. So, up I went to face my fears and to bring smiles to six little grands faces. They all went before me. As I plopped down in the top of the tunnel waiting for my turn to go I was very nervous. Once I pushed off it was full speed and completely dark. I closed my eyes. I don't know why because I couldn't see anything anyway. I would open my eyes to a squint ever few seconds to see if I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was very relieved when I saw the light!

Right before I was ripped under the water I could see all of my grands and Papa right there laughing and squealing with delight. I had screamed all the way down and they had heard me. Because of the crowd that just my crew had created it stopped other spectators to see what all of the excitement was about. It was just grandma coming down the slide at at least 80 miles per hour!

As I surfaced I was quick to check the crotch of my swim suit because my last water slide experience was on some top of the line super duper fast slide that nearly tore your suit off when you hit the pool at the end. That time I walked quite a distance before I realized that I had a full blown wedgie going on on the backside of my size 16 swimsuit! Let me tell you ..... it was no small incident!

I thought I had come out of it this time pretty good.  I just smiled and waved to the crowd. I even stopped and chatted with three women who was trying to talk their older mother into going down. Look at me I said. If I can do it you can too. After a few minutes of conversation I realized something had gone terribly wrong and nobody had said anything. My husband had to have seen it. I learned later my grands had all seen it. The group of ladies I was chatting with had clearly seen it. I had invited them to "Look at me!" But, not a word to tell poor ol' grandma.

I had forgotten that my suit was a two piece but when you are properly wearing it your entire belly is "supposed" to be covered by the long top. To my horror, somehow on impact the bottoms waistband had been pushed well below my belly button and my swim suit top was pushed way up to reveal my entire very, very bright white and my very flabby grandma belly! Thankfully, I had a few more years of maturity on me with this incident and I didn't care as much and most importantly, I will probably never see any of those people again. 

The one trip down the slide was it for me while the kids went over and over. Our time was winding down and I was feeling pretty sad that it was coming to an end because the kids were all still having a wonderful time together.

As we left the pool for the last time we caught this group shot of our adorable back to schoolers!

As we left the pool we tossed our final pool towels into the towel bin at the exit. All in all our group had used 40 towels in less than 24 hours! That is so not me. You can ask my kids about that!

To be continued....  Use this link to see how this awesome activity with our grands ends.

Have you ever pointed something out to a complete stranger to save them some embarrassment?

Grandkids Back to School Party 2010 (Part 3)

If you missed reading part 1 and part 2 of this post you might want to check them out to see how this back to school celebration with our grandchildren began.

Before my husband and I went to bed we made sure that all of the black out curtains were completely closed in both suites so that no one would get up to start our day at the crack of sunlight. We wanted everyone to start the next day rested.

The girls room woke just after 7 a.m. when we thought we heard noise from the boys getting up in the room next door. The boys were already out on the balcony and ready to start the day.

I had planned breakfast for in the room. The kids knew the routine and they worked together to get the two coffee table together to create one table that they could all sit around as cousins. Since we had pizza in the boys room it was the girls turn to host breakfast in their suite.

Everyone had a bowl of cereal and some juice. I had also picked up a favorite treat of chocolate long johns to have after they had finished their cereal.

After breakfast it was time to get back into our swimming suits for the 8 a.m. opening of the pools! The kids new the routine to the pool by now and everyone got wiped down in sun screen, tubes were gathered, flip flops were put on, and we were on our way.

My two youngest back to schoolers stopped to check out one of the pools we had not been to yet. "It has an island grandma!"

We continued to get the looks as Papa and I herded our sweet and very happy grands throughout the resort.

GRRR. The gift shop again. One grandson really wanted a wind up shark toy but I could not start the gift buying at an overpriced gift shop with having six to buy for.

We picked up towels 17-24 during this trip to the pool.

The grounds were absolutely beautiful and the amenities were all very nice. As a grandma I appreciated the bathrooms and drinking fountains that were provided very close to all of the pools.

We went to check out the new pool that the little ones had spotted on our walk down. We spent a couple of hours playing there between the hot tub, diving for a dime, more bumper boat playing, and rides on Papa's back.

There was no chance of this one drowning! I think he was just being very efficient in helping to carry our flotation toys to the pool.

Papa and I would frequently glance at one another and just smile. We felt so lucky to be sharing such quality time with our grandchildren. We were not on the pools edges watching them have fun we were in the pool having fun too! Priceless!!!!!

This was a very lucky find. It was one of the sharks that he had spotted, looked at, touched, wound up, yearned for, and accepted an "I'm sorry this time" from grandma in the over priced gift shop every single time we walked through it.

I spotted the abandoned shark sitting on a ledge of one of the waterfalls and I gave it to him to play with in the pool. I did ask the workers at the pool if anyone had reported it lost. She said no and not to worry about it. He got his shark!

The dime we were diving for was also found on the bottom of the pool. It was a pretty lucky day and there was something else really special planned by the resort for the kids very soon.

Mr. efficiency again. We were moving to another pool so we would be closer to our next pool side activity.

There was a visit from the Worldlife Zoo scheduled near the pool at 10:00 am. Just before it was time for the zoo workshop we all jumped out of the pool, grabbed our towels, and we got the kids some front row seats.

The kids loved the pool side presentation. They participated well and they surprised Papa and I with  their knowledge of many of the animals.

Following the presentation we headed back to our room for a snack and for another one of our back to school party traditions. Papa and I had requested a later check out time so that we could squeeze in another hour of play time with our grands. Papa and I were both feeling a little sad that our special outing was nearing it's end.

To be continued... Follow this link to part 4.

You need to catch the next posting to learn what my embarrassing moment (or minutes) were with the water slide!

A Big Back to School Surprise (Part 2)

The Back to School Party 2010 continues.... If you missed part one of the back to school party you may want to start in the beginning with the post titled Back to School Party 2010. I did not intend on teasing you with the to be continued....  but the post was just getting too long and I have so many pictures I want to share.

When the kids saw the Pointe Hilton sign and the huge resort that is built on the side of a mountain they were one very happy and surprised bunch of cousins!

"It's a hotel!"

"But, we don't have what we need to stay here!"

Papa told the kids to look in the very back under the blanket where each back to schooler had a bag secretly packed by their parents with everything they needed for our surprise field trip.

Before we got out of the car to check in at the front desk I explained to them that it was a very nice hotel and that we needed to use our best manners. Fat chance, I thought because the excitement level "times 6" was in full blown overdrive!

All heads turned by others (mostly young couples probably looking for a romantic get away)  in the parking lot as the kids kept coming out of the car. Upon arrival to the front desk and lobby there was no mistake that our clan had just hit the Hilton property for a night of energetic fun. The kids ran straight to a big window on the opposite side of the lobby where all six noses pressed on the glass to see one of the beautifully landscaped pools and waterfalls.

Papa and I had reserved two adjoining rooms. One for the girls and one for the boys. 

Each child helped unload the car and carry all of our belongings to our rooms.

The elevator ride as cousins was a pretty awesome activity in itself.

It was a race to see which child could gain control of the electronic room key. Once we were in the room everyone scattered to check out every square inch of the two suites. Before Papa could warn me to tell the girls to leave the zip tie on the fridge and guest bar it had already been ripped off to check out the high priced goodies inside. Everyone was firmly told to not take anything from in there! Can you imagine the damage that six kids could cause to our hotel tab?

The adjustable reading lights over the beds were super cool to the boys.

The adjoining balconies were a very fun find too.

We had four televisions and four remotes between our two suites and plenty of beds. Papa and I had chose this hotel because of the pools and pool side activities that the resort offered for children.

Everyone changed into their swimsuits, lathered up in sun screen, and we headed for one of the three family pools.

Every trip to the pool required a trip through the hotel gift shop. GRRRR! This is where we were asked how many towels we needed. The answer was always eight which was quite a pile.

Two of the cousins stopped to check out the amazing waterfalls just inside the entrance to the pool area.

Papa jumped right in while I captured our first moments in the pool with the camera.

Our seven year old dare devil granddaughter was the first to try the water slide that went through a very tall and dark mountain! Everyone else waited to see how it was before they gave it a try. The water slide got raving reviews! (You will have to wait until later to hear about MY experience with the slide!)

All of the cousins swam and played hard and they worked up quite an appetite. We all headed back to the room and we sent Papa to pick up some pizza for dinner.

The kids worked together to bring our two coffee tables into one room to create a shared eating space for the six cousins. They sat the table with paper plates and our traditional back to school party cups.

The kids were beyond hungry..... they were now starving...and they wanted to know what was taking so long. They began watching through the peep holes in the doors and through the windows for sightings of Papa and the pizza. Most importantly, the pizza at this point. Papa was gone for less than twenty minutes.

Wait, I see him.... no that's not Papa. Is that him? No. I think that's him. No,  it's not! It was like being in a locked cage with starving zoo animals before feeding time!

Papa was a rock star when he arrived back with the pizza. It was fun listening to the kids visiting over dinner and hearing about the fun they had already shared. They kept saying "We can't believe you brought us to a  hotel!" Papa and I just smiled at each other.

After the kids tummies were filled with pizza we headed back down to the pool as the sun was going down. Swimming after dark changed the whole experience for the kids. Once we got in the pool the kids noticed a couple sitting at the pools edge in pool side chairs behaving very inappropriately for a family pool. (They really, really liked each other.) The two oldest grandchildren a boy and a girl came up with a scheme to clean up their act! (unknown to me) The two grandchildren went to the pool edge right in front of the couple and yelled out ready set go! They then both kicked off and kicked their feet as hard as they could. When the two grands came up for air across the pool the two love birds were wiping themselves off, gathering their things, and moving on!

Before long we ended up having the entire pool to ourselves and we stayed until the pool closed at 10 pm.

If you look close you can catch  me in the pool with the kids. This is the only picture I made it into. Papa and I spent most of the time in the pool with the kids or I was the one taking the pictures.

The kids played and played and Papa and I were as pleased as we could be that everyone was having such a good time together.

We had taken two sets of water wings, six small rings, and three bigger tubes. The three bigger tubes were used for a game the kids called bumper boats. They played it in an area where the pool was only 2 1/2 feet deep down to nothing on a beach type edge. They played as partners with one kid in the tube and the other to push the bumper boat. 

They were having an absolute blast at 10:00 in the evening when we had to call it a night. They hated to stop their play but we promised we would be coming back in the morning. The kids  said it was like Papa and I had rented the whole resort just for them with us having the entire pool and the surrounding areas to ourselves. It was pretty cool indeed!

We walked back to our rooms and Papa and I always split up between the kids that wanted to take the stairs and the kids who wanted to take the elevator. Once we were in the room we did not have to coax them to get ready for bed. They were all ready to call it a day. 

Teeth were brushed, pajamas were put on, and three of the four tv's were turned on just because they could be but the kids all fell asleep very quickly.

Everyone got tucked in with a hug and a kiss and a big thank you for coming to our back to school party. 

Papa and I had made it through day one of our big surprise and we were pretty confident that the next day was going to be every bit as good!

To be continued.... Go here to read Part 3