Make It Monday
Make It Monday Craft
I decided that for the craft, instead of expecting adults to haul their water toys to the pool or beach, the boys should have their own backpacks they could design to carry the items.
I went to Michael’s and bought these plain white drawstring backpacks for $2.99 each. Then I took them home and cut out the words Cousin Camp 2023 in Black Iron on Vinyl on my Cricut and they were ready to be decorated.
Although when I was young, we used good old fabric paint in the weird, squat little containers, I decided at this age we would use fabric markers. There are many different kinds out there to buy, but I decided that I would go with the tried-and-true fabric decorating brand of Tulip. That is the brand we had always used on our shirts in the early ’90s. The set I bought had just basic colors, because I wanted to keep it fairly minimal. Sometime too many choices are just that: too many. Especially the younger you are. Scratch that, maybe the older you are too. Here are a few different sets available:
The set above is what I bought and it was just right for us. But they also have more options by Tulip you can find elsewhere:
This set of essentials is at:
There are other options available like this Sharpie set (the tried and true shoe graffiti art medium). There is only one kit available with the basic colors, and it is a little pricier too.
Once the supplies were available, it was free reign for the boys to design their bags how they wanted and personalize. Of course, with the wide variety of ages…there were a few degrees of success.
But at the end of the day there were personalized bags that were ready to be used and we didn’t have to wait for sparkly puffy paint to dry!
Make it Monday Game
For the second year of cousin camp, I added playing a game. The campers were old enough to get outside and get moving. Again, part of my idea with these activities is to inspire creativity. So, for the game, instead of giving them one that had been created, I gave them sidewalk chalk and let them design their own.
The older of the brothers had created a Lego game that winter that had rules to follow, so I figured that I could have him do the same thing in a temporary environment with the chalk.
He and his brother did not disappoint. Essentially, it was hopscotch with a touch of The Floor is Lava ($16.97 at WalMart, $23.99 Amazon, $17.99 Target). After it was designed, they got to tell the adults the rules and what to do. It was a hit.
Make it Monday Activity
We weren’t done with the creating and fun yet! The activity I picked was painting with bubbles. I wasn’t exactly sure how this activity would turn out after I found it on Happiness is Homemade.com. On the website, she used straws and dish soap and water and food coloring to make the bubbles. I simply bought some cheap containers of bubbles and added food coloring. I mixed the food coloring drops in and let the boys shake them up after I added the dye.
Then we took blank printer paper outside and laid it on the grass, so we didn’t stain anything inside. After a few failed bubble attempts, and a lot of Jackson Pollock-esque dripping, we got some really cool paintings…they even hang in my office!
We let them dry outside while we went in to have a snack and read a book.
Make it Monday Book
For our Make It Monday book I chose Ish by Peter Reynolds. It is by the same author that wrote The Dot which we had read the year before. I actually like this book better because it deals with a little boy who draws all the time…and then a child at school makes fun of his art. With the oldest in school and the middle child now being compared to classmates, I thought it was important for them both to hear. That everyone has different gifts when it comes to creating. The process is more important than the product.
Make it Monday Snack
For the Make it Monday snack we were going to decorate sugar cookies creatively! I didn’t actually make the cookies – which someone could certainly do and for which I would recommend my mom’s recipe below if they do. Seriously. It’s amazing. I feel like I am giving away a family secret even though it really isn’t, but here it is:
Mom’s Sugar Cookie Recipe
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening (½ butter and ½ shortening)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups of flour
Mix. Form into balls. Flatten with glass dipped in sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 minutes at 325 degrees. Frost with buttercream icing. Mom always makes huge batches of it which contains like a 1lb. of powdered sugar and half a pound of butter. Seriously. You just whip it with a mixer and add milk to loosen as you go.
Obviously, that would have been more work in a tiny cabin kitchen with eight people in the cabin, so instead I went to the local Holiday Gas Station and bought three giant sugar cookies for them. You could also use other brands of store bought, but if you have a Circle K or Holiday they actually make a really tasty unfrosted sugar cookie.
Instead of frosting, which let’s face it could be messy, I bought these Favorite Day Writing Icing Tubes at Target for $3.19. They were much less messy, and the flavor is good – it isn’t gel it is actually sugary and creamy. We unleashed them, even the one-and-a-half-year-old, and it was fun to see what they made…and what they ate…
And after Auntie B sugared them up, it was time to go to the pool and camp would resume the following day for H2O Tuesday.
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