I get to help plan a youth camp :-)  Our small church, along with another like minded small church nearby, will be having our own youth camp this summer for about 25 kids.  I am beginning to do some of the insane amount of planning that is required, and looking into the legal forms and all that.  I think we have decided on an Olympic theme, to go with a study on God’s preeminence.    It should be easy to decorate  and find games since its an Olympic year, and we can use the Olympic circles alot since they are so easy to do.  There’s also an easy tie in to missions since the Olympics are a worldwide event.

I have been looking for information, but I guess the people who plan camps don’t post the how to online.  Hopefully we can figure everything out in  such a short period of time :-)  I am halfway tempted to buy some of the Olympic VBS materials and adapt them, since there are some available this year, and they aren’t really costly.  We’ll see.

I haven’t managed to do anything creative since last week.  Little man was surrounded by great aunts and uncles that drove 2 days to be nearby for Pawpaw’s surgery.  Since it was his actual birthday, and they usually only see him once a year, and they were missing their own grandkids- he was super spoiled.  Whatever he wanted, and new toys everyday, and someone to rescue him from Mom or Dad when he got in trouble.

We visited my father in law this morning, but this afternoon was back to reality.   Little man doesn’t like reality, and let me know.  Between the poo paintings (which he is way too old to still be making) tantrums, and messes, I hope he settles down soon because if he doesn’t I think I’ll go insane.

My father in law is having surgery tomorrow, so we are helping him out for the next few days (I doubt I’ll have time to play.)

Once again I’ve been playing in the kitchen - I made yakisoba for Recipezaar’s pick-a-chef game. Yakisoba is a Japanese dish - soba is a type of noodle, and yaki means fried, so yakisoba is translated fried noodle. I think yakiramen is easier to make: Place 1 pack of ramen noodles in a medium sized skillet with 1 cup water and 1/3 cup frozen vegetables of choice (I like to use a stir fry mix.) Bring to a boil, stirring to separate the noodles. Stir as the water begins to evaporate, and continue stirring until almost all the water is gone. Mix in the seasoning packet, and remove from heat. Enjoy

I wanted to try a new recipe, which looked great, but it didn’t taste good. I like taking pictures of food, so decided to share I meant to post this on Friday, but with little man’s birthday party, I didn’t get the chance.

This weekend way quite busy - we had a birthday party for little man, who turned three.  My cake didn’t turn out as nice looking as others that I’ve seen - but it tasted awesome!  Little man loved it, so I was happy with how it turned out.  For the cake, I used this recipe, doubled, and added 1 cup of strawberry yogurt.  The icing I always make off the top of my head - 1 lb cream cheese, 1 lb powdered sugar, 2 tbsp vanilla, and 1-2 tbsp milk, beaten until fluffy.  To form the cake, I used 5 mini loaf pans, and cut one up to form the extra pieces on the engine and caboose.  (In hindsight, I wouldn’t add anything to the caboose, it looked a little funny.)

My wonderful husband built me this raised garden last week, and today my father in law used his truck to pick up the dirt and peat moss to fill it. My Mom usually had a large garden when I was living at home, and I am so excited to try my hand at it. The sugar snap peas are only a little over a week old, and they are huge! I think I’m going to get a small trellis and lean them against the wall so that they can climb, since the pole in the middle isn’t doing much for them.

I hope everything grows, it will be nice to be able to just pick a salad for lunch The onions are there by mistake - my son thinks that they are toys, and must have slipped a few into the potting soil when I was planting the snap peas a few weeks ago. When I opened the bag today there were two thriving onion plants poking through the soil. I’m hoping nothing important ended up in there!

My great Grandma has been making beaded ornaments and things for years. Although she is no longer able to work with the beads, she passed the know how down to my Grandma, who in turn passed it on to my Mom. Several years ago I learned how to make a few ornaments, the easiest of which was this Star of David.

At a recent family gathering, I asked my Grandma and Mom to show me how to make another ornament, which we call the ’sputnik.’ I was surprised to find that neither of them really remembered how, although we were able to sort of figure out what to do (after a few botched attempts) by looking at a completed ornament.

My Grandma had a few books that my great Grandma had given her, with detailed directions, but they were lost when the house flooded in hurricane Ivan. I looked everywhere, and was only able to find 2 thin books that had anything remotely like them. So, I have decided to make detailed, step by step directions with photographs or diagrams (whichever turns out to be easier.) It would be a shame to lose the knowledge after 4 generations.