This year, like every other year, we started camp cousin in Ponca City. We spent Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday in Ponca City. After driving to Connecticut AND Colorado this summer the two hour drive to Ponca City was nothing! Even the boys said it went by really fast!
We met Aunt Rae, Elia and Noah at McDonald's and ate some lunch before heading to the new splash pad in Ponca City. We've been to the splash pad a couple of times since it opened this year but this is the first time we've been able to have it on the camp cousin schedule! It's definitely a hit!
While the kids were playing, another group of kids came walking up (adult free!) to play. There were three of them. An older sister, a boy in the middle and then a little sister. The kids played for a bit and then we saw them talking to our kids. We're always happy when our kids make friends at the park or pool but something about this group of kids just seemed off. They weren't just talking and playing with our kids but were whispering and telling secrets and looking over at us grown-ups like they were up to something. You know mother's intuition?? Well our mommy radar's were pinging and so we kept our eye very close on the kids. Finally, we overheard part of a conversation happening between Ashtyn and the brother from the other group of kids. Ashtyn looked very confused and kept saying "Huh? I don't know what you're talking about..." and that's when we heard it...the boy was asking Ashtyn if he would GO OUT WITH his little sister!?!? What!?!? Hahahaha!! I'll admit that I was laughing a little on the inside but was also very grateful that my sweet Ashtyn is just as naive as his mom and had no idea what that even meant! Whew! After that, though, Rae walked out onto the splash pad to prevent any further "hanky panky" between the kids and as soon as an adult was present the other group of siblings backed off and eventually just left. We never even spoke to them. I think they knew they were up to no good. I know Ash has no idea what happened that day but my baby was actually ASKED OUT for the very first time. He's EIGHT!! This mommy is not at all ready for this...
The wind was taking Noah's breath away.
After we had played for a bit, cousin Natalie showed up for some fun in the sun. She and Noah are becoming fast friends. We were laughing so hard because it seemed like Noah was playing hard to get! Natalie was pretty forward with him. She would touch his face and talk to him and kick her little legs and Noah just acted totally aloof! He was looking the other direction, scowling at Natalie and just going about his business playing with his toys! Ha! I think we have a little heart breaker on our hands...
Natalie got her toes wet!
After wearing ourselves out at the splash pad, we went to Cherry Berry for some frozen yogurt! Yum!
I think Natalie wants some too! She's trying to work her girly charms on Maddox for a bite!
After our snack, we headed back to Aunt Rae's house to decorate our traditional camp cousin t-shirts. Every year the kids decorate their own tees with puff paint and stamps and wear them on Friday. Once the kids are done decorating, Rae and I write Camp Cousin and the year on them and we always try to get the kids hand print on their shirt. This year we had to add two onesies to the line up!
Long after everyone else was done decorating, Ash was still hard at it. He's SO much like me it's not even funny. Before he ever places his first stamp he plans out his entire design and makes sure there's room for every last thing he wants to put on his shirt.
Everyone's tee turned out really cute! Maddox did a football theme, as you can see. He did all sports themed stamps, had me write "OSU" on the bottom and then even puff painted a football player right next to his hand print!
Ashtyn's tee was quite orderly. He used all animal stamps and made sure all of the smaller stamps were placed around the outside of the body of the tee, the large butterfly stamps were in the middle and his hand print and words were right at the top.
Being the only girl, Elia had to have a pink tee! She used "cowgirl" themed stamps.
Natalie wasn't able to come with us to decorate tees so we made her a onesie to commemorate her first ever camp cousin!
Noah used baseball themed stamps and Rae stamped his foot onto his tee instead of his hand print! Looks good!
After being inside for a bit and cooling off while we decorated tees and ate some dinner, we added a new camp cousin activity at the last minute! Geocaching! I had never heard of geocaching until a couple weeks earlier when Rae took her youth group to do it and it sounded like too much fun to pass up! Geocaching is actually an app you download on your phone that uses your location to show you where people have hidden "caches" or little treasure boxes in your area and then the app gives you a map and compass to show you where to go and find the treasure. Each treasure is actually a coffee can or some kind of box hidden in a remote location that when you find people have left tiny treasures inside. You are then asked to take one treasure for yourself and replace it with something for the next person. You also have to sign your name to show that you were there! So cool! These are hidden all over the world! The kids chose a couple of McDonald's toys from Elia's room to take and leave in the boxes when we found them and we were ready to go!
Our first cache we found wasn't a treasure box but was instead a tiny capsule. Instead of taking a treasure and replacing it this was a cache that you just write your name on the enclosed slip of paper and replace the cache. We signed our name as "Camp Cousin" and went to find our next treasure! This is awesome! Oh and, YES, this treasure we hidden INSIDE this bush! We almost didn't find it!
The next cache we found was hidden in a tree in a remote field behind a local business. It was the roughest terrain we had to go through to find a treasure but it was worth it. This one was actually a large jar that had tiny treasures inside. Each of the kids chose something and then replaced their finds with something for the next person!
Finally, we found one more treasure in a tree at a local park.
We had SO much fun geocaching! In fact, I downloaded the app on my own phone so that we can do it again here at home sometime! After the weather cools down that is...!!!
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