Michelle and Marie chose "camping" as the theme for the party. The party started out with a ride in grandma's lawn mower.
Michelle designed these shirts for all of the kids (minus the bows for the boys, of course).
Marie & Michelle also made these fabulous backpacks, which were full of great goodies for the kids (including these binoculars -- made of toilet paper rolls!)
The kids visited various "stations" around the backyard. Grandma read them a camping story at the first stop.
super cute Ethan
Davis loved his backpack.
Each station was marked by a cool sign (designed by Michelle of course).
Even the dads came to cousin camp.
The kids played "feed the bear" and threw plastic toy food through the bear's mouth & tummy (don't worry, baby Dax wasn't standing behind the bear when the actual throwing occurred). Davis loved this game most of all!
Amy played a really fun parachute game with the kids -- "bounce the bugs." The kids got to bounce around a whole bunch of plastic bugs. They flew everywhere.
Amy also played camping bingo with the kids inside my grandpa's old tent. We always called it "the army tent" when I was growing up (it was always the tent we went camping in...all three times we went). I thought it was an actual army tent, but my mom just told me that we called it that because we stored it in my grandpa's old army bag. This tent also made appearances at the cousins camps we had as kids! It is a tough old tent!
Davis had fun with his daddy!
Michelle, Ethan, and Josh
Amy and Marie helping the kids color their very own tambourines.
Dani loves to color.
Davis's attention span was a little small, so he spent some time in the tent. Okay, so maybe we actually zipped him inside the tent for a few minutes to contain him...
I was in charge of the evening meal. Mom took a pic of it, but I need to get it from her. We had amazing brisket (my bro-in-law Anders's recipe, cooked by my dad), cream cheese mashed potatoes, cornbread (made by Anders), watermelon, and bacon/mushroom/swiss cheese/poppy seed viniagrette salad. We ate it all in tin pie plates, and had lemonade served in mason jars (thanks for the idea, Heidi!). For dessert, we made s'mores in the broiler. Let me tell you, that is the way to make s'mores! The marshmallows were perfectly melted, but not burned, the chocolate (peanut butter cups and caramellos) melted just right, and we could make 15 of them at a time! Yum!!!
Cousins' camp was definitely a success!
