The "Kool" Mom sometimes fails

My friends have (I hope) affectionately referred to me as the "Camp Counselor" and having "the brain of children's librarian in a stay at home mom's body", both of which I take as huge compliments.  I love playing 'activities director' and finding fun things to keep the kiddos and their friends busy.  There is never a dull moment around the Gatchel house (which is good and bad) and I was so excited to have my twosome and their friends David and Alexis today.  There was paints, there were beads, there were tons of crayons, markers, and stickers, there were blanket forts, there was dress-up - I think it's safe to say they all had fun.  It's fun to get them started on something and see where there imaginations lead them.  I think the pictures from our adventures will tell it better than I can.

Speaking of adventures and camp activities, a week or so ago I told my kiddos about my big project for Nebraska week for them and they have been so excited.  (And yes, I asked Grant's permission before even mentioning this to them).  I told them we would use kool aid (as I told you yesterday was invented in Nebraska) to dye their hair.  (Yes, you read that correctly, I of all people not only came up with this idea, but got on board and was totally excited about it as they were)  When we were at the store yesterday they picked their colors - blue for Noah and red for Kayla.  I told Noah he could do his whole head   We had to start Noah's early (it said to let it set for 8-10 hours) and unfortunately my best intentions on this one kind of blew up.  After listening for half an hour to how itchy it was and endless whining about it I cut the cord on this project. I'm sure it was itchy (I've dyed my hair before, I know how it goes) but he wasn't having any reaction to it and I couldn't distract him from it and gave him countless opportunities to say if he wanted to keep at it or not before I finally just was done listening.  I had one VERY angry little boy.  *Sigh* Like I said, good intentions, but this one backfired on me.

But I was still on board for the Bean since we were going to try the dip dye method instead.  (If Noah's hair was long enough, I would have let him do it this way...)  After LOTS of research I decided to only use 'warm' water to make the dye and we started with dipping it for ten minutes to see how it would look.  I let her give it a few more minutes, and honestly, that was plenty.  She has a little bit of a tint (nothing super noticeable) and she was ecstatic about it.  One mom fail, one mom thumb's up - if I can call it even for the day I figure that's all good.

Tonight's dinner has debatable Nebraska ties depending on what story you believe, but we're going with the idea that the Reuben sandwich was actually created in Nebraska.  According to the story: "One account holds that Reuben Kulakofsky (sometimes spelled Reubin, or the last name shortened to Kay), a Lithuanian-borngrocer residing in Omaha, Nebraska, was the inventor perhaps as part of a group effort by members of Kulakofsky's weekly poker game held in the Blackstone Hotel from around 1920 through 1935. The participants, who nicknamed themselves "the committee", included the hotel's owner, Charles Schimmel. The sandwich first gained local fame when Schimmel put it on the Blackstone's lunch menu, and its fame spread when a former employee of the hotel won a national contest with the recipe."  I decided to have a little fun with it and made Mini Reubens (how great are these?) as I thought they may be a little bit of an easier sell with the kiddos.  To go with it I paired another ConAgra recipe from Chef Boyardee Smackaroni Salad.  My kids have been obsessed with hard boiled eggs yesterday, they love mac and cheese- figured we'd have no problems with this one.  For dessert tonight we used Peter Pan Peanut Butter (the kids loved picking this out yesterday) another ConAgra brand to make Peanut Butter Chocolate Bananas.  Chocolate, peanut butter and whipped cream (Reddi Wip - another ConAgra, actually!) that covered the healthy bananas - we do what we can.

This counselor is kind of spent after having more than her usual number of campers (and oh so thankful for the reminder of how blissfully happy I am with two :) ) so I'll wrap this up for tonight.  Think we're going to head to Plymouth tomorrow for the Concert in the park at lunch time and there's a family concert downtown tomorrow night we're hoping to make it to as well.  Plus plenty more for Nebraska.  But until then...

Nebraska Fun Fact of the Day:  The largest porch swing in the world is located in Hebron, Nebraska and it can sit 25 adults.  (Mama, want to make a trip??)

A whole crew for breakfast

They put together this fire engine puzzle which they then pretended was a boat to save them from the floods

Hmmm, wonder what they were up to....

:)

Still hard at work

She just wanted to keep decorating (and I was happy to let her)

Snack break

Beads!

Posing with their necklaces

He was ready

And so was I

And so it starts

We were still good at this point....

Still good (cut to five seconds later when the meltdown began...)

Blanket fort

Hanging out

The kids think this is fabulous

Noah set up a complete army post this afternoon

Then he took a picture of it as it continued to grow

Peach Mango Kool Aid on the menu tonight

Getting together the reubens

And Smackaroni salad (they LOVED this and super easy!)

While I was getting ready for dinner, the balerina was off playing

Mini Reubens

Where's Aunt Sarah when we need her (They both brought you up when they saw there was whipped cream tonight, by the way)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana mad love (and at this point Aunt Shell they were doing the minions 'ba-na-na')

The Bean's turn

One last chance to back out

Toughing it out for beauty

Pulling it out of the dye

We'll get a better shot of it in the morning when it's all dry, but it's a little red :)