The Climbing Wall

The highlight of our weekend at Family Camp was clearly the climbing wall.  The girls did not actually "climb" anything, they were simply strapped in and hoisted.  But both were brave enough to make it all the way to the top and ring the bell!

Sabrina held on to the ropes for dear life:

Catherine smiled and giggled the whole time:

They were pretty high up:

Robby helped by using a tag line (in addition to the main line).  Sabrina wanted to help too, so she held part of the line:

Catherine in mid-air:

After their first trips up there, the girls decided they loved it and asked to go again:

I took these shots from the top of the wall of Sabrina. 

Robby took these shots of Catherine:

The wall was forty feet tall, but seemed much taller to me.

Sand Art

One great thing about family camp at Camp Sunshine is the huge Arts and Crafts building.  It is enormous.  And it is not my house, so it can get really messy and that's OK.  One craft which I cannot comprehend doing at my house which the children love is sand art.  It is so simple, yet they love it. 

They basically poured different colored sand out of mustard containers into smaller containers (sometimes using the miniature funnels, sometimes not) attached to strings, to be worn as necklaces.  I wish I had a picture of Sabrina wearing all four necklaces she made.  She was so proud of them.

Making a star shaped necklace:

Making a heart shaped necklace:

This is one of the activities they returned to several times:

Sabrina Painting

One thing we learned at family camp this weekend (thanks Camp Sunshine) is that Sabrina loves to paint ... she spent a good hour sitting in one chair, painting wooden "stuff."  Sometimes she even painted the inside:

She made several birdhouses:

Snakes Alive

While we were at Camp Sunshine's family camp, they had a show called "Snakes Alive!" The girls, as well as all the other children LOVED it. The first half of the show was all the non-venomous snakes. So, they let the children hold and pet the snakes.

We were sitting in the front and Catherine could barely contain her desire to go pet a snake. She kept raising her hand, like all the other children were doing. But, I think the "snake guy" didn't really believe that she wanted to come pet the snakes. After awhile, he said "Does this girl really want to come up?" I said yes and there she went. Just a few seconds behind her was her little sister Sabrina.

They have pet snakes before at museums, so had no fear of them at all.




The second half of the show were the venomous snakes. Because there was no audience participation, the girls fell asleep in our laps. Of course we had spent the entire day doing tons of activities at camp, so they were exhausted.

Putt-Putt at Camp Sunshine

One of our favorite activities at Camp Sunshine is putt-putting. Daddy tried to teach the girls proper technique:

Despite Daddy's attempts at teaching good golf skills, the girls used their own techniques:



Why does Sabrina have two clubs?

Both girls resorted to picking up the ball and carrying it to its destination.


Help! Sabrina's ball escaped!

Catherine (who has skinny hips) had a minor wardrobe malfunction on the course:

Goldpanning

I think the girls' favorite activity at Camp Sunshine's family camp is gold panning. It is impossible to stay clean and dry when you are panning for gold. Catherine sort of tried to use the black trays and shake out the gems:

Sabrina simply filled the plastic bags for the gems with sand and water:


I am not sure that Catherine understood that the goal was to collect the gems, because after I helped her collect a bunch of gems, she threw them back in to the water.

Paddle Boats

This activity always looks so peaceful and calm, so we thought it would be a relaxing ride on the lake. But, we only had two people on our boat capable of reaching the paddles. So, Robby and I paddled as hard as we could until our quad muscles gave out:

Arts and Crafts

Camp Sunshine's family camp has the largest craft room I have ever seen. The girls were in heaven because you could go from table to table and do whatever you wanted. They painted wooden sculptures:


Then they found glass jars which they painted, then filled with a collection of "treasures, which were really smaller craft items they found throughout the whole room.