Camping with our Kiddo

As Claire is getting older, we’re finding it easier and easier to camp with her – less stuff to bring and definitely less worrying about what she’s going to find to put in her mouth.

Last year our stash of kid stuff seemed huge (see here and here), we were definitely able to pare thins down this year while bringing along a few choice toys and her stroller (which got tons of use as the girls loved pushing Claire and the other littles around).

Claire is still too young for the motorbikes and trap field so we stuck close to camp playing with friends, chasing balls and collecting creepy crawlies. I brought a few items from Claire’s dress up basket at home thinking the kiddos could play hounds and hare, a fitting game with all the sporting dogs:

One family brought an ice-cream maker in the form of a ball that all the kids chased up and down a hill and there was LOTS of hair-braiding. Next year I’m putting up a beauty shop sign so I can open and close the parlor as wanted ;-)

The playdoh people were a HUGE hit and even I got into creating them. Claire and I had whipped up some homemade playdoh a few days before the trapshoot following this very simple, no-cook recipe here. I brought along some markers for coloring and found they helped the girls with their creations – the playdoh was undyed so having the markers for a bit of color was helpful.

Step One – Get a nice hunk of play doh and shape it into a round ball

Step Two – Gather bits of nature (a quote from my model above) to create facial features. We got a nice botany lesson from Ara as we found bristly weeds for eyebrows and mustaches – thanks!

Mount your people to sticks and take VERY creative family photo, note the family pig…very cute:

Oh look! Claire is NOT too young for the quad. Note how Kelsie offered Claire every single piece of safety equipment she owned, too cute!

And here is the dynamic duo plotting their escape on the big bike, neither of them was to keen on the idea of taking a ride with Jeff this year, but sitting on an idle quad was just plain fun: