Panache, that would be pushing it with these 4.
I should tell you the ‘Easter egg dying Debacle’
I have blue dye stains in a very inconvenient place.
Maybe tie-dying is equally over ambitious, come to think of it.
Excuse me,
I must rethink my strategy.
Beck, I hope you’re taking lots of pics and videos.
Seriously—keep that phone camera in your pocket for quick access.
And sometimes use a real camera and ask everybody to pose and smile for the picture.
But mostly…get lots of stuff on record.
'Cause one day many years from now, these grandwrekers are gonna be getting all misty-eyed and sentimental as they tell their grandwrekers about the good times at Nana’s house.
And the kids in 2072 won’t believe it.
My niece did that when she was in Indonesia a couple years ago.
Beck, one day your kids will look back on the nature walk and have a good laugh.
Yeo. We take lots of pix.
ETA: I have a Polaroid camera. I think a box of film for that will be fun for the grand-wreks. Good idea!!
Well, tie-dying has been pushed back. Tomorrow we have a severe storm forecasted. Wait another day and the weather will be completely different. That’s Arkansas weather, for you.
So…maybe Wednesday there won’t be a blizzard and we can do it then.
I found the Polaroid camera and ‘surprise’ 2 packages of film. We’re gonna make memory books tomorrow.
Love me some Polaroid. Instant gratification.
This should be fun for the kiddoes. (:))
ETA: the lil’wrekker just told me she wanted to do it too. Awww!
Definitely take pics of Ft COVID!
~VOW
------Remember Me------
The memory book picture taking started early. I took pictures of the lil’wrekker and the grandwreks. And each ‘kid’ got 30 minutes with the camera (with help for the babies) They took 5 pictures each.
I had card stock and pages fastened together. (Insomnia activity).
Markers and stickers and pictures were applied.
They turned out cute. The 2 boys were less enthusiastic about this project. But they were proud of their booklets, in the end.
We had a fun time doing this.
Except the oldest Granddaughter took a pix of me with my butt in the air. That girl!!
b. Hiding from grand-wreks and cameras.
Beck, Hope you made it through the storm ok? We had a tornado watch in central Arkansas. 50+ mph winds and power outages across the state.
There had to be some wind damage. Won’t know until daylight.
Life in tornado alley is never dull. Our entire family spent an hour in the hallway. Sure glad this tornado didn’t actually touch the ground. AFAIK
Acey-storms just leaving us. Wasn’t as bad down here. Not even a flicker of lights. Of course the direcTV went off as soon as the first drop of rain dropped.
I wondered about the Central Arkansas Dopers. Glad to hear you’re ok. 
We had a craft project today. We collected flat rocks 2 per kid, 2 for the lil’wrekker and Hamza.
2 for me.
I got paints and brushes and newspaper and set it up outdoors on the picnic table.
A large time was had by all the Grandwreks.
We got some very colorful rocks. After they dry were gonna place them in my flowerbeds. Except for Babywreks rocks. She doesn’t want to give hers up.
No one threw a rock at their brother. No one ate paint. I’m the only one who had green paint in her hair.
b. Keeping the kids occupied.
Beck, I bet your Grandwrecks will always remember the spring spent at Camp Nana and tell their Grandwrecks all about it.
We are actually gonna do the tie-dye today. No rain predicted.
I’m afraid I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
The lil’wrekker and Hamza will help.
Wish us luck!
——beck teaches a masterclass—----
Possibly the biggest clusterf**k I’ve ever been involved in.
The rubber banding went swimmingly. There’s a certain way you roll the shirt up and put rubber bands tightly in a pinwheel pattern. The kids didn’t understand why.
I tried explaining it between dodging errant flying rubber bands and keeping the baby on task. She’s overtired.
We got eight shirts tied. Then you soak them in soda ash/water. We had popsicles while we waited on that process.
We all got on old t-shirts from Mr.Wrekkers cast offs. I have latex gloves. They are too big for the kids.
(Interim: Moms came outside bringing sunblock…aww! Ma!!)
I mixed the dye up in squirty bottles. Lots of trash sacks on the picnic table. Took a deep breath and let the kids pick 2 colors each. We might do a third colors. We’ll see.
Here goes…oh…wait: must have a lecture on: not squirting each other, do not drink the dye, color inside the rubber band lines.
Here goes nothing. I hand the dye bottles to anxious little hands (and Hamza, who seems more anxious than the kids, for some reason).
What I can only describe as a colorful whirlwind we used every drop of dye. And somehow the baby only got pink on her shirt. She’s not happy about this. She needs a nap.
We got the water hose and very diluted bleach water for hands. Oh…wait…we need a lecture on not wiping your eyes or splashing the bleach water in the bucket.
The baby stuck her hands in the bucket. I hand to hold them above her head while the lil’wrekker helped the others. About 400 paper towels later we were clean and dry. The baby’s not happy cause her hands smell funny. She REALLY needs a nap. I keep pulling her thumb outta her mouth.
Okay. Nap time. Back to A.C. and the Disney Movie marathon. The baby’s not happy. She wants a princess movie :smack: I’m fixin’ to knock her in the head. Count to 10, Nana.
Instead I rock her to sleep and pull her thumb outta her mouth about 800 times.
I REALLY need a nap.
After the dye cures we’ll unwrap and unband.
It’s not exactly instant gratification but they will be surprised and happy with the results.
And I’ll be the Cool Nana again!
b. Somedays I need a thumb to suck, too.
Sounds fun this past week our roomies at the NY house did spray bottle tie dying - you know, hang and spray in random blob patterns, layering colors and such using all the settings on spray bottles, do the soda ash thing, then let set and then hose down [or wait for a rain storm =) ] Haven’t been home to see the results, am sitting in CT post-colonoscopy and will be driving back in a few days [when the shits from the bowel prep go away, can take me 4-5 days to resolve]
On the plus side, I am squeeky clean, and got a good report for the look see portion, just waiting for the random biopsies to get red and returned.
Aru, good grief. Feel better soon.
So Nana’s a dang hippie? How does that go over in the wilds of Arkansas?
Yep. Busted. Hippie wannabe. I smell loads better though.
South Arkansas has always thought I was weird.
Haven’t you heard I’m the village crazy lady?
Thanks =) <stage 3 colorectal cancer - the deal is I get my butt spelunked frequently instead of my guts surgically rearranged, as long as there is no sign of it coming back, I am good. So I am careful to avoid digestive system irritants as much as possible>
Those of us here with medical issues need to be careful … or bigfoot issues =)
We’ve hung the Tie-dye shirts on the line. They are colorful and beautiful, if not exactly perfect.
The littlest Baby-wrek thinks her all pink shirt needs glitter! :smack:
Our new project is filling a oval stock waterer with water for a wading pool. Mr.Wrekker had fixed the old well pump to get water from that old well. This is highly anticipated by the kids.
Yay!
I’m jealous!
Fond memories of many a Summer Sunday Afternoon spent going with a friend and his family after church and doing that exact sort of thing. They had a couple of horses and so (their)Dad, being the good, loving, thoughtful parent that he was bought two stock tanks, one for the horses and one for the kids.