Craft Club 2011

This was our third year of having a summer craft club and  by sheer numbers it's definitely our most successful year yet.  We ended up with a full group of 5-6-year-olds, another full group of 7-8-year-olds, and two full groups of 9-10-11-year-old girls.  While I'm happy that so many girls are able to participate this year and especially that Ellie gets to be with girls her own age for the first time, I did end up a little disappointed that I couldn't keep all of the girls Emma's age together in one group. 

We hosted the first meeting for Ellie's age group at our house and I enjoyed seeing first-hand the fun they had together.   Since about half the girls were from church and half the girls were from school, I was a little nervous that they would separate themselves into groups, but it turned out fine. 

We had an ice cream theme for the day, so we started off by making sand-art ice cream necklaces

Then it was cute to see their little wheels turn as they used their creativity to make design-your-own paper dolls (holding ice cream cones to keep with the theme).  We made them using foam bodies,  scrapbook paper for clothes, buttons and glitter for decorations, yarn for the hair, googly eyes, and whatever else they felt like using. 

After those crafts, we went on to the highlight of the day...making our own ice cream!  We followed this recipe for Ice Cream in a Bag.   The kids were excited to give it a try and especially loved a quick jump on the trampoline to keep the bags in motion. 

In the end, they had cold hands and limited patience, so we just decided to open them up and eat them as they were.   Some were thick and creamy, as they should have been....

While most of them ended up more like ice cream soup....

Of course it was nothing a few sprinkles couldn't fix...

 All in all, it was a fun day and definitely worth all the stress of figuring out the dynamics of getting the groups started. 

Coming soon....a post about my girls' hairstyles in the summer vs. the school year.   Er, never mind.  I forgot where the brush is. 


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