Brown Family Cousin Camp

This year we decided to hold our first annual Brown Family Cousin Camp so we gathered all of the cousins together to spend 3 fun filled days at Grandma's house!  Our theme this year is Brown Family Olympics!!

THURSDAY

OPENING CEREMONIES:  For opening ceremonies all of the kids put on their Cousin Camp t-shirts and  made flags to represent themselves.  Paxton's was mostly scribbles but then he asked his dad to draw a few of his favorite things on there: basketball, football, baseball...you get the idea!

 Tegan was sleeping so Andy got to decorate his flag!

 Once the kids were done with their flags, we had an Olympic parade for Grandma and all of the aunts and uncles...unfortunately it was raining so we had to do it in the house!

 Paxton and Tegan modeling their Brown Family Cousin Camp t-shirts!

 The first of many awesome cousin pictures!

Paxton (2), Ofeina (8), Tegan (1), Ami (6), Alyssa (6), Misi (4), Meilani (3 Months), Mana (2)

 The flags!!

SWIMMING

Our Olympic event for Thursday was swimming! 

Poor Tegan couldn't do to much in the water because he recently got tubes in his ears so he swam a little with Jessica but mostly hung out on the side of the pool with mom!

 At first Paxton was not too excited about swimming but once he got into it he quickly won the award for most improved swimmer!

 He learned how to kick from the side of the pool...

 Float on his belly...

 Jump off the side of the pool...

 and dunk his head under the water!!

FIREWORKS IN A JAR

That night for craft time we attempted to make fireworks in a jar...unfortunately the kids got a little bit carried away with the food coloring and most of their jars turned into a big brown mess!

Paxton's turned out pretty good and he got a lot of cool colors in his jar!

MOVIE NIGHT

After a long day full of fun activities we sent all of the kids to the basement for cousin movie night...surprisingly they stayed down there and watched the whole movie!  They must have been just as exhausted as we were!

FRIDAY

OLYMPIC GAMES

Friday morning we gathered all of the kids together for the Brown Family Olympic Games!  We knew ahead of time that things could get a little bit competitive with these kids so in order to make it fair we set some ground rules...1. No Whining!!, 2. Everyone Participates, and 3. Everyone Wins!  After each event the kids got to put a sticker on a chart for finishing or participating in the event!

 Ofeina demonstrating the Javelin!

 Then we did Gymnastics!

 Next was the shot put!

 The kids loved the races...I was only going to have them do 1 race but somehow 1 race turned into about 5 and by the end of the races all 3 rules were being broken so we had to stop for a snack break!

 Paxton doing the discuss...somehow his ended up behind the starting line!

 The kids were pros at the hurdles!

 At the end everyone got a gold star sticker for a job well done!  Paxton was pretty excited about his sticker!

 Paxton in front of the Cousin Camp Olympic poster!

SNACK TIME

That afternoon (after lunch and a long nap!) we got the kids together for snack time!  

 The goal was to make Olympic cupcakes like this...

 We ended up with Olympic cupcakes like this...but they were so proud of them!

 And according to Tegan they were mighty tasty because he managed to eat about 3 of them!

SATURDAY

HOME DEPOT

On Saturday morning we got the kids up bright and early and headed over to the kids workshops at Home Depot!  They had about 8 projects to choose from and Paxton picked a football table which was really supposed to be a football stand!

Paxton screwed it together!

 and painted it!

FAMILY BIRTHDAY PARTY

We ended cousin camp with a cousin birthday party!  The kids got party hats, presents, and a birthday cake to celebrate all of their birthdays throughout the year! 

 

 This picture is so funny to me because it pretty much shows each of their personalities!  After this picture we sent all of the kids into the dining room to do play doh with Grandma and we thought "if it is this crazy with only 8 kids what is it going to be like when we are all done having kids and there is 20-30 grand kids?

We had such a great time at cousin camp this year!  Thanks mom for being such a generous host and for making it possible for your grandkids to have great relationships with each other!