recycling at "Cousin Craft Camp"

My Sister and her 2 youngest girls came from Seattle for a visit last week. The girls are the same age as my Granddaughters and these cousins love to spend time together. They only get to see each other once a year ( twice, if they're lucky!) and are pen-pals between visits. The Seattle cousins and their Mother got tired of feeling left out of all the fun stuff going on with the So. California cousins so the 3 of them spent a week at Daughter's house, picking up another cousin on the way. It was a fun-filled, week-long slumber party, with Sister and Daughter and 6 girls ages 8-13. Two younger cousins, 4 & 5 yrs. old occasionally joined the fun, too. (Luckily for Son-in-Law, he was working out of town for the week!)

The girls came up with a name for their special week: "Cousins Craft Camp"......

*There was a Sewing Day: all the girls made flannel blankets.

*There were several Craft Days: one day for making multitudes of bookmarks and another for recycled notepads and journals.

*There was a Beach Day...after all, we do live in So. California!

*There was plenty of time spent in the kitchen whipping up snacks, treats, and "gourmet" meals.

*There was lots of wet Trampoline jumping with water balloons and a hose.

This was my contribution to the festivities: Have you ever seen one of these?

If you work in a large office or a school you've probably used one for binding things.....

We had saved lots of fun packaging and everyone found their favorites....

Hmmmmm........lined paper or plain? Binding across the top for a notebook or on the side for a journal? So many choices and so many great results!

On the last day of the "camp" we went to my other Sister's house for a Swim Party/BBQ with lots more family members. We took along the Spiral Binder and supplies and made custom notebooks on the spot for Uncles, Aunts, and Great-Grandparents... "Do you have Wheat Thins? I love Wheat Thins!"..."What kind of cereal do you have?" ......"Chocolate! I need something with chocolate!".

Our little spiral binder was a huge hit with everyone....and as Daughter pointed out..we'll never need to buy another spiral notebook ever again!!

If you have a crafty kind of family or are looking for something to do with a group of kids I highly recommend this idea. Just think of all the possibilities!......

Now that we're done using it for a while, I packed up the whole kit and kaboodle and lent it to a co-worker who has 3 teenage Granddaughters visiting this week. It's been just as big a hit at his house as it was at ours......

That last day of "Cousin Craft Camp" was just as fun as the first day.....no one wanted it to end and there are already plans for next year.....maybe in Seattle this time around! We're already counting the weeks.......