30 Jun Summer Fun

I spent more time with kids this week than I have in a long time. I worked on Sunday to help out with the second day of Homestead Days, and chose to be in charge of the cornhusk doll activity table. I still have the cornhusk doll I made at a similar event at a park near my house as a kid and, although I didn’t remember how to make it, I had pretty simple instructions to follow. I had a steady stream of kids wanting to make their own dolls, sometimes showing as many as five at a time how to make one. During slow times I made a couple of my own, one with a dress and one with pants. I have to say, mine turned out really well, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a picture before I gave them away. A little girl and her two teenage host sisters were the last group to come to my table, and I only had enough cornhusks left for one more doll. So I told the host sisters they could pick one of the example dolls made by me and other staff, and they picked the two I made! So no picture, but I was featured in a photo in the local newspaper! One of the little girls that had an especially good time making her doll (her mom helped her make a baby cornhusk doll too) came to our Bats Eat Bugs camp this week. I was helping out with that in the mornings. The kids ranged in age from about 6-10 years old. Each day we watched a short video about bats, sang a song about how bats eat bugs and not people, spent time outside, and made some sort of craft. I led the echolocation game, and came up with a bug craft that we didn’t end up having time for because the kids were having too much fun out on the prairie. I had a pretty fun time, too, and made friends with a couple of the kids who asked if I’d be around for the other kids’ events during the summer. Spider update: no more sightings at the school, but I’ve successfully dealt with three small ones in my house this week without freaking out.