I know that school is starting soon in many areas around the country.  School signals the end of the summer.  But not necessarily the end of hot weather.  I remember many days at the beginning of the school year in elementary school of being sweaty and sticking to the wooden chair at my desk .  (My kids would claim that was before air conditioning was invented.  And, you know what, they would be right!!)

However, you might want to have one last summer activity to enjoy with your grandchildren before the cold and snow sets in.  (I heard it snowed in Montana last week.  I fear snow will be here sooner that we want . . .)

So, to enjoy those last warm, golden sun rays, have a Wet ‘N Wild activity. Here are three ideas for a drippin’ fun extravaganza.

Sponge Tag
Get a bucket of water and a large sponge.  Select someone to be ‘It.’  ‘It’ soaks the sponge in the water.  When the sponge is as full as possible, ‘It’ chases after the other players trying to hit someone with the sponge.  If a person gets hit with the sponge, that person is ‘It’.  Continue playing until interests wanes.

House Painting
Get a bucket of water and a paint brush for each grandchild.  Let them ”paint’ a picture on the outside of your house.  Have a camera handy to quickly take a picture of their artwork before it dries and disappears.  Or, they could paint a picture on your driveway.

Water Balloon Toss
This is not your normal balloon toss.  (Do I ever do anything normal?  Normal.  What’s that?)  Make water balloons so that there is one less than the number of people playing.  So, if there are 6 people (including you), you would have 5 balloons.  Take one filled water balloon and poke a small hole in it.  Have everybody sit in a circle.  Pass the balloon around.  The one holding the balloon when all of the water is gone from the balloon is out of play.  Keep playing rounds until there is only one person left. That person is the winner.  (Need I say that you ought to play this outside???)

Bonus Activity for Little Ones
For younger grandchildren, gather up some of your extra kitchen utensils.  (Don’t use your best ones in the event that they get damaged somehow. You never know with kids!)  Fill a kiddie wadding pool with several inches of water.  Let your grandchildren play in the water with the kitchen gadgets.

When you’re finished playing in the water, serve putting pops that you previously made.

HOMEMADE COOKIE PUDDING POPS

1 package (3.9 oz) chocolate instant pudding mix

2 cups cold milk

6 Oreo cookies

1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip

Wooden Popsicle sticks or plastic spoons

Beat pudding mix and milk in large bowl with whisk.  Place cookies in Ziploc bag and use rolling pin to crush cookies.  Add cookies and Cool Whip to the pudding.  Stir until blended.   Spoon into 9 small paper or plastic cups.   Insert wooden Popsicle stick or plastic spoon into each cup for handle.   Freeze 5 hours or overnight. (You could make these with your grandchildren before you start your water games.  Or, you could make them the night before so they would be ready to serve when you are finished playing.)  You can also try different flavors of pudding and cookies.

Enjoy!

Do these hot summer days have your grandchildren wound tight like a spring – coiled and ready for action?  If so, get their hands focused (and busy) making foldables.

And what are foldables?  I’m glad you asked.  Foldables are things you make out of paper simply by printing, cutting, and folding.

PaperFoldables.com has a plethora of free patterns of people, animals, pinatas, and ‘thingies’ like a jellyfish and a typewriter.  (Do today’s kids even know what a typewriter is?)

Go to PaperFoldables.com.  Click on the desired foldable.  The pattern opens in a new window. Print it on white paper.  Cut along the lines.  Then fold.  Viola!  You have a finished paper foldable.

For older grandchildren, you could encourage them to create their own foldable.  This will definitely get their creative juices flowing.  They could either base their design on one of the Paper Foldables’ patterns or create their own from scratch.  Make sure you have plenty of paper and crayons or markers on hand.

What if your grandchildren don’t live close by?  Not to worry!  Download the pattern from the Paper Foldables web site by right clicking on the picture of the foldable and saving it to your computer.  E-mail it to your grandchild so he could do it at home.

You might ask him to send you a picture of his completed foldable — especially if he created his own design.

Hey!  Maybe you might want to make your own!  Now that’s a thought.

Here’s another thought.  Challenge all of your grandchild to a paper foldable contest.  Regardless of where the grandchildren live, they can all participate.

Have each one of them create a foldable of their own design.  Then, submit a picture of it to an unbiased judge (grandpa).  The judge then awards prizes:  most original, most colorful, most clever.  Whatever.  (The judge would need to make sure that every entry wins an award.)

Then, send out a family newsletter via e-mail with pictures of each entry and the names of the winners.  Ya know, this could even turn into an annual family event . . .

Exciting news! Our granddaughter was born yesterday. Right on her due date. Such an obedient little girl.  She weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 19 inches long.  She has a beautiful pink little complexion and delightful brown hair.  Mother and baby are doing fine.

At one point, she stretched and her feet came out of her blanket.  Her toes were spread out — just like she was ready to put on flip flops.  On the way home, I thought it would be fun to see if I could find some and take them to her the next time we visited.

I stopped at the store but alas there weren’t any flip flops for newborn babies.  Can’t imagine why.

As I was looking for the flip flops, I got an idea for an activity that would be fun for grandmothers to do with their granddaughters.  But, before I tell you about my idea, I must share two things with you.

First, as a child, I was always barefoot.  I hated shoes.  I always had a hard time finding shoes that fit and felt comfortable.  I had wide, flat feet.  Well, at least I thought they were flat.  When I got married and I mentioned my flat feet in passing to my husband, he looked at them and said that they were not flat.  They were Gateway Arch in St. Louis high!  Put that with my wide feet and no wonder I had a hard time finding comfortable shoes.

Second, I do not like to shop.  Unless it is for technology stuff,  books, or piano music.  And I especially do not like to shop for shoes.

Fast forward to the day our granddaughter was born and I found myself looking for flip flops.  Next to the sandals, some brightly colored little summer canvas shoes caught my eye.  The yellow ones were so fun.  And the orange ones.  And the ones with yellow and green polka dots.  And that is when this idea popped into my head.

I thought it would be great fun to have a special shopping day with my granddaughter.  We could start the day with buying matching summer canvas shoes.  Maybe we could find matching purses or bracelets.  We could buy nail polish and polish our nails. We could have lunch.  Stop at a bookstore and buy a book and go to the park to read the book and play.  We could end the day by getting an ice cream cone.

It’s amazing how a new little granddaughter can soften my old shoe-and-shopping-hating-little-soul and turn me into someone who is willing to not only shop but shop for shoes!

Welcome to the family, Natalie.

The other day, I went to the San Diego Zoo.  Not physically.  Just to the website.  (Much cheaper than paying for the airplane and zoo entrance tickets.)  They have a program called ‘Roar and Snore.’ It’s a sleep-over program where kids and their families can pack their pillows and sleeping bags and spend the night at the zoo with exotic bed mates — at a distance. (Whew!  I was worried there for a moment . . .)

I liked the name of the program.  Roar and snore.  Roar and snore.  Catchy.

That set my mind whirling.  Why couldn’t grandma sponsor a similar ‘program’ for her grandchildren?  Add some graham crackers, a chocolate bar, and marshmallows and you get Roars, S’mores, and Snores.

So, what would grandchildren do at grandma’s Roars, S’mores,and Snores activity?  Here are some ideas:

• Visit a local zoo
• Play ‘Going on a Lion Hunt’
• Play the online game Wild Chronicles where you help record video footage from the Crittercam collars worn by the lions in northern Kenya
• Sing folk songs around the campfire (such as You Are My Sunshine and She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain)
• Make a lion face iron on transfer and put it on a shirt (here’s a clipart of a lion and a photo of one that you can use)
• Do a woodburning picture of a lion
• Make a lion head out of paper mache
• Watch movies like Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion (filmed in 1965), Born Free (filmed in 1966), Second-Hand Lion (filmed in 2003), Lion King, Madagascar, Madagascar Escape 2 Africa, or even Jungle Book
• Make S’mores over a campfire (or in the microwave if you don’t have access to a camp fire)
• Pitch a tent, pump up an air mattress, and sleep in the back yard (if you don’t have a back yard, throw out the sleeping bags on the floor of the family room)