I have a good friend, Grandma Denise, who is talented, talented, talented. I believe talent is her middle name.

She has clever ideas, does clever crafts, and does clever things with her grandchildren. I believe that clever is her middle name.

Fifteen years ago when she first became a grandmother, she had a neighbor who was also a grandmother and who held a grandma camp for her grandchildren. (The neighbor hired a nanny, a lifeguard, and a 10 passenger van for her week-long grandma camp!)

This neighbor so impressed Grandma Denise, that Grandma Denise decided that she would do a grandma camp for her own grandchildren.

Grandma Denise has held some fabulous grandma camps: a dinosaur dig, cowboy camp, grandma Olympics, pirates, secret agents, actors school, and a wild safari to name a few.

She has become so famous in our neck of the woods that she was on a local TV program.  Here’s a video snippet where she talks about some of her great ideas.

She has created a 109-page book where she describes her camps, gives ideas for invitations, activities, field trips, and even suggests food to fix during the camp. Her booklet has a planning outline and a schedule outline. She even has an emergency and health information document to fill out so that she has necessary medical information in the case of an emergency.

She thinks of everything!

She has a website Grandma Camp where you can check out and order her book. The book costs only $12 (with $4.95 for shipping and handling).

This is the time of year that many grandmothers are thinking of fun activities that they can do with their grandchildren this summer. Holding a grandma camp is an activity that will strengthen your relationship with your grandchildren and build loving memories that will last forever.

So, check out Grandma Camp and check out Grandma Denise’s book called Grandma Camp On a Budget.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Denise: denisehoops at gmail.com.

My daughter-in-law sent me a fun link. It’s to a reproducible file of an invitation to Grandma Camp and other fun tags.  You can download it here.  (It is from the site The DIY Dish run by identical twin sisters that look like they could be Marie Osmond’s daughters!)

Keep your eyes peeled as you look at this reproducible.  There is a link to directions on how to make a paper bag book — on the sewing machine no less!  (Can’t get much more creative than that!)

Thanks so much, Pamela, for sharing this with me!

Do any of you have links (or ideas) that you can share about Grandma Camp?

Grandma Shelley recently had a Rock Stars Grandma Camp for her grandchildren.  After reading all about it on her website, her idea zoomed to the top o’ the list of things I’ve gotta do when my grandchildren get a wee bit older.

(Do you hear my toe tap, tap, tappin’?  C’mon, Kaylissa!!! And Simon, and Natalie and Spencer.  You gotta grow!  Kaylissa,  I know you’re only a week old.  But sheesh!  How long before we can play Rockband together is all I wanna know . . .)

Grandma Shelley found cardboard guitars on sale at Michael’s Art and Craft store.  She gave them to her grandchildren to color when they came to Grandma Camp.  I fell in love with the guitar you see here. (Grandma Shelley so graciously let me use her photo for this post.)

You can read all about her guitar craft project here.

Grandma Shelley’s said that months ago she purchased these cardboard guitars on clearance from Michael’s .  Which means if I went right down to the store this very moment, I probably won’t find any.  Rats!  I guess when the time comes, I can trace around my Beatles Rock Band guitar for a pattern and copy it on large pieces of cardboard.

However, I did find some foam guitars on Michael’s website. I don’t know how big they are or how durable.  But, if you’re in a pinch, maybe something like this would work for you.

Grandma Shelley’s grandchildren also made buddy burners.

And Rock Star wrist bands.

It looks like they had a fabulous Grandma Camp.  Her grandchildren are so lucky to have her as their grandmother!  Thanks, Grandma Shelley, for letting me share your fabulous ideas!

Grandma Shelley made a comment on my post about making licorice with grandchildren.  She mentioned that she had been contacted by the LA Times to write about the grandma camps that she does for her grandchildren.  She has some great ideas that I think my readers ought to be aware of.  You can click here to read what she has to say.

Grandma Shelley has good advice about doing lots of pre-planning and preparation for her grandma camp.  So, if you have the mid-winter blahs like I do, now is the perfect time to start thinking and planning what you would like to do for your very own Grandma Camp. (Or, you can start planning and preparing for a trip to Fiji like I am!)

If I put the rule down that the grandchildren have to be potty trained before they can come to a grandma camp, it’s going to be a long time before I can do a camp!  Sheesh!  Since Simon is only 2 1/2 months old and Natalie is only six months old, they really can’t do much anyway . . . I tried to get Simon to play Twister with me when he came over two days ago.  He just looked up at me from my arms and grinned . . .

Isn’t Simon cute??

You might also want to read about the heart attack that Grandma Shelley gave her grandchildren.  I know that Valentine’s Day is over.  But — you can start collecting ideas and preparing for next year, huh? Great ideas, Grandma Shelley.

Do any of you have activities that you have done with your grandchildren?  Please feel free to post a comment and share them here.

Thanks a bunch!