Dye-Free Summer - Camp Snacks - July

Tuesday, 7/3/12 - Little Gym camp snack - Un"Lock" the Possibilities!

Clockwise from top: Pea pods, carrots, Pink Dip; popcorn,
Rainier cherries, Parmesan and Baby Goldfish, 

I packed a slightly larger snack in one of my burgundy Lock N Lock square boxes with dividers (it actually comes with burgundy dividers too, but I probably someone had put the clear ones from the clear box inside by accident after the dishwasher. Works the same, functionally.) Way more than she'd need and have time for (they normally give the kids roughly 5 crackers or cookies each, to prevent tummies from getting too full and throwing up when they go back in for more exercise.) But I figured she could eat the rest on the way home.
I'm liking that she's choosing some of the fresh produce each time, and not just the snacky options. And she's liking having her own snack. I guess it makes her feel special. Better than feeling excluded or singled out!

Friday, 7/13/12 - Little Gym camp snack - Home-Grown

Garden raspberries, garden peas, Parmesan Goldfish

The day before, she had helped me harvest the raspberries from the canes my sister gave me to transplant in the Spring of last year (this is already more than we got all last Summer!) I made sure to save some for her camp snack. We have mostly golden raspberry bushes, but one red one, with a tiny little volunteer bush that makes more red berries than the huge one.
And I picked the fattest looking pea pods from some peas that she had planted at a little seedling playdate that actually started growing, so we transplanted them outside. The seeds and starts that *I* planted in the planter with them all died. These ones are some variety where you don't eat the pod, I'm guessing, since they are tough to chew and are very stringy. So I split them all open for her to extract the peas, which she loves doing.
I could have made this a home-grown trifecta if I'd had some kind of home-made baked good, but fat chance of that!

Friday, 7/20/12 - Little Gym camp snack - Happy Princess

Freeze dried cinnamon apples, Veggie Straws

We had originally planned on seeing a concert in the park at a local spray park, but it was raining and neither of us was in the mood to sit out on the grass in the rain. So I signed her up last-minute for another "Princess camp" - hence the silicone crown cup. (The fun snack container is from my Bento Mama Friend at Bentoriffic! I think she found it at Target's Dollar Spot, but my location was all out.)

Monday, 7/23/12 - My Gym camp snack - Lock-Out

Whole Grain and Parmesan Goldfish, Rainier cherries, sugar snap peas

I'm not a huge fan of My Gym (or "Monkey Gym," as we call it, since that was her name for it when she first started going, because of the monkey logo. And the "My" causes all kinds of confusion otherwise. "YOUR gym, Mama? Or MY gym?") But they had an open house where she got to play for an hour and they offered 20% off their camp packages. And I could get a 10-camp pass for $225-ish. So minus the 20% off for buying it that day, we got it for around $180. $18 per 3-hour drop-off camp is nothing to sneer at, and she'd been doing well at their camps during President's Day week (mid-winter break,) and Spring Break.

Her first Summer camp here, back in June, had a rocky start, but she did better this time. Until pick-up. I decided I didn't need the diaper bag to come and pick her up real quick, so I locked the front door and just took Baby E with me to the car, which I had kept unlocked after we got back from dropping Z off at camp. Guess who clips her keychain to the diaper bag so it doesn't get lost? Doh! Luckily, I have a back-up. Spare keys in my walle... hmm... where's my wallet? Crap! Well, since the car is unlocked, I can use the garage door opener and crawl through our junk and get in through the basement door... except it's locked. Whaaaat? It's never locked! Ever since we first moved in umpity-umpteen years ago, when I locked myself out of the house and camped out in the garage, freezing under a few spare blankets that were in there for some reason. (This was before I had a cell phone, so I just had to sit around and wait for Hubby to get home!)
Apparently Hubby locked it. Yay. So the locksmith said he'd be there in 20-minutes. The gym agreed to let Z sit in the lobby and color while she waited for me. Okay. Even though she doesn't cope well with me being late for pick-up. Nothing I can do... 20-minutes go by... 30-minutes... 45-minutes... Where IS this guy? And I don't even know what company, since Hubby called them for me, and now he's not answering calls or texts! And the driver's number is blocked, so I can't call him back!
So I go to the neighbor's house and ask Z's friend's Grammy (who watches them during the day) if she'd be willing to take the older one (Z's friend, so Z might feel more comfortable getting in their car with them) to pick up Z. She could use the younger brother's car seat, and I could stay there with him and Baby E.
She did me one better and let me borrow her car while she watched Baby. Whew!
The locksmith eventually CALLED me, by the time I finally arrived at the gym, roughly an hour after he'd initially called me to tell me he was 20-minutes away! Z and I got home and played with the neighbors for a while before he actually GOT there to pop open our front door! Sheesh!
And I still got charged the $200 "rush" fee. Jerks. If I had known it would take over an hour, Hubby could have taken the train back to his car and come home and let us in FOR FREE!