One Day Mini Camp

The three kiddos (ages 7, 6 and 4) wanted to go on a "mini" camp with us, so we planned a full day with the them "Jesus is the light of the world, and so are we." I purchased several items from Dollar Tree to make a bag for each one: a maze with a path to the light, a tea light star, a booklight, glow sticks...you get the picture. We also found an inflatable globe to represent "Jesus is the light of the world" for a dollar! The items were put in brown paper lunch bags and numbered, then placed in a larger bag, for the car.

Our first stop was Sweet Eats Fruit Farm, where we had never been before. It's somewhat rustic, but full of fun activities for the kids! It was not crowded at all, being the dog days of summer, but we had prayed for clouds and there were clouds! $12 pp gets you a ticket to stay there as long as you like. In fruit season, there's fruit picking!

This day in August, there were pony/horse rides, a tire mountain, duck racing game, slingshots, a bale of hay maze, obstacles courses, face painting, a tree swing, pig races, a petting zoo and more. We couldn't finish it all. The place is spread out under lots of trees that provide shade, and there are picnic tables up near the food truck. You are allowed to bring your own food. We stayed there a couple of hours and it was massive fun.

On the way to the farm the kids opened a little journal and they were given instructions to draw a picture of something we did at each place during the day. And they opened a plastic vase for gathering flowers at the farm.

When we left, we needed a treat, so we found a Mexican ice cream shop called Paleteria Y Neveria Litzy's (a mouthful, in more ways than one!) The choices were endless, but we just needed some ice cream in our bellies and refueling for the next leg of our mini camp. On the way, the kids opened their star tealights...we had them open a gift every so often to keep the day mysterious and fun...

Inner Space Cavern was our next adventure, a cave tour! It was super crowded and since our tour wasn't for another hour, we let the kids pick out a gift from the shop - best thing ever - a little leather bag stuffed with magnetic marbles. They each got one for $8.25 and played with them ALL DAY EVERYWHERE WE WENT. Finally, it was time for our tour (it was 4:00 pm by now and kids were tired), so off we went. Our guide wasn't so wonderful (she mumbled) and our tour was large (Inner Space is crazy busy on weekends!) but the cave was spectacular. Two of the three kids grew tired and we ended up carrying them, and that made for two tired adults as we exited!!!

It was time for dinner and we had picked ahead of time Hat Creek Burgers in Georgetown. This location is especially great because of the huge play area out back. There were lots of kids. We gave our kids a fairy set (on sale half off now, end of summer!) so they opened and set up underneath the deck, where kids play! They also played with guess what - those marbles! We stayed there a long time, because the breezes were nice and the kids made friends. They loved it there!

Our final destination was Creative Playscape (everything we did was in Georgetown) because we had checked it out ahead of time and realized we wanted to end there, as the sun set. It's a big playscape with all sorts of things to climb on, explore and enjoy. Seriously, the kids squealed as they realized all the opportunities here. There's a bit of history mixed in with play here, which makes it really cool for the kids and parents.

As the sun set, we gathered on a picnic table and set out our star lights, put together our glow stick lanterns and placed them on the table, and had a snack they also found in their bags. They used their journals and pens and finished their mazes, and we sang, "This Little Light of Mine." We ended with clipping their book lights on a new book called When God Made Light and praying together, before heading home.

We probably spent about $300 total on gifts, activities and food. We could have brought our food to the farm to save money, but we didn't. And Inner Space was way overpriced, in our opinion. But the farm was somewhere we want to return come fall and winter, where I hear they have a pumpkin patch and real reindeer!