I've had three of my grandchildren this week. Grandkids are such a wonderful blessing and I always tell myself I want them to leave with their little heads and hearts full of wonderful memories of Grandma's house.
I try to plan at least one major activity when the grandkids are here where I give them my full attention. I want them to remember the home cooked meals, the homemade popsicles and bedtime milkshakes, but I also want them to remember the summer we had a campout with Grandma or the summer we made a fort out of refrigerator boxes, or the summer....
So I decided we'd have a rodeo this year but we'd use their bikes as the horses! I got the wonderful idea out of one of my old Family Fun magazines stored just for times like this!
Thanks to the computer my sign "Neals Bike Rodeo" looked very professional. Gone are the days of the poster board signs done with markers!
The kids were full of questions as I purchased a hula hoop, squirt guns, ping pong balls and water balloons one our weekly trip to town. My answer was, "You'll see when we have our bike rodeo!"
This morning I was up bright and early marking the parking lot (we live in the parsonage of a church) with a pathway that curved and went up and down hills. I was busy filling water balloons and sitting up bottles on the wall with ping pong balls balanced on the top of them. Three bright orange cones stood in the center of the bike path that had been drawn.
I had certificates made for the winners and a candy bar to go with them! Treats and Grandma should always be words that are associated with one another.
Each child picked a number and I printed them out and pinned them to their backs. I was the announcer and we had an audience of hand-picked adults seated in their chairs to watch the rodeo! (Their daddy volunteered to be my clown rodeo and showed them how the game was to be played by riding on a miniature bike!)
Our first game was Calf Roping. They had to ride their bike in a circle and come to a stop at the marked place where I handed them their lasso (a hula hoop). They had three tries to rope the calf (my ladder back kitchen chair) and the one with the most successful attempts at the end of 3 tries was the winner. Rider #18 won that game!
Then came the Barrel Race. Each rider got to do a cloverleaf pattern around the cones. Extra points were given for going very close to the cone but not touching it, points were taken away for touching it or knocking it over, but these points were added to how many times they made it around the cones in 30 seconds! Rider #30 won the Barrel Race.
Then we had the Quick Draw race. The riders were handed a squirt gun and they had to shoot at the ping pong balls balanced on top of water-filled bottles. Rider # 17 won that race!
Then we had the Bronco Buster. This was where they had to stay on the drawn path. It went up a steep hill and they had to make tight curves in places as they went up the hill. It was a timed race if they made it all the way back, but if they had to stop and put their feet down as they went up the hill then they had been "thrown" off the horse and didn't get to finish the course. All of the riders made it all the way but our spunky little #17 won her second race here with the fastest time!
Last of all, we had the Balloon Buster Race where they had to run their horse through a course that was covered with water balloons and see how many they could pop! Rider # 12 did a popping good job and won this race!
A very, hot tired grandma passed out certificates and candy bars (thanking the Lord that everyone had won a race!) and proceeded to enjoy the water balloon fight with the extra balloons!
At the end of this week when I kiss them all good-bye I hope they will remember the bedtime treats, the smell of breakfast when they got up, the story time when I told them a condensed version of Moonfleet Bay, and the day spent biking in the Smoky Mountains.
Before I know it they'll be graduating, marrying and moving on but I hope I've left sweet memories that they can tell to their children of when their grandma made the summer of 2008 a special time in their lives.
Tags: Summer Family Entertainment Family Activities
