WWLW: Summer Camp Week - Camp Movies

Movies…the Merry Mommas love them. All types of movies! And while now most of our movie watching involves some form of Disney, we still love all types of movies, including CAMP MOVIES…so today our post is dedicated to CAMP MOVIES!

Cindy - Hands down, Parent Trap (the original, even though I do LOVE Linsday Lohan {I know, I know, but I have this weird love for her…anyway}) is the best Camp Movie! This movie made me want to be a mischievous twin so stinking bad! And really, Hayley Mills singing Let's get together, yeah, yeah, yeah! GOODNESS, good times!

Katy - I love Poison Ivy - the one with Michael J. Fox. It's a love story mixed in with the fun of overt stereotypes (jock, shy, con man, etc.) trying to survive a summer at camp. At the end when everyone gathers around to watch Timmy swim you can't help but be excited too! Ah, the 80s, they were good times!

And y'all know we couldn't have a post about SUMMER CAMP MOVIES without mentioning everyones favorite - Dirty Dancing!! What's your favorite scene and/or quote from the movie? Of course we all love "Nobody puts Baby in a corner.", but we also love "Oh, come on, ladies. God wouldn't have given you maracas if He didn't want you to shake 'em!"

And for fun:

Summer Camp Week! (Letters From Home)

Hi friends! It's Merry Momma Cindy and I'm here to talk about LETTERS FROM HOME!

Think back to summer 1994...what were you doing? Were you in college? Having a baby? In elementary school? Relaxing at the pool?

Want to know what I was doing? I was attending Girls State. Ever heard of it? Y'all, it's a summer camp about government.  Yes, government. I was (and I guess still am) that girl. I went to a camp about government. And, then I went to Texas A&M and studied government. Interesting, huh!

Anyway...Girls State is OLD SCHOOL. There was NO phone, (And this was 1994, NO ONE had a cell phone that you put in your pocket and few even had phones in their cars {collective gasp from the audience under 25}) NO TV and you could only receive mail.  It was a surreal 5 day experience.

And when this happened all of the Girls State girls had to READ about it!

Yes, I READ about the OJ Simpson chase. Can you even imagine the day those letters came in...all of us girls were like, "What does your letter say?" "He did what?" "OJ Simpson - the football guy?" "White bronco, what?" Y'all...it was nuts!

And, it forever ingrained in me the importance of a well written letter from home! And I'm not alone. In fact, there is an entire website called Letters to Camp.  They came up with this nifty little ditty below. It is basically everything you needed to know about how to write the perfect camp letter!

(source)

And check out this fun idea so that you *maybe* get a letter back from your camper!

(Apartment Therapy)

And for those of you out there knowing your child may only spend about half a second writing you back, there are fill in the blank Camp Stationery:

(The Note House)

In our world today, most people don't go more than an hour or two without sending a text to their nearest and dearest...but Summer Camp can change that...and maybe that's good.  We should all try to spread the MERRY with a little hand written letter! Can't wait to read one from you!

Summer Camp Week! (Lunch Box Notes)

Over the last two weeks the Merry Fams have had a group email going back and forth about --- SUMMER CAMPS! Yes, our oldest children are now 6 years old and about to (wait for it) GRADUATE Kindergarten! (We totally could argue both sides of all these celebrations, but since they are our kids, it's precious and priceless…moving on.) So, what happens after KINDERGARTEN? Summer! And while there will be MUCH splashing in pools and lazing around the house, we also think the kiddos may enjoy some camps…and there are about 14,276 just in the BCS area to consider. All this camp talk led to discussions about spreading the MERRY at camps…so here it is - SUMMER CAMP Week!

We are starting off on the "easy" end of the spectrum and actually going to discuss LUNCH BOX NOTES! We know that packing a lunch really begins with school and if you think about it "school" is just a really really really long camp that happens in every season but summer. BUT, it is the first time you really send your kid off somewhere to be cared for by others. So, let's discuss LUNCH BOX NOTES.

Here's a GREAT example of and AWESOME lunch box note from Ryan to Radley! Isn't this just the best! And why is it the best?
1. Ryan knows Radley's passion - Sharks!
2. It expresses an emotion - Love!
3. It uses familiar terms - Buddy!
4. And it was made by hand!

We pinned lots of examples of LUNCH BOX NOTES to our Pinterest page and we love them all. (Go look!) They are cute and fun and darling. And we use notes like those often to brighten up the kiddos' or the hubbies' day, but know that a note that spreads the MERRY (of any kind) doesn't have to be on fancy paper or take 20 minutes to produce or cost lots of money - it just needs to show that you know the receiver and you care about them!

Spread the MERRY this week via Lunch Box Notes and post them to our Facebook Page!