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Thursday, July 21, 2016

Family Camping 2016

Summer vacation means it's time to go camping! This past weekend we headed up to Grand Lake, CO for some outdoor family fun.

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Camping with a family takes some serious planning. This isn't our first time, so we already have all the camping gear we need. That just leaves meal planning and packing up the car. This isn't exactly a "how to" post, just a glimpse of some ideas I have and some I found online that worked for me.

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree


Our Meals:
Day 1 Dinner- Hot dogs and Brats
   When you first get to your campsite you have a lot to do with setting everything up. Any easy dinner is best, no need to add to the stress.

Dessert- S'mores!

Day 2 Breakfast- Scrambled eggs, sausage, and biscuits
    Cooked the sausage and eggs on our stove. I forgot to take a photo but this was the first time I made biscuits over a campfire! I got a tube of Pillsbury Grands, placed them in a foil baking pan and covered with foil. Set them on the grate over the fire. Worked great! The bottoms got a little burned but that easily peeled off.

Lunch- Tortilla Chip Tacos
   I prepared beef with taco seasoning ahead of time and I added in a can of black beans. After the meat was cooled, I dumped it in a ziploc bag. This is super fast to heat up over a fire or on a stove. After meat and beans are heated up, just dump on some pre-shredded cheese, pre-chopped lettuce and I brought along some sour cream for me. Everyone can gather around and scoop up with tortilla chips. You don't even need plates!

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Dinner- Chicken Parm Sandwiches
   So these aren't exactly Chicken Parm since my chicken isn't breaded but close enough. Like my lunch, this meat was prepared ahead of time and just reheated. I took chicken breast and cut up into small pieces. I seasoned it and cooked on the stove top with some onions and green peppers. Allow to cool and place in a ziploc bag. For both this and the taco meat, I froze them at home. It stays cold longer and helps to keep the cooler cold longer. I reheated this over the fire in a foil baking pan. Place chicken in roll with some cheese then toast over fire! These were so good,I think I'll start making them at home too!

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

My daughter wasn't down with chicken so she used the pie iron to make make a spaghetti and garlic bread sandwich!

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Dessert- Apple Crisp
   Prep the crumble mixture at home ahead of time and place in a ziploc. I don't measure stuff but my mixture contains butter, brown sugar, white sugar, flour, oatmeal and cinnamon. This takes some time to cook the apples so start prepping this one same time as dinner. Cut up apples and cover with sugar mixture. Word to the wise...in the past I packed this in aluminum foil and cooked over the fire, occasionally flipping it over so it would cook evenly. Worked great. This year I placed in a foil baking pan and covered...it burned on the bottom. because of the sugar and maybe our too large fire. This one failed this year. I would definitely go back to the foil packet that you flip.

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Day 3 Breakfast- Cereal or whatever you an find in the cooler while I'm packing!
   It's already time to go and check out at this campsite is 11am. Some of us had cereal and others decided Chef Boyardee sounded good. Anything fast and not a lot of clean up is good for me.


The Dollar Store has some great supplies you can use for camping. Here's what I bought there before we left:
Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree
  • outdoor solar lights
  • plastic table cloth
  • foil baking pans
  • kid toys(shovel & bucket)
  • plastic spoons
  • hand sanitizer
  • glow sticks
  • playing cards
  • kid flashlights
  • matches

There is wildlife everywhere here so you have to pack your food back in your car at night unless you want a visit from a bear. Rubbermaid bins are a perfect way to pack your nonperishable food. We also used another bin to pack and store our camping supplies.

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Entertainment is essential with kids. It takes about five minutes for them to get bored. Before we left I printed them maps to color in for the license plate game and a scavenger hunt list. I should have also printed them a real map to where we were going so they could follow along the route. I can't tell you how many times I was asked "How much longer?" We've stayed at this particular campsite before(Elk Creek Campground) and we come back because it's perfect for us. Besides the perfect location right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, they have awesome bathrooms, a game room, playground, and small stream running through the property. My kids had a great time panning for gold and trying to catch minnows.

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Family Camping 2016- Over The Apple Tree

Going on a long car trip? Make a seat belt travel pillow!


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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Seat Belt Pillow

Traveling long distances in the car can be fun but also uncomfortable! Get ready for your next road trip by making a comfy seat belt pillow.

Seat Belt Travel Pillow, Over The Apple Tree

A few days before we took off for our family camping adventure, my daughter was complaining about her booster seat and how there was no way she could relax her head against anything in the center seat. I remembered these pillows I saw on Pinterest(visit Pin for more detailed instructions). Perfect and easy enough to whip up before we go.

Seat Belt Travel Pillow, Over The Apple Tree
I purchased a very cheap pillow and used the stuffing for my pillow
Seat Belt Travel Pillow, Over The Apple Tree
Use an iron to mark center sew lines
Seat Belt Travel Pillow, Over The Apple Tree

Seat Belt Travel Pillow, Over The Apple Tree

Seat Belt Travel Pillow, Over The Apple Tree

I hear all the time from people I know or comments here on the blog... "I could never do that", "I'm a bad seamstress", "I'm not crafty". This is two squares of fabric, some stuffing and sewing straight lines, you can do it. I'll tell you what, I had about 10 brain farts while I was sewing this and I still managed to make it work!

For size reference, my daughter is 7 and I went with the 17x17 measurement for the fabric.



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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Harry Potter Spell Shirt

I used Elmer's blue glue and Rit dye to make this super cool, if slightly nerdy Harry Potter inspired shirt. I love all things Harry Potter, checkout my Potter inspired crochet projects!

Harry Potter Spell Shirt. Easy project using Elmers glue and Rit dye. Over The Apple Tree

This project is actually Pinspired. I pinned this dye resist project from Holly Hox and had so many repins and questions about it, I finally decided it was time to test it out myself!

In this tutorial, it specifically says to use the blue gel glue so that's what I used. I've actually seen other tutorials since then where they used regular white school glue. I'm not sure what the difference is, but it looks like they could both work.