Survivor Party

On the last day of Camp Gramma Luvlee we party hardy with our family and some very good friends. To avoid getting trounced in Survivor, Daryll faked a serious illness and got himself and Taryn flown out to the big city for surgery! Can't take the heat huh Daryll??!!

We missed them and Denise like crazy. We'll have to do a rematch when his stitches heal up a bit!

Challenge One

Unfurl Your Flag

Supplies needed: 4 boxes of different sizes wrapped in red paper, 4 boxes of different sizes wrapped in blue paper, twine, 8 padlocks & keys, blindfolds, tribe flags, 2 hatchets, red & blue box for hatchets, light weight chain, 2 boards, 1 red and 1 blue towel

Prep: Wrap the 4 blue and the 4 red boxes in paper. Using twine, tie a key onto the box with multiple knots.

Put a hatchet into two different boxes. Wrap one blue and one red. Using the locks with the key that corresponds to each teams color, secure the chain around the box, making sure it can't be slipped off.

Roll up each teams tribal flag. Secure it with a lightweight rope and tie the rope around a board.

(Are those instructions clear as mud? I borrowed this challenge from Chica & Jo . They can explain it much better!)

How to play: We divided the teams into girls vs. boys. Each team has one caller and one untier/chopper. Couple up the remaining team and blindfold them (we had them hold hands ). At the signal the caller who is standing on a towel in their tribes color,directs their team members to the boxes with the paper that matches their team color. These boxes are intermingled and spread out in a large area.The boxes each have a key tied to them with multiple knots. As they collect them, they return to their home(towel) and drop them off.

Once the team has collected all of their boxes they return to their home (towel) and  their untier/chopper guy starts untying the knots to get all four keys.Once they have all four keys they unlock the four padlocked chains on the hatchet box, unwrap their box...

...then run with the hatchet in the closed box to their flag, chop the rope and unfurl their flag!

Challenge Two

 Water Balloon Fling

Watch your back and were a slicker

the other team to us joked!

If you don't you just might find

you're own team ends up soaked!

We did this challenge in two parts. First accuracy. The teams tried to launch water balloons into a hula hoop held by a member of their team. Points were awarded for each time one went through the hoop.

In the second round the team that launched a balloon the farthest won the point.

At the end of each challenge the losing team voted off a tribe member.

Challenge Three

Global Warmin'

In the ocean's of the World

Ice Berg's are swarmin'.

Don't cha just hate that

stinkin' Global warmin'?!!

In this challenge each tribal member had 30 seconds to collect as many pearls from the frigid ocean floor as they could, with their toes. The losing team voted off a player.

Survivor Reward Luau

Since the tribes have performed so well on the challenges so far, Jeff tells them that the Network has decided to reward them all with a sumptuous island feast. Each member enters a waiting helicopter and is whisked off to a secluded beach and an island luau.

The tribes were treated to roast pig on a bed of coals

 (gummy pigs on a bed of crushed Berry Oreo's).

Sand Dollar Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
• 4-1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• Slivered almonds and cinnamon-sugar

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in extract. Combine the flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
• Roll dough between waxed paper to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 3-1/2-in. round cookie cutter dipped in flour. Using a floured spatula, place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using a chopstick, poke oval shaped wholes in two places in the cookie. Brush with egg. Decorate with almonds and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
• Bake at 325° for 12-16 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Serve on a bed of sand (brown sugar).
• note-I doubled this recipe.

After ingesting and resting, it was back to the games.

Challenge Four

A Puzzling Situation

Supplies needed: Obstacle course, 2 beams on blocks, 2 buckets of sand, two wooden spoons, magnetic toy letters, 2 dry erase boards.

Each team chose a person to solve the puzzle. The rest ran through a roped off obstacle course, then across a balance beam.

Using a wooden spoon each tribe member dug up one letter,

then ran with it to their puzzle solver.

They couldn't win until each letter was on the board.

Even after his brilliant puzzle solving,

the tribe has spoken and Trevor is leaving us tonight!

Challenge Five

Hand Out Challenge

If you Out Last the others we'll give you a shout

but you'll have to do it with this Hand Out!



In this challenge the final two will fight to the finish for the title of

SURVIVOR!

Tip tried to go to his "happy place" and outlast the rest,

but sadly it didn't work!

The final three

Final Challenge

Survivor Hula

Cassie and Adam gave it their all and made it to the final two.

 For the final challenge winner takes the title.

Lovely floral boxes (kleenex boxes with the plastic removed) were belted around their waist. In the boxes were a dozen ping pong balls. When the hula music starts each player will shake their booty like crazy. The winner is the first one to shake their box completely empty!

Cassie (the former World's Champion Booty Shaker) reluctantly concedes to the official

"SURVIVOR"!

The Gough family really knows how to

"SURVIVE"!

Aloha until next year!

Gramma Luvlee

Haunted Tiki Island-Sole Survivor

This Gramma is just a little bit creepy! I love Halloween and setting a mood through theatrics. So is it any wonder that the Couch Potato Theme this year was born because I needed to do Survivor because I NEEDED to do Haunted Tiki Island! A few years back I saw a haunt by this name and thought it would be a great theme for a Gramma Camp spooky treasure hunt. Thanks to Chris at Devil's Chariot, we scared the kids in grand style. They said it was the best one ever! (They say that every year!)

But, once again my camera went kaput in the first five minutes so we missed most of the haunt. The next morning when we took the little guys through we took some pictures, but needless to say it was way spookier at night.

Haunted Tiki Island -Sole Survivor

We watched a video I made to introduce the haunt, but I can't get it to upload either. Take my word, it was pretty creepy. It said that a group of soldiers had been sent to a small island to check on the welfare of a group of missionaries.

 Among them Thadeus Wingate and his new bride.

The new Mrs. Wingate had been writing home about some rather disturbing occurrence's involving head hunters,

hostile warriors and tiny shrunken heads.

Suddenly her letters stopped and her family is concerned. The soldiers arrive to find an eerily quiet and deserted village but on the outskirts of town they did find the missionaries...

...dead,dead,dead!

Suddenly the sound of drums and chanting filled the air. That night a soldier was lost...

...and each night thereafter. Each man suffering a gruesome death.

 Until now only one soldier remains...

...and he is terrorized and running for his life.

His wealthy family is offering a very hefty reward for his safe return.

Are you brave enough (or crazy enough) to rescue this poor unfortunate soul?!!

Or will you too fall victim to...

Haunted Tiki Island!!!

The Clues

All the clues were printed out on tan paper that was crinkled and distressed.

As the rescuers entered the island they found this clue stabbed on the tree with a knife. Jungle sounds could be heard and the tree was lit by tiki torches.

On nights like this, I've heard it said

Tiki Gods call back the dead.

He calls them from eternal sleep

and all night long they crawl and creep!

Their guide led them through the dark trees to an open area. In front of three unlit tikis stood a zombie/skeleton warrior with a conch shell.

 The Cannibal guy handed them the first clue.

#1

When the conch sounds, stone will awake.

His mighty voice makes mortals quake!

 A light turned on and illuminated him then he blew on his shell and the tiki's eyes lit up and smoke came from their mouths.

My son made all the tikis from either Styrofoam or Great Stuff and cardboard cement forms

Our night-time cannibal/zombie/skeleton warrior



Our daytime zombie guy. He was the youngest rescuer brave enough to go at night,

so he got to re-enact for the daytime rescuers.

The Tiki said,  

"Arise all who on this island sleep, even those who haunt the deep. Sweep this land of foreign thugs, crush them just like pesky bugs!"

The next clue was on that Tiki. It said:

#2

These warriors are a pile of bones.

When they rise up, we'll hear your groans!

The warrior led them to a different spot and called,"Awake". A full sized skeleton Fell out of a tree and about squashed them. (It was supposed to stand up, but that didn't work so then it was supposed to gently come down in front of them.)Oh well!

In his hand was a clue that said,

#3

The white man came to tame this land

But now he joins this undead band!

The night is filled with the sound of chanting and jungle sounds. The warrior leads them to a small spider infested graveyard lit with lanterns hanging from fishing line so they seem suspended in air. He yells, "Arise".

A rubber skeleton torso that was lightly buried in a grave is pulled up out of the ground. In his hand is the next clue.

#4

These quivering beasts, they hiss & spit.

Be brave and reach within their pit!

In a snake pit filled with green goo the kid's fished around until they found the next clue. The slime was lit by a green glo-stick and the rattles of a dozen snakes could be heard.



#5

This one won't rise up from his pit

he's barbecue upon the spit.

This picture is very unimpressive, but at night this really was cool! I had the sounds of a fire and I had a little disposable grill behind him cooking a hamburger. That's what got them! The coals looked really authentic at night and we had a fogger blowing over them.

For the coals I bought clear punch bowl at the Dollar Tree. I sprayed coils of Great Stuff over them and let it dry.

Then I added another layer.

After it dried I dry brushed on gray and black paint so it looked like coals. I crumbled up tin foil and

laid a small string of orange twinkle lights on it. Then put the dome over it. Plu it in and instant coals! It has a great glow at night. Just circle it with rock for a portable fire pit.

All along we had been hearing odd grunts and groans. The trees would rustle all around us and it was really quite creepy.

#6

This forest creature neither man nor beast.

His legend hails from the mysterious East.

They call him Yeti, an apelike man

You'd best outrun him, if you can!

Our guide sniffed the air and said, "Do you smell that?" Right then something slapped the bushes next to us and ran off. We saw an apelike shape running in the moonlight. That's when we looked over and discovered a large nest of some sort trambled down in the bushes and weeds. Inside the nest we made a gorey discovery, bones and hair and a dismembered bloody foot! We had found the Yet's nest and he was not happy. We could hear him snorting and throwing things in the distance. We need to get away from here!

#7

This witch Doctor is quite the cook

he's set his pot beside a brook

to rinse his eyeballs, brains and feet.

You must keep clean the things you eat!

Another of our brave little rescuers demonstrates at the Witch Doctors Camp.

Cannibal got your tongue?

This pot was also baoiling away on a bed of coals, with bubbling sounds and fogger smoke. They had to search among the goo for the next clue while the good Doctor measured them for her pot.

#8

This bridge, it swings o'er lava hot

the boards and rope, you see they rot!

So when you cross, please don't let go

or you'll end up like them below!

Papa graciously constructed this swinging bridge, transported it and buried it about 2 ft. deep. All for 5 minutes in my imagination. He's a sweetie! The lava was constructed like the coals except it was red rope light on a long board. We had bubbling sound and a fogger for atmosphere. The bridge was really creaky and gave with each footstep! They found the clue on the bridge.

#9

The spirit of the Voodoo Queen

rests in the mists of vapors green.

She'll make you sick, you'll start to hurl

when her glowing haze begins to swirl!

When we came around the corner and saw this everyone, me especially, let out a collective WOW!!!

Papa and Ryan made a laser vortex. I can't even explain how cool it looked. It was like green creeping fog in a cone shape. The laser lit up the landscape in diamond sparkles and the kids forgot all about the mean old voodoo queen and danced in the swirling fog. It only cost about $30 to make. You can find the instructions here and a video here.

#10

Of giant arachnids the natives tell

They'll suck out your life til you're a shell.

They'll slurp your blood like it was cider

Don't be alarmed, it's just a spider!

At this stop everything glowed from a blacklight. The clue was found in the spider victims coccoon. The flowers, insects, tiki masks, and spiders were all painted with blacklight paint. While they were trying to get the clue out of the webs a giant spider dropped down onto them.

#11

Trader Sam he hawks his wares

island leis and souvenirs.

And one more thing, you just might dread

a shriveled, bloody shrunken head!

I wish you could have seen this at night. Creepy! Everything was arranged on a burlap draped table under an old dead tree. Trader same had several tiny heads for sale and one brand new dripping one he hadn't started on yet! All his trinkets and bottles were lit by dozens of flameless candles I made.

Sam can always use a hand!

Head's up! Trader Sam is coming!

Sam's "Finger Lickin' Good"snacks

Sam's always looking to get a "head"!

In one of the specimen jars they found the next clue.

#12

He brought his new wife 'cross the sea.

"missionaries'', he told her, "we shall be!"

She Held him as he bled and died.

She walks this earth, his poor dead bride!

Last year our lovely lady was pretty effective, hanging and swaying in her black lit glory! But this year we stepped it up a notch. Our mourning bride got a bridal boquet and a spritz of Rit Fabric Whitener. Then instead of just tying her on a branch we put her on a really strong fishing line hung between two large trees.(She had a loop of wire through her head that we strung the fishing line through.) When the kids got here she started sobbing and wailing and floating across the sky as someone pulled her across with fishing line. We also used the black light and ground fogger. The clue was in a skeleton hand inserted in the pool noodle arm.

#13

They killed them off, one each night.

Now he's alone he lives in fright!

He had no time to bury the dead.

Threw them headfirst beneath the shed!

We have a creepy elevated shed that has all kinds of scary things already under it. We just added a few rats and a couple of bones and a lantern and they had to reach under to get the clue. There was also a few boards tacked on the shed with the deceased soldiers names. Unbeknownst to us that sneaky Yeti was hiding in the bushes and started grunting just as we were all bent over searching under the shed. We about mowed each other over trying to save ourselves!

#14

Look left, look right and underneath

while in the forest of hands and teeth.

The zombie cannibals with clutching claws

will crush your bones in gnashing jaws!

We had to pass through an overgrown thicket with a very narrow trail through it. I warned them that things were going to reach out and grab at them, but even though they were warned (and even though they knew it was their parents) they totally freaked going through!

A freaky hand passed one of the rescuers the last crew.

#15

Congrats old man, you've found the chap.

Saved him from their deadly trap.

He'll give you now your just reward.

Greet him now, please come forward!

As we came out of the thicket into a clearing there was a camp set up with a crackling fire and a English soldier in a Pith Helmet sitting on a camp stool, with his back to us. He was humming a little tune, and I must admit it kinda freaked me out a bit. Just as the kids reached his stool he turned around and said,"Oh, I do say old man I have visitors." Then they saw his face have gone and bloody and the large machete in his hand. He stood up and ran towards them saying,"I will be the Sole Survivor!"    The End!   Sleep tight and sweet dreams my little luvlees!

Gramma  Luvlee