My grandchildren enjoy watching the TV cooking competition called Nailed It.  If you haven't heard of it, it involves contestants who have no skills trying to make and decorate desserts that look like a professionally prepared example.  The results are often funny (or alarming)! Thinking of ways to stay connected with our family, we had the idea of doing our own cupcake decorating competition in our own family by decorating cupcakes and taking pictures and putting them up for you, our readers, to vote on!  
     Here were the rules of the competition:

• We didn't judge on the baking of the cupcakes.  Some of us used cupcakes and one of us used corn bread!  As long as it was the size of a cupcake, that is all that mattered. 
• Instead of having one item to copy, we just gave a theme instead.  For our contest, everyone had to decorate their cupcake to look like a puppy.
• Everyone could choose what they wanted to use to decorate with (candies, cookies, sprinkles, etc.) but if you used fondant, you had to make your own. (No one chose to use fondant! lol)
• We ended up with 2 groups of contestants, an adult group and a children's group.  Our children's group ranged in age from almost 2 years to almost 9 years of age.  If you had more kids participating, you could break the age groups up into like age ranges. But, this is just for fun, so we aren't too concerned.

     So, please, do us a favor and in the comments vote for your favorite cupcakes!  The kids group has a number on each picture and the adults have a letter.  We appreciate your participation! 

    This was a fun way for our family to stay connected even though most of us have to stay apart.  I also think it would be a lot of fun to do with a youth group which has to meet on line instead of together or with a group of friends who can't meet for lunch right now.  You could do it with whole cakes or cookies, too.  The best part of the challenge was after we decorated them, we ate them!  
     Thanks for your votes!  I hope you give this virtual activity a try! 

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     I was recently reminded of this post and it made me wonder how much backyard camping has been going on during the pandemic.  If you want some more ideas on how to enjoy backyard camping, I thought I would republish this article.  I also came across another article that would be especially good for those of you who aren't experienced campers.  It tells you all about purchasing tents and equipment that you might need as well as a couple of good camping recipes. The writer lives in the UK, and they have been experiencing extreme isolation there.  But, compared to our Arizona backyard where we have already hit 106 degrees during the day, their UK garden is like an oasis! After you re-read this post, you will want to check it out here: Garden Camping, a wonderful escape.

    This weekend, my husband and I and a couple of our kids are going camping.  Our family has always enjoyed camping in the great outdoors!  It is a great way to get out of the Phoenix heat! Later this month, I am going to our church's girl's camp again, so camping is really on my mind.  
    With summer here and parent's looking for ways to entertain kids, Backyard Camping can be a great way to do something fun without having to spend money on gas, but still helping the kids spend time out of doors.  Plus, there is the added benefit of being close to a clean bathroom! 
​      Camping in the heat of the city, you ask?  Well, that can be a problem in some places, (like Phoenix),  but there are some ways to help with that! So, for this Fun Friday, here are our best ideas for a fun ​Backyard Camping Night! 

Set up, Timing and Preparation:

• Set the tent up in the cooler hours of the morning and leave the doors and windows open to let the air flow through it, but leave the screens closed to keep out any bugs or critters . (This tent​ has the easiest set up ever.  It is like opening an umbrella!) If possible, set it up in a shady area to keep the tent from becoming an oven inside.   Get the kids involved with the set up!  It will be a good skill for them to learn.  But, I would recommend not allowing play in the tent until it is time to camp, which should be in the evening when the sun has gone down and the temperature is cooler. 
• Decide what you want to eat! You can't camp without s'mores!  We have ideas below for that.  Decide if it is cool enough in the evening to have a fire in your fire pit, or if you want to barbecue or just order pizza. Don't forget to plan for the camping breakfast in the morning! 
• Pull out the sleeping bags or light blankets and pillows to use in the tent.  Also, flashlights and a lantern. Be sure you have enough batteries.  If you get these mini flashlights, each kid can have their own color! You can put glow sticks in jars to make colorful lanterns!  Let the kids wear glow sticks as well! 

Food Suggestions:

If you live where it is cool enough in the evening to actually have a fire pit fire, you can do a variety of things:  

• foil dinners (wrap a burger patty, some potatoes, onions and cream of mushroom soup in foil and cook in the coals.)
• roasting hot dogs on a stick
• dutch oven stew and/or cobbler
• Stuff 'em Sticks
• S'mores 

If you live in Phoenix, or somewhere else where it is  too hot for a fire at night, you can do this:

• Make a small tabletop pit with food safe Sterno, like we did for Alicia's wedding reception,  to make s'mores or stuff 'ems. If you don't know what Stuff 'em Sticks are, click the link and see where I told you all about them. 
• Have Snow Cones! (I told about making your own syrup here!) or Popsicles.
• Have a long sub sandwich or make your own sandwiches. 
• Order Pizza
• Make ice cream! Or buy it and have ice cream sundaes! 

For breakfast in the morning, there are some great options:

• Tang!  This is our camping drink.  We don't have it any other time but when we are camping.
• Little individual boxes of cereal that are perforated to make their own bowl so you can pour in the milk.  Once again, only when we camped. 
• Oatmeal packets
• fresh fruit
• If it is cool in the morning where you live, hot cocoa! (packets or bombs!)
• Pancakes, bacon and eggs!  I love cooking those on my cast iron griddle over the fire when we camp, but it also works stove top or on the camping stove! 
• breakfast burritos is a go-to for many people. 

 Ways to Be Cool:

• If you have a pool or a wading pool, pretend it is a mountain lake and take an evening swim! 
• If you have a trampoline, put the sprinkler under it and everyone can get wet on it.  Just don't send wet bodies into the tent or sleeping bags. Sit out in the camp chairs to dry off a bit.
• Have a squirt gun fight at the beginning of the evening! 
• You can always use an extension cord and set up a fan to get some air flow in the tent. 
• Sleep with only the screens closed to get ventilation.

Camp Out Activities:

There are so many fun things to do when camping, whether you are in the woods or on a backyard camp out.  Here are a few of our favorites:

• Take out the telescope and do some star gazing! ​ 
• Instead of a hike, you could create a scavenger hunt for the kids to participate in where they will find a surprise, like the squirt guns for the squirt gun fight! When you hide them, make sure that they are "loaded" and ready to go! 
• Tell spooky stories!  We have some favorites that we always tell.  Some of them are from the book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark that we have had forever.  It has now been made into a movie that is scheduled to be released in August.  I watched the trailer.  It looks much more frightening than is sounded in the book, but Maddy said she always thought those stories were terrifying.  So, know your kids and what they can take. 
• Play flashlight tag, or even laser tag if you have a set. 
• Dollar Tree has glow in the dark beach balls that would be fun on a dark night! 
• If you live where there are fireflies, catch some and make a temporary lantern. 
• Play Hide and Go Seek or Starlight Moonlight. 
• Sing campfire songs! If someone plays the guitar, even better! 

   Backyard camping is an activity the whole family can enjoy together, or just let the kids sleep on their own after the night's activities! Mom and Dad are right inside if they get scared! So is the bathroom! (Make sure they use it before they settle down for the night!) The memories you make with them will last a lifetime! 

Be sure to visit www.yay.fish to see more ideas about camping in your own garden!

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support

With Mother's Day coming up and most of us still being stuck in quarantine (California is still Shelter in Place until June 1st), it's time to start thinking about what to get our Mom's to make them feel extra loved when we can't be there with them. I've rounded up some of my favorite things from Etsy that will be sure to give your mom (or grandma) that extra shot of love they deserve.

I especially like ordering from Etsy right now because it's a way to support small businesses across the globe.

​I hope you are all safe and healthy still. And not going too crazy being cooped up for quarantine. I have to say that as a stay at home mom with young kids not much has changed for me except that now we get to have my husband at home with us all the time. 

I always try to look for the positive in situations like these. One thing I am loving is our increased family time. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, we miss our friends and our church community (church has been cancelled for awhile now) but it overall has been a benefit for us.

We have home church each Sunday where we take the sacrament and share a little lesson. And we also try to Family Home Evening (FHE) on a weeknight. In our church we are asked to set aside a night each week and do FHE. You can think of it as a family devotional time. And I think it’s a wonderful time together that would be great for every family. 

A typical home evening schedule might be:

Opening Hymn
Opening Prayer
Lesson (about a gospel principle)
Closing Hymn
Closing Prayer
Activity (game or something fun your family likes to do together)
Treat (typically a dessert but don’t limit your options)

​Each member of the family participates and is assigned a role. The opening and closing hymns were chosen by the same person. Growing up, there were more of us in the family than there were assignments, so my parents also added Scripture (we would choose a scripture we liked to share with the family), and conducting (the person in charge of the meeting schedule). I have fond memories of FHE growing up and love that I can do it with my family now. 

In my family there are only 4 of us now so some people have to double up on jobs. That’s why I created this chart. Most families in our church have wooden boards that are specifically for this purpose and the board typically has a spot for each thing that is to be done for FHE. Then each family member has some kind of marker that gets rotated through each of the jobs. One day I think we will get one of those too but right now a card stock chart is perfect for us. I divided the jobs into 4 sections (the prayers are combined with activity and treat).  Then I made a smaller wheel divided into 4 sections where each of our names are written. We can spin the wheel and it shows us what are jobs are for the next FHE. 

​The kids love doing FHE together and our son taught us a great lesson the other night with pictures he drew of a scripture story. The great thing about everyone taking turns is that the kids can gain a greater understanding of the scriptures and gospel principles.

I hope this is something you can implement in your home and enjoy doing. For a limited time this chart will be free for our subscribers on our subscribers printables page. In two weeks it will be put into our Etsy shop. 

Are you going to do FHE in your home? Let us know how it goes for you and if you use the chart.