Family Retreat

Last weekend's Family Retreat was so much fun. We talked about diabetes, shared tips, Bean met up with her friend from the previous family retreat, and just had a ball. The best part is that while we were there Bean handled a good amount of her own care. During snack time she would add up the carbs then give me the number (so I could verify if she was right) then she'd go off to be with her friends - bolus and have her friend double check the number for her. She wanted to be more grown up. I supervised from afar, just in case she needed me, which she never did.
This time the panels were organized much better and I didn't feel as rushed from place to place. The food was still gross - thankfully they had bananas and a toaster so she could have peanutbutter toast. And the snack table was full of awsome kid friendly food. Plus I learned from last year and brought a little cooler of food stuffs. My favorite teen panel was held again and they talked about the difference between 'snacking' and 'sneaking' and how sneaking food was done out of a sense of control and rebellion. And how pre-pump many of them wouldn't bolus for the sneaked food. But now that they were on the pump they would at least 'sneak safely'. There was more - but i'll save it for another post.

Instructions for String Easter Basket & Eggs

I was asked to share this fun craft from my previous post. It's very easy to do.

Supplies:
Balloons
Crochet string or yarn
School Glue
Paint brushes
Small paper cups.
Parchment paper or plastic bags to cover your work space because it's messy.
Optional: Glitter and spray glue. Print outs of easter clip art.

Steps:
1. Blow up balloons. We used tiny ones to make doll sized baskets.
2. Wipe a bit of Pam cooking spray on the balloon to make them a bit slick.
3. Mix school glue with a bit of water. You don't want it too runny or it won't harden - but you want it smooth enough to spread around and soak into the string.
4. You can either dip the string into the glue mixture or what we did was start wrapping the string around the balloon then using the paintbrush smear, soak the string with the glue. You want it super coated so that it hardens when it dries. I usually wrap the handle first then around the base, then pile string on at the bottom. The glue makes a sticky gloppy mess.
5. Rest on on a paper cup to dry or suspend from a ledge with tape. It will drip so you'll want something under them. I save the glue mixture - just in case we missed a spot.
6. Once dry check to see that the string is harden all over. If not reapply more glue.
7. One dry, take a pin or old lancet (had to get diabetes in there some how) and poke the balloon.
8. Pull out the old balloon leaving a 3d basket/egg.
9. Decorate. We're going to use glue spray and sprinkle glitter on the eggs. We're also going to use sculpty to make tiny doll easter eggs, chocolate bunnies and cut out easter clip art and ribbon to fill the doll easter baskets. But our eggs are still to wet to show that step:)