Back from "Alcohol Camp"

We spent the weekend with 10 great families. It was the annual FASD Family Retreat! (Or as Ben told his class at school a few years ago - "Alcohol Camp"!)

We stayed at the most beautiful retreat facility this year. Here I am spying on Linda from the second floor as the two of us made last minute preparations for the families.

Linda did all the scheduling and registering for families and she was a huge help with everything. Linda rocks.

Here are some pictures from the retreat. You'll notice that most are of Anna. I didn't want to post pictures where other peoples' kids could be easily identified... and besides that Anna really likes getting her picture taken.

Here's Anna checking out the view from our room in the lodge.
We had a magician on Friday night and he pulled up several of the kids to help with his tricks. Here's Ben and a friend reading each other's minds.

We played lots of nature Bingo. Two moms saved prizes for a year so we had hundreds of them for the Bingo winners. HUNDREDS. So we made sure all the kids won...a lot.

The camp director took all the families on a tractor ride and he stopped at the lodge petting zoo. He told the kids that they could get a bunny out of the bunny cages and take them on the 45 minute ride around the camp. He showed the kids how to hold the bunnies close to their chests to calm them while we rode. It was a great way to calm the kids, too!

Somebody dropped their mittens off the back of the tractor haywagon so Mike jumped off to get them. He had to run to catch us again! My hero.

And this? It's just the cutest picture ever taken, that's all.

It wasn't all about cute bunnies. We gave the kids weapons to play with.

Mike was in charge of the slingshot station. The kids LOVED shooting taconite pellets at the painted pots and pans. They all wore eye protection and they were careful to obey the rules. Several of them stayed out there for hours!

One option for families at the retreat was therapeutic horseback riding . Anna loved it!

A mom who is also an OT did some social skills activities with the kids. She had two brains made out of Jello and inside were laminated messages that the kids pulled out with little grabbers. The kids had to decide if the messages involved the "physical" brain (heartbeat, breathing, information from senses) or the "thinking" brain (decisions, actions, thoughts). It was a great learning activity and the kids thought the Jello brains were really cool.

Ben taught several kids how to finger knit. Here's Linda's daughter "Bug" making a Christmas chain that was eventually long enough to decorate the lodge stairway!

Cyndi's son Jared went to school to be a baker. He makes the most delicious cakes and he brought two of them to share at the retreat. I think I gained 10 lbs this weekend. It was worth it. I did get some exercise though...

This picture is of Linda's son Andrew riding the camp's zip line. Imagine a fat woman zipping down it. That would be me. The line hung a little lower when they hooked me up, but it didn't break. Whew.

And finally...a picture of Ben! He's sitting in the camp's big red chair with Bug. Ben likes Bug. And all the kids loved the big red chair! We had at least 10 of them in it one night as we sat by the campfire!

What a great weekend. What awesome families. It was just what I needed.