Rehearsal Day!

The session is coming to a close and everyone is getting ready for tomorrow! We have been rehearsing all day today for the Big Show session D; lots of on the stage time and lots of down time. We have blockhead and ping pong in the living room preparing for the final show down tonight during awards night. Snacks, juggling, and hacky sack in the martial arts grove. Giant bubbles in the leaf grove. Games in the tipi circle. Lots of chilling all over the place.

Tonight is Awards Night where every kid is going to get on stage and be recognized for all the awesome fun they had this session and they can say thank you to anyone and anything.

It truly was a sweet session that passed by all too quickly, but I suppose you'll be wanting your campers back. We can't wait to see everyone who can make it tomorrow! Travel safely.

Cabar"A" and Cabar"B" and the Big Show!

Hey Families!
Sorry about the gap in posting. I just got back from my first day off in 2 weeks yesterday and was immediately thrown into Big Show planning. It's 11:45pm and the Performance Coordinators and I just finished planning out the whole Big Show. It's gonna be a great one and we can't wait for you to see it. The past two nights are what we call Cabar"A" and Cabar"B" (Get the pun?) The teachers and campers essentially showcase and preview what their Big Show act is going to be for each other. More on that in a minute.

The last two days also mark the last two days of classes for campers to learn something new or solidify what they're going to be doing for the Big Show. In the Art Grove, it was Tie-Dye day and campers were welcome to make their own fabulous tie dyed creation. It was also the last two days of lake so campers squeezed those last swims and last chances to be a lakemaster or star lakemaster in. And as I said before, it was time for the Cabarets! Get ready for some really awesome acts at this Big Show - the hip hop/vogue dance act is off the hook, there's a huge aerials act set to Mary Poppins, a great break dancing act, a whirlwind of a juggling act, tons of songwriters, a gymnastics act set to the Lorax and much, much more. All of us - including Wavy, were blown away by yesterday's show and I'm sure after one more day of rehearsals tomorrow, it'll be even more polished than it was today.

Ah, Rehearsal Day. Tomorrow is basically the whole Big Show broken up throughout the day and rehearsed in slow motion. We spend a bit of time rehearsing the Parade, opening acts, each and every act in the show and the big song finale. All the meanwhile, fun activities are happening all over camp when campers are not in rehearsals. And it all leads up to Awards - but more on that tomorrow.
Hard to believe the session is already near the end!

pictrues from all nations day, classes, and the dance

Dance Party!!

Hey families, it's dance party night! As I walked through camp to come and write the blog there were campers at the costume barn picking out spectacular ensembles for tonight. From the preview that I got I saw twins, pink panther, a parrot, the hulk, some mythical creatures, clowns, a football player, a princess, a bride, and some crazy characters. We'll work on getting the camera out there so you can see it all.

It was a wonderful cool day. The creek is pretty much gone but the lake is popular with the kids. We got a brand new jumping platform and raft this year and a lot of kids are passing their rafter and platform tests. We have another test called Lake Master. The kids have to swim 5 times around the bouys set in the lake with a lifeguard following along behind them. When they pass they are recognized at the dinner circle and given a friendship bracelet which some of kids keep on until they fall off a couple years later. So far we've had 9 Lake Masters this session and many rafters/platform swimmers. What a wonderful lazy type summer day, swimming in the lake, eating peaches and pretzels for snack, hanging out with your friends, coming back to eat tri tip, baked potatoes, and broccoli for dinner and then a costume party!

We had french toast for breakfast with yogurt and berries and then homemade mac and cheese, fruit salad, and carrot sticks for lunch. We are beginning to think about the show. Tomorrow we'll begin asking the kids what they are thinking about doing on Saturday. Everyone is in the parade and the finale of songs. Some kids find that those two things are enough and others will choose 1, 2, or 3 pieces to be in. We work hard to make the show a stress free end of camp activity. We'll tell more about it as the week progresses and then of course you'll see it on Saturday!

We're doing a water conservation themed Adventure Night tomorrow night. I hear the thump of the music coming from the Big Top. I"m going to head down to dance. I'll write more later!

yatiel

What a fun weekend!

Happy weekend families!

We've had a fun and mellow weekend and the temperatures are finally cooling off. We're looking at a lovely low 80s for the rest week! What a great way to lead up to the Big Show!

To give you a sense of what we've done this weekend... yesterday was All Nations Day! Traditionally, it's been a day long pageant with a theme celebrating or recognizing something that's going on in our world. Themes in the past have dealt with community building, eco-awareness and honoring diversity. This session's theme was Camp WinnOlympics! Every tipi represented their own country and after a hilarious introduction by staff members dressed up as ridiculous Olympians (conjoined twins that won the 3 ft race, obstacle course winners, bean bag toss champions, etc), the tipis then spent an hour to work on a tipi anthem and flag. Then all the campers could choose what events they wanted to participate in - 3 leg races, bean bag tosses, water balloon tosses, etc and winners got medals while their tipi anthem was sung by the tipi. Too much fun!

To celebrate the day, dinner was Mom's old fashioned Thanksgiving dinner - to give thanks for all the joy had so far. And it's a whopper of a meal - fresh roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, stuffing and cranberry sauce finished off with delicious fruit cobbler. After dinner, supervisor Lealah organized another fire circle that continued on the Olympian theme. Every tipi was asked to present a skit or a song dedicated to camp for the whole community to enjoy. After all the tipis presented, the West African Drums started and a thrilling little fire juggling display went up with master jugglers Jono and Josie. What a way to end a big fun day!

This morning, I was awake at 6am ready to greet the early risers for our Wavy Gravy Sunday morning tradition - the Simpsons in the Big Top while everyone else who wanted to sleep in, could. Specially chosen episodes of The Simpsons (by yours truly) played while campers quietly watched and laughed. They generally tend to be the sweet affirming ones about Lisa and those where Bart doesn't get into too much trouble! During Simpsons, it was also serve your own breakfast for the campers - cocoa, bagels, cream cheese and other fun toppings for a nice casual breakfast. This was all followed by the big Camp clean up and lost and found fashion show. Then it was already time for lunch - BLTs, chips and fruit salad. Yum! Tonight, Mary Poppins and Bert will be making a special appearance before camp to introduce - you guessed it, Mary Poppins for movie night. Wheww! Then it's back on to classes and Big Show preparation week.

Thanks for reading!
Timmy

A few more photos

These kids are incredible!

Happy Friday Families!

It's been a heckuva 36 hours since our last blog. Both Yatiel and I apologize for not posting yesterday but we were just so dog-gone tired from our once every 3 years Accreditation review by the American Camping Association. And we passed with flying colors!

So to catch you up on what's been going on the last day and a half. Yesterday, all of us directors got to tour camp with the ACA reviewers and it was a beautiful day in camp. Breakfast was hot and cold cereal with fruit and hard boiled eggs - one of the techies popped on a song called Milk and Cereal and suddenly, there was an impromptu dance party by the staff at the kitchen. Definitely one of the most memorable and fun moments of this summer! Every class had happy campers learning new tricks and skills - magic was really full with 18 kids, beginning stilters were walking around, campers were up on the silks and trapeze, jugglers getting their 3 balls down and more. It was definitely a hot day - I think we were in the upper 90s so we headed up to the lake in the afternoon to evaluate the lake. There were about 30 kids up there enjoying the cool refreshing water. The reviewers were more than pleased by what they saw - one even asked for a brochure so that he could send his kid here next year!

Dinner was a new recipe of Mom's - yep, our head chef is nicknamed "Mom". She tried out a new orange chicken recipe with rice and asparagus and mushroom medley. I think it was a winner with the kids. After dinner came one of our favorite Evening Programs - Tornado of Talent-t-t!!! Over 30 acts on stage of skills, skits and talents that the kids brought from home. A lot of great songs, some jokes, a couple of dance acts and a whole lot of talent.

As for today... it was another hot one. I think we actually broke 100 in the afternoon today but the kids kept cool at the stream and at the lake. Today was the last day of classes so campers squeezed one more new trick in today. The weekend has some special programming called All Nations Day (but more on that tomorrow) and a nice low key Sunday to give campers a break before we head into Big Show week. This evening is called Guest Performance - where some of our master staff members show off skills that they don't necessarily teach here in camp. Zappo's doing a comedy sketch, Patrick is playing some awesome guitar, Zina's got a couple of clown skits and Amanda is going to an incredible silks routine.

It's hard to believe that the first week of this session is nearly over.... these kids are truly awesome and for a lot of us staff, this group really shines in our hearts because they are such an outgoing, friendly and gregarious group that's really getting along well together.

Thanks for sharing them with us.
Timmy