Hey all! Lady of the Lake with all the latest Trip / Lazy Day news!

This morning, the younger half of camp had Zoo Day as their lazy day activity. As classic Disney tunes blasted through speakers around camp, campers took part in a variety of activities. For those kids searching for an active morning, there was a hyena relay, animal spitting (where kids tried to spit peas the furthest) and seal basketball. For those yearning to get creative, there was face painting, animal charades, and ear / mask making. Since it was a beautiful, sunny day, kids could splash around and cool off at the polar plunge, which was fun slip n’ slide. Of course, it wouldn’t be zoo day without a few animals, so we had our very own petting zoo. Elise the counselor helped introduce many campers to the guinea pigs, donkeys, and ducks!

Meanwhile, the older half of camp headed off to pool activities. As mentioned, the weather was absolutely perfect, so there was no better time to lounge by the pool. In addition to swimming in the pool, campers relaxed by making friendship bracelets, playing cards, listening to music, reading, heading down a slip n’ slide, and playing frisbee. Throughout their relaxing morning, their excitement about going to the fair just kept growing!

There’ll be plenty more news about this afternoon’s activities (including the Bangor State Fair and magic workshops!) to come tomorrow.

For now, let’s talk about yesterday’s evening meeting and electives. At meeting, our resident sports newscaster, dubbed “Sporty McGee,” gave us a very important news announcement. If you haven’t been keeping up with the senior curling championships, have no fear, I’m here to let you know that Canada beat Sweden. These are the important sports we follow here at HVC. Our PD Hilary is actually a curler, so she was quite excited to hear this news! We also heard that the fastest tennis serve ever happened, and that the Cubs played a 6 hour, 40 minute – 16 inning – game. But that news was minor compared to the curling news!

For last night’s evening program, we had Electives. That’s where the counselors host tons of activities, and campers get to choose what they do for the night. Last night, campers participated in loads of different things. There was a massive game of capture the flag played all over one of our many fields. In a similar vein, there were sardines (a spin on the classic hide-n-go-seek) and disc golf. For those craving a delicious treat, the pizza oven was cranking, and the AWACs hosted a cookie decorating station. And if a camper couldn’t choose between those two, in the kitchen folks created a giant cookie pizza!

For the water inclined folks, the hot tub was poppin’, folks headed down to the lake, and in the pool, campers played a game of Cascade. That’s where the pool is divided into two halves, and hundreds of balls are poured in. Campers on teams try to eliminate the balls from their half of the pool. It’s great fun!

On the adventurous side, campers headed up to the Tipi zip line, took a creek hike, and had a massive scavenger hunt. On the artistic and musical side, there was a dance party, a jam session, glass beads making, light painting, and a splatter paint party. Those who partook in the splatter paint party then took it upon themselves to share their painted selves with camp by posing as artistic statues throughout the backyard.There really was something for everyone. We finished the night up in the Rec Hall by singing camp songs all together!

Alright, well that’s all for now, and be sure to check back tomorrow for loads more information about today and tonight!

In a while, crocodiles!

Lady of the Lake

 

Hi all! Snoop Cat here with a brief report…

Today is the first lazy day of second session! We started our morning off right with a later-than-normal breakfast made up of warm croissants, homemade jam, and a delicious cinnamon oatmeal with freshly cut apples, along with our everyday spread of fresh bananas, oranges, melon, and a variety of different cereals. All of the cabins are currently doing a big cabin clean before they get inspected and begin their activities for the day.

Since it’s a lazy day and we’re all feeling pretty lazy, our longer dispatch for the day will be coming in sometime around dinner. Stay tuned for some more lazy day news!

Signing off for now…

Snoop Cat

P.S. The local volunteer fire department was kind enough to pay us a visit yesterday so our Junior Firefighters class could learn more about firetrucks and firefighters! Junior Firefighters is one of our amazing classes that is offered during the first two weeks of second session. They learn about fire safety and even get to investigate all of the fire extinguishers on camp. Check out the photo above and stay tuned for more class updates later today!

Hi, friends! Olive Oyl here with your daily dose of HVC news.

Before we get started, it’s about time for a little refresher course in HVC lingo so that all you folks at home know exactly what we’re talking about! Yesterday was a momentous occasion as it was No Mail, No Meal, which means that each camper must write a letter to someone at home as their ticket into dinner. If a camper forgot their letter, no worries! We always have postcards and pens waiting outside the dining hall. We received many letters last night and had many happy and full bellies! Yesterday was also a glorious day as the sun came out and the schvitz cleared. Schvitz is the word we use instead of rain, as it never rains at Hidden Valley, for this is a magical place devoid of gloomy condensation. When we do get schvitz, it’s a whole new adventure! There’s always puddle jumping and rainbow puddles because campers at HVC know how to have a good time no matter the weather. We also have some silly vocabulary at camp meetings, like yelling “fun!” after the pool (because it’s always so much fun) and “ouch!” whenever someone says Health Lodge. It’s these little traditions that keep campers on their toes during meetings and continue on with the quirky HVC way. We also have our dynamos during interest groups, who are three counselors who do a little skit based on something starting with the letter “M” before they announce their activity for the afternoon. Yesterday was dyna-Moses, where our counselor named Moses parted the red sea of campers with his wooden staff. Be sure to check out the photo from yesterday, it was hilarious!

We also have some special vehicles around camp, like the Green Pig, which is an old green truck that only Peter gets to drive when he gives his secret tour on electives night, which will be coming up this evening! We also have an old firetruck around camp that is commonly used as a meeting spot as it is too old to function. There’s also the bumblebee, which is a colorful bug-inspired golf cart that the PDs get to ride around in. The Ladybugs, our cleaning staff, get to ride around in an newly decorated ladybug golf cart. It’s so fun to see giant bugs zooming around camp and getting their jobs done! Another new addition to camp this summer is the pizza oven, which has been in the making since long before campers have arrived. The oven is wood burning and a fire gets started a few hours before it’s ready to be used so that it can get nice and hot. Once it’s at a good temperature, we can make all sorts of pizzas, like classic pepperoni and vegetable, but also fun desert pizzas like s’mores. The pizza oven is also extra special because it’s a fire-breathing dragon! The pottery staff added a giant clay dragon to the side of the oven, complete with two beautiful green sparkly glass beads for eyes, thanks to our glass staff! It’s been an amazing addition to camp, perfect for electives, cabin nights, and everything in between.

Let’s also take a quick moment to talk about what we at HVC refer to as “backyard games.” Backyard games are the activities we play in small groups and cabins when we have free time, and they take all shapes and forms. Some are getting to know you games, like “The Winds are Blowing.” In that game, one person stands in the center of the circle and announces that “the winds are blowing if…” and then inserts a fact about themselves. For instance, they could say, “the winds are blowing if you are from New England.” Then, those folks on the outside of the circle who also are from New England leave their shoes and race to find someone else’s shoes. The person in the middle races too, and the person who is left without a pair of shoes is now the center person. The game is great for discovering commonalities among all our differences. 

Other games, like “Ninja,” are purely active games. In “Ninja,” everyone starts out in a circle. On the count of three, each person strikes their best ninja pose. Then, folks take turns trying to make contact with the arm of the person next to them. To do this, though, the person whose turn it is has only one move. Their target, too, gets one move to retreat. As the game goes on, participants lose arms until one person is left standing. The game takes strategy and quickness, skills any good ninja needs.

Another game we love to play is “This or That.” We play “This or That” everywhere on camp – in the backyard, of course, but also in the pool or the lake. At the waterfront, one kid jumps into the water while another gives her or him two options. For instance, it could be chocolate or vanilla, dogs or cats, inside or outside, hot or cold, llamas or mini horses, and so on. The jumping person then tries to yell out her or his answer before reaching the water. The game provides many laughs as kids come up with great combinations and answers.

Well, now that you’re filled in on all of our fun little traditions, it’s time to talk about last night’s awesome evening program…Meg’s Rodeo! Otherwise known as Llamapalooza, as our promo yesterday passionately debated. Promos are a class that work on promoting activities on camp and then perform hilarious skits every night at evening meeting. Both Promos and Meg’s Rodeo are longstanding Hidden Valley traditions. At Meg’s Rodeo, there were a variety of activities taking place on Deer Meadows field, with two rotations going on for the older and younger half. We had classic activities like the water balloon toss, where campers had to catch water balloons on a tarp, and they also played a game where they stood in a circle and had to pass a water balloon around without dropping it. We also had the tissue box jiggle, where campers tied a box around their waist and had to get the balls out of the box by dancing. We also had rock, tree, bridge, where you stand in a line making your body either a rock, which another person then jumps over, a tree, which you go around, or a bridge, which you go through. We also had the elephant march, where you use your arm as a trunk to knock over cups of water in a relay race. There was also marker fencing, a llamapalooza classic, and blind llama sculpting, where one person must blindly sculpt an object out of clay while other team members try to guess what it is. There was, of course, the obstacle course and the sheriff smile, where campers must try to make a very serious counselor crack a smile (let alone a laugh). The final activity of the evening was the counselor wake-up challenge, where cabins nominate a counselor to “wake-up” by getting out of their “sleeping bags” (which are really just trash bags), get dressed in a silly outfit, then eat their breakfast, which consists of a bowl of cereal, without using their hands. They must then recite the alphabet backwards. It’s a silly event to witness and pretty crazy event to participate in. It was a goofy and incredible way to end a night full of Hidden Valley traditions.

Tomorrow’s another exciting day as it’s our first Trip/Lazy day of the session! The older half will be going to the Bangor State Fair and the younger half will stay on camp for Zoo Day! Everyone’s bound to have a good time, whether they’re getting off of camp and going on rides and eating yummy food, or staying on camp, hanging by the pool, and doing awesome zoo-themed activities. Until then, tonight is electives, which is always the best because there are so many options to choose from! More to come tomorrow about this evening and the Trip/Lazy day.

So long,

Olive

 

 

Greetings, folks!

Our spectacular thunderschvits yesterday certainly didn’t stop us from having a truly fantastic night. We had the yummiest of suppers, with perfectly cooked pork, zesty tofu and vegetables for the vegetarians among us, supremely tasty corn muffins, and sweet and rich spice cake with homemade whipped cream. Really, what could be better?

That meal really set us off to have an amazing set of cabin nights. Cabins took camp by storm with all sorts of exciting activities!

Wombles did the classic Tipi Zip-Line, but with a major twist: they were painting! As the campers zipped away, they poured paint down onto their giant mural! The kids were incredibly energetic and had an absolute blast. The night was perfect, as campers got to be super active while creating a masterpiece.

For those craving a delicious post-dinner snack, the dragon pizza oven, per usual, was in high demand. Three cabins found their way to the dragon! Chateau Fiasco and Loons sat under the Green Red and White Tent and carefully crafted their individual savory pizzas. Counselors helped them roll out the dough and pick the perfect combination of delicious toppings. Their choices included pepperoni, cheese, and lots of veggies. When the pizzas were prepared, counselors helped pop them in the oven for a brief few moments. Soon, all the campers were munching down on their exquisite concoctions.

After having a cozy bonding session in one of our dance studios, Taj, in true Taj fashion, made Smoritzas! (S’mores pizzas, for those not familiar with the term.) The campers melted thick chocolate and ladled it over the dough. Then, they crumbled up graham crackers and spread marshmallows over it. After a brief time in the dragon, the Smortizas came out hot, gooey, and really just mouthwateringly appetizing. What a phenomenal dessert for those lovely campers!

Avalon did some fantastic finger painting in the backyard. Their artistic inclinations even expanded into a larger paint war involving lots of painty high fives. They then hunted for marshmallow sticks in the backyard and went inside the red barn to roast GIANT marshmallows. After hanging out in the comfy chairs for a bit they returned to the cabin to get ready for bed. As they began their bedtime ritual they also turned their cabin into a beautiful, diverse, and colorful scene by using glowsticks to create a glowing galaxy. One of their counselors then serenaded them with ukelele, singing songs which included the Adventure time theme song and You & I.

Lower Carriage House participated in a mass scavenger adventure (nicknamed “Local Catastrophe Heros”). They pretended there were catastrophes all around camp and they had to go and fix each one. A quite elusive bunch, they traveled anywhere and everywhere… to the End of the World and back!

Bermuda Triangle went on a foggy but peaceful hike up to the Log Cabin. Once they reached their destination they made s’mores and bonded with their fantastic cabin group. Forbidden Planet went on a mystery trip where they ended up at a candlepin bowling alley. They all had a ton of fun and got to practice their aim and technique throughout the evening.

The Burrow went in a craftier direction at the start of their cabin night. They began by painting and decorating their own mason jars. As the session goes on they plan to put cute notes in each jar to open after camp is over. They then got all their energy out through backyard games, dancing, and races. They all went to bed tired and happy.

Down Under went to the Old Dance Studio where they ate homemade cookies, drank hot chocolate and worked on crafts. These crafts included using temporary tattoo pens and making friendships bracelets. They also played some games such as The Winds are Blowing, This or That, and had a dance party in their pajamas.

French Quarter had an awesome time in (and outside!) the Hilton Dance studio. They made sea creatures out of colorful clay which included mermaids, seahorses, whales, sea turtles, and more! Once they finished up these funky creations they also played some getting to know you and tag games outside.

Paquatahnee, in line with their cabin theme (the Paquatahnee Pastries), enjoyed their evening in the barn kitchen. After baking some blue cupcakes, they decorated them with pinkish purple frosting. Once their culinary talents were put to rest they went outside to play some giant games of Ninja.

Shangri-La made some gorgeous paper lanterns while conducting impromptu sing-alongs all night. To construct the lanterns, they decorated tissue paper (in an array of colors, of course!) with doodles and notes and names of all of their cabin mates. They then attached the paper around circular wooden frames which helped to make the shape of the lanterns. At the end of each camper’s time here at HVC this summer, they will light the lanterns and let them float up into the sky. The creativity and silliness continued throughout the entire evening.

Camelot also tapped into their silly, artistic side… in the Buckhorn! They tie dyed some t-shirts and sang along to music all evening. They really enjoyed belting out to some of the Wicked soundtrack. Fiddler’s Green followed in artistic suit by personalizing flower pots with orange and yellow paint. They planted flower seeds in each pot and will tend to them throughout the session.

Valhalla had a Hawaiian Big Circle night, where they bonded and had some very enjoyable times. They also wrote messages on paper and then made paper chains out of their notes. What a cool idea!

With the campers all tucked into bed, our AWACs ran a mysterious operation in the office. They were pulled to candy sort! The AWACs also wrote cryptic messages and attached them to the candy! That means that the candy drop is coming! In fact, the AWACs held a sneak peak for those folks lucky enough to be in the office last night – they threw candy at everyone! There was plenty of candy to go around for those folks, and of course bags full are ready to fly over camp.

This morning, we all awoke to tell-tale signs of the upcoming drop. There were photos posted around camp of our AWACs rolling in candy. The AWAC shack windows were plastered in candy wrappers. Now, we’ve just got to give it our best guesses as to when the drop will be!

That wasn’t the only great surprise we woke up to! As we entered the dining hall, we were greeted by the irresistible smell of fresh pancakes. We had a pancake bar! We got fluffy pancakes hot off the press, and smothered them in flavorful toppings, like blueberry sauce and syrup.

With our bellies warm and full, we gathered for our morning meeting and then headed off to our second day of classes. The sun’s out, and it has cast an energetic spell all over camp. Plus, our puddles are beautifully painted (courtesy of Alive!, read on to find out more), so we’re surrounded by brightness. Weather-guy, today definitely is a ten!

Meanwhile, our teen programs are up and kicking! Yesterday was the first day of Alive! classes! Campers participated in activities such as Liquid Photo, Spoken Word, Sculpture Making, Alternative Firing (Pottery) and much more. In the afternoon, the group took on it’s second session of show preparation, hammering out the structure of the plot for the show to  be put on later in the session. Finally, last night Alive! had an EXTREME art night! The whole group created Jackson Pollock-inspired pieces, dyed puddles around camp, and participated in a color run to the lake where they took a quick dip to clean off. After even more showers to get the last of the paint off, the group is ready to jump back into classes and activities!

As always, check out the incredible photos and stay tuned for more!

Later alligators,

Lady of the Lake