The Roost

Hellooo Parents!! I happy TGIF to ya tonight. Larry here again since Skadonnelly has the night off, and before go any farther, let me make one correction to last nights announcements about the talent show winners, In all the excitement of the event, we forgot to include in our announcement that Kalista Prame had also tied for 3rd place in groups 4, 5, & 6. Sorry about that Kalista!!

Now on to tonights activities!! For those of ya’ll that’ve been playing along at home with your own fun calendar, you’re probably wondering what kind of cabin challenge we had tonight with all the pictures of the kids traveling in groups and then “bouldering down” and trying not to laugh in front of counselors with bandanas (I’ll explain it all later).Well, we mad a little adjustment to the nighttime activities and tonight instead, we brought back a camper favorite “Underground Railroad”. (Its one of my favs too since I DON’T have to run around all over camp to get the pics on this night!! ) In tonights activity, the campers have to travel in groups from one side of camp to another, going from one safe house to another, but WATCH OUT!!!! (here comes the part about the counselors in bandanas), we had our very own bounty hunters (not so much like DOG the Bounty hunter, these were a much friendlier version) and when a bounty hunter would yell out “Bounty hunter sees you!!” the group would have to boulder down (sorry UGA fans, I just can’t bring myself to say the words “hunker down”) and pretend like they were rocks so the “evil” bounty hunters wouldn’t capture them. If a bounty hunter could get one (or more) of the girls to smile, laugh, or just pretty much give up their cover, then that camper would have to go to the jail and wait for another group of campers to make their way and then join up with them to continue on the journey. Don’t worry moms and dads, our campers always made sure that if one of their group had to go to jail, the group would head that way to get them or any other camper that might be there out (its all part of the “no camper left behind act” of the late 90’s). I’m happy to report that at the end of the night, all the campers had successfully made their way to freedom and successfully dodged the bounty hunters!!

The best part was after a busy and warm day, this was a perfect low pace, but hi excitement game that everyone enjoyed (I know I sure did!!)

Speakin’ of high excitement, I don’t think its could get any higher than all the buzz around camp about what happens tomorrow night. Thats right, its time for the dance with the boys from Camp Laney and Lookout Mountain Camp. We’ll have all sorts of fun as the gym fills with campers dancing to songs by Taylor Swift and some guy named Bieber (doesn’t that sound like fun to you?? Why didn’t I sign up for Sat.night out??) We will have lots of fun though and don’t worry dads, I’ll be right out there shooting all the boys that dance with our Camp Skyline beauties (with the camera of course!!…don’t get your hopes up) so you’ll be able to see who all your campers got to dance with. Its bound to be a fun time for all.

Here’s a little tip for ya parents.. go by stock in Alabama Power before tomorrow night, ‘cause once all our campers start firing up their hair driers to get ready for the dance, our electric meters will be spinning like tops. Why, I bet the power company will have to hook up another squirrel on the treadmill just to keep the electricity flowing tomorrow afternoon!!

Well as you can see from all the pics, the campers haven’t even realized its gettin’ hot out there (it hasn’t been near as hot up here as it is once you go off the mountain). We’ve been adapting all the classes to make sure everyone stays hydrated and cool. As you can see in the pics, our tennis class found a way to make a splash, and on the tower they were climbing up and the other campers were tossing wet sponges at each other as they climbed. Even circus found a way to transform themselves into a sort of “Cirque de Aqua” routine today. Needless to say, everyone is still going full speed and still having the time of their lives.

On a sad note, our Minis will be leaving us tomorrow (Saturday) but before they left, they treated the rest of the camp to a great dance routine tonight that got a standing ovation from all the other campers. You should have seen the smiles on their faces as the other girls stood and cheered for them (if you just look at the “mini dance” pics, you can see those smiles!!) Anyway, we sure are gonna miss those little guys. Its been great watching them travel around camp flowing their counselors like a bunch of little ducks! So long Mini’s we’re gonna miss you.

Now before I leave, don’t worry mini camper parents, your mini camper (and all campers next week) will get a DVD with every picture you guys have seen so far on the website, so you guys will be able to keep those pics and have your camper explain every one of them to you!! (better make plans for that to take awhile, they get excited when they see their picstures!!)

Weather on the mountain: a warm 73 this morning and the hottest I sow it get to was 94 this afternoon. Still pretty hot, but not enough to dampen the spirits of our campers (our cameraman…not so much, I was feelin’ the heat plenty…)

You guys have a great night, get plenty of rest (we sure are) and remember to pace yourselves. For you parents or our 2 week campers, you’re half way there (man, time flies when your having fun!) but you still have a lot of picture to look through in the upcoming days!!

Ya’ll take care, ‘cause like a slow kid in dodge ball…..I’m outta here!

LJ

Hi all! Sarah Kate aka “Skadonnelly” here to update you on all things camp today! I see that Larry has introduced me a little so I’ll just say that I am SO excited to be helping out at Skyline again this summer. This place is a second home to me and I feel so blessed every time I have the chance to be here.

As a native Floridian, I was so pumped to get out of that nasty, wet-hot, Florida summer heat. But, looks like all I did was bring it up here with me! The heat is creepin’ up in Mentone but the girls have had a blast taking every opportunity to stay cool. We’ve seen some good water fights and impromptu trips to the river to cool down during activities. The mornings and evenings still sometimes require a long sleeve tee or occasional sweat shirt so that’s a nice thing to remember and look forward too throughout the afternoon!

Today was another day of activities! Clear skies and no rain kept everything normal and we are noticing a lot of improving in all the activities. I know many of the girls were anxious all day for tonight’s activity… TALENT NIGHT! We had a LOT of participants which just makes me smile ☺. I love seeing all these girls get up there, over coming fears and just doing their thing. Many of these girls even come prepared with acts from home just for this Talent Show. They are all amazing! We had a total of 50 acts that ranged from hula hooping, gymnastics, singin’ and dancin’, guitar playing, comedy skits and more. Check out the pictures we just posted to see what great and crazy things they all came up with!

Our contestants were judged by our lovely Head Counselors and after all performed, they had a heck of a time deciding on winners! The judges looked for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner as well as an overall winner for groups 1, 2, and 3 and then also for 4, 5, and 6. After a big, gym floor, pounding drum roll, our winners were announced!!

Groups 1, 2, and 3:
1st: Catherine Harris, Olivia Dean, Erin Smith, and Megan Harris
2nd: Jane Morgan Sauls
3rd: Riley Jane Ragland
Overall: Caroline Bates

Groups 4, 5, and 6:
1st: Layton Lupone
2nd: Isa Gutierrez
3rd: Katie Pharo and Callie Coker
Overall: Ally Klecka

After the winners were announced each girl who showcased their talent received a participant ribbon to remind them of the wonderful job they did. I’m not kidding when I say they did great. This is probably the most talented session I have seen in a while!

Before bed, the girls had a little lesson at campfire centered on our theme game for the day, “hide and seek”. The counselors from Bevshack and Riverside shared some good notes about how we sometimes like to play hide and seek with God but that He never leaves us and always has us in His sights. After a round of “taps”, the girls hit they hay and I am positive dreamt of the fun tomorrow will bring. I bet they are trying to guess what movie will be played for the famed “Movie Night” right now!

Sweet dreams all. The “camera girl”, as the Mini’s have dubbed me, is ready to hit the hay as well!

Speaking of Mini’s. Mini’s leave on Saturday! Sad, sad day! We just adore our Mini’s. Camp will be so empty without them. But just as an early reminder, Mini parents will pick up their sweet, little girls Saturday morning after breakfast. We have had some parents forget in the past so just wanted to throw that out their incase Mini parents are reading tonight’s post!

Over and Out!

Skadonnelly

A very sleepy Helloooooo to yaparents!!!!!

What a loud and spirited day we’ve had here at camp today!! It all started with picture day and I hope by now you guys have had the chance to see your camper in their cabin and club pics. Don’t forget what I said about the color of their shorts, that’s the key to knowin which club your camper is in, trust me, once you figure it out, you won’t ever forget (as a matter of fact, you’ll find yourselves buying things that are the club color all throughout the year!). And then as if that wasn’t enough to have picture day this morning, we had (one of my personal favorites) 90’s spirit day. This was a fun day except for the fact I didn’t know it was 90’s day and everyone kept commenting to me about my outfit. Go figure?? Something about my shorts and socks??? Anyway the girls had a good time “dressing up” (I thought it looked just fine) and all the spirit built up into a giant fun filled and spirited club competition to the tune of the show “Minute to Win it”. We had all sorts of different relays tonight and some were against other members of the clubs and some were just against out giant timer we had on the screen. You should have seen those girls jumping, hopping, throwing, stackin’, and everything else that came up on the blueprints for them to do tonight. One of the best events was te tortilla head where one camper had to flip a tortilla up in the air (by the way she was wearing swim fins and had to use her feet to flip it) and one of her club mates, had to try and catch the tortilla on a plate on her head. If you’re looking for some cheap entertainment, just try this one at home!!! (you might not want to let the neighbors see ya trying this though…it’d be awfully hard to explain it to ‘em). Anyway, after all the competitions were complete, would you believe we had a tie and had to go to a tie breaker between the clubs. It was close, and I mean really close, but at the end of the tiebreaker and events, the results were….. (there’s those little drums in your head again..) Rangers 3rd, Mounties 2nd and the Terrific Troopers 1st!!! Way to go girls.

One thing you can count on after all the spirit today and energy tonight in the events, it these girls going to bed as soon as they get to the cabin. Its always fun to walk through camp the first few nights and you can hear them talking to each other, playin’ games, and doin’ all that girlie stuff they like to do. Well folks, let me just tell ya, the last 2 nights, as I’ve walked through camp to head back over here to the office to work on the pics and news, all you can here are the crickets outside chirping away. There’s not a word to be heard from any of the cabins (I know how they feel, I’m not very talkative either when I finally get home at night!!)

Before I forget, thanks to all you that post comments to the newsletters, we love hearing from you and especially if your’e one of the ones that we like to talk about stayin’ up all night and day to look at pics (its OK, we all do). We really appreciate it.

Now tomorrow were gonna be right back in the middle of things as we keep going with our classes. I’m startin’ to get some good videos together from around camp so hopefully, we’ll have a film clip for ya in a few days. You’re gonna love it I promise.

Tomorrow night were gonna slow things down a little bit (you know…for the girls sake, they’ve been looking tired lately…or maybe that’s me I’m thinkin’ about?) and were gonna enjoy a great night in the gym with our very own Skyline Talent night. Each camper that wants to get up in front of the whole camp and show their talent (and they thought jumping off the zip line took guts??? That’s sounds more scary to me). There’s always some great skills from our campers. We’ll be right down on the front row to capture all the action for ya so don’t worry about missing a thing. If you thought that idol or voice thing show had some good singers, just wait till you see what we have here on our own stage, you’ll be amazed. Be sure to tune back in to catch the results.

Well folks, I hate to do this to ya, but I’m gonna make like one of the campers and get inside and enjoy the quietness (except for a few occasional snores) of the evening and catch some shut eye. To tell ya the truth, I think the sand man is already starting to take over my eyes ‘cause these keys on the leyboard are sure getting’ hard to hit!!

Yall enjoy the pics, theres plenty of ‘em to keep ya busy for awhile. I’m about to head to never never land.

Weather on the mountain: would you believe it was 57 this morning!!! That always helps sleep when its that cool during the night! It got up to the mid 802 this afternoon, but never really too hot. They say some warm weather is heading this way this weekend and we’ve already put up several extra “misting stations” around camp and placed extra water coolers for everyone to stay cool as the heat moves through. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the nighttime temps in the 50s to sleep too!!!.

Ya’ll have a good night, like a steak that’s somewhere between rare and medium rare….I’m done!!

LJ

Hellooooo Parents!!!!!!!

It’s another great day up here on the mountain and I hope by now ya’ll had a chance to look at all the pics from today and from tonights game of camp wide clue! As you can see we had several real characters here for the campers to get their clues from. We had counselors from Laney, the Statue of Liberty, the Wright brothers, the cast of Wizard of Oz, Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, and even our camp founder, Miss Eloise H Temple, and more. As we were enjoying a peaceful (yea…right!) Dinner tonight, someone came in and said that our summer director Alisa had been kidnapped, of course all our campers weren’t gonna let that happen, so they set out on a quest (in their cabin groups) to visit all the characters that magically appeared around camp to get clues. They had to go from place to place and do something for each character in order to get their clue to figure out who did it, where they did it, and where they stashed Alisa. Each character could give them a clue as to who DIDN’T do it and the campers could mark them off their list and try to figure out who was left. It was pretty funny to watch the camper wave like flags for the stature of Liberty, learn the runway wave for Miss America, and one of the best was for the Super Counselor who had 3 members of their group get a power shower in less than 20 seconds (of course they had to be fully clothed and soaked from head to toe for the power shower to count). You can see for yourself, the campers had a blast trying to figure out who dun it. Now I could tell ya here and now who the guilty party was, but I figure I’ll leave you something to write to your camper about tomorrow. They could probably do a better job describing all the stuff they had to do to get the clues (My personal favorite was open a banana with their bare feet for Elvis..I guess he hasn’t left the building yet afterall!!).

Now tomorrow will be picture day and we’ll get all the campers cabin and club pictures shot in the morning and then get them up on line for ya just as soon as we can. This will be a great chance for you rookies out there to see which club your camper is in. Here’s your million dollar tip of the day, look at the color of their shorts. There…that’s it. If they’re blue, then their Rangers, Red, they’re Mounties, and if their shorts are green, well then folks, they’re Troopers. Its pretty simple, but let me warn ya, don’t even think about gettin’ those colors mixed up. Cause once your in a club, your in the club for life and there’ve been several small wars started over some family member making the mistake of calling someone by the wrong club name (Miss Hatfield was in the Mounties, Miss McCoy was a Ranger…need I say more???). Anyway we’ll get the club and cabinpics yup for you guys to se as early as we can tomorrow morning so be sure to check back in to see everyone’s colors.

Now folks, I know what your thinkin’… “man those little girls have got to be tired after all the activity this week” (if you replace “little girls” with “cameraman”, youd be correct!!!) and just went you’d think were gonna take a rest, well guess again, ‘cause tomorrow night is one of the fastest, wildest, and loudest nights here at camp as we host our very own “Minute to Win it” and Club competition here at Skyline. Those girls will be competin’ for club points in all sorts of crazy relays and competitions. We’ll be right in the middle of everything as they spin, twist, roll, hop and jump every way imaginable to win the races. Be sure to check back in and look at the wild pics, you surly don’t want to miss this one.

Well before I say good night tonight, I wanna thank Sarah Kate Donnelly for helping me with pictures today and the rest of the summer. You guys will get to meet her later this week when she starts helping with the newsletter too. Skadonnlelly has been a camper, counselor, circus head and now joins our admin team here at camp.(its Ok, I told her you guys don’t bite too often!!!!)

Weather on the mountain: well heres a change, it was 68 this morning instead of 62 or 63. that’s different. Now other than that its been pretty much all the same, blue skies, highs around the mid 80s, It actually got a little cool this afternoon and that felt just rigt for all the running we did chasin clues tonight. Should be back in the lower 60s tomorrow morning and maybe getting a little higher as the week moves on.

You guys keep up the good work checkin the pics and news letters. I can tell you’re stayin involved by the number of hits the webpage it takin this past week. Now I’m not a bettin’ man, but I’ll give ya 5:1 odds that most of yall have spent more time online lookin for pics than doing anything else this week. You know who I’m talkin’ to don’t ya? Don’t say I didn’t warn ya when you get to the end of the week and that same pile of clothes is still pilled up next to the washing machine (or maybe that’s just my house)

Ya’ll have a great night, enjoy the pics and don’t forget to ask your camper who the guilty party was in tonights “CLUE”

Here’s a hint, Mr Cameraman is going to the bedroom, and pretend like someone hit him with a lead pipe and that’s the end of my clue, ya’ll have a good night

LJ

Hellooooo Parents!!!!

A wild and full of energy How ya doin? Goes out to ya tonight. Pardon me if I seem excited, but its just all the energy these girls have up here at camp tonight while they are playing Sock Wars!! Did you see the pics yet? If not, you need to make a dash over there to take a peek at ‘em. You’ll see what I’m talkin’ about. These girls tonight had plans, they had drive, they had spirit, unfortunately for me what they didn’t have was the ability to aim their socks they were throwing at each other (or at least they were SUPPOSED to be throwing them at each other…) quite a few ended up hitting me from every angle and theres nothing more surprising than to be looking a one group of campers through the camera and then be sniped by another group that you never knew existed somewhere off to the side. I tell ya, If I didn’t know any better, I swear some of those girls were actually aiming at me!!!!… HEY, Wait a minute!!! Ya think???? Maybe their aim was better than I thought to begin with? Anyway, it was a fun night as there were sock battles going on all across camp (just wait till they get home and want to play this at home with your socks dad!!). As a matter of fact, there were so many battles going on we got some good video footage live from the front lines of Sock wars and we’ll have them for you later in the week. Be sure to check back in when they go up on our youtube channel (don’t worry, we have a link to it at the very top of the website, all ya gotta do is click it).

After all the sock throwin’ and dodgin’ and duckin’ the girls got to see which club wan tonights contest and the winners were…… (can’t ya just hear the drum roll in your head?)…Rangers 3rd, Troopers 2nd, and the Mighty Mounties 1st!!!!! Way to go girls!! Be sure to congratulate your camper when you send them an email or letter!!!

Tomorrow night will be another wild time here at Skyline as we introduce a new activity called “Campwide Clue”. This is where the girls will find out during dinner that something has happened to someone here at camp (maybe our ropes director Pickle?) and the girls will have to travel around camp in their cabin groups asking different characters about who they thought did it, where they did it, and what they did it with. (now you remember don’t ya?? Prof Plum in the library with a lead pipe??). But in our version, the girls will have to perform a task for each character to get the answers they need. Its gonna be a blast to see all the wacky things they have to do to get their answers. Be sure to check back in and see how your campers cabin does (and WHAT they have to do to get answers to their clues!!)

Well as you can tell from the pics, the girls haven’t wasted any time playing in the pool, on the ropes course and of course with the horses. We’ll be out and about tomorrow getting more pics as they get cranked up in their classes all throughout the day. I’ll try to get around to different classes each day so if you didn’t see your camper today, just hang in there, I promise ya its coming!!

Well folks, it’s a pretty early night and I hate to start the session of sleepy, so I think I’m gonna wrap this bad boy up and head outta here to catch some shut eye. I’ll be back tomorrow with all the details about the Clue game and other funny stories from around camp to share with ya. You guys enjoy all the pics and keep checking back. We’ll keep postin’ ‘em for ya.

Weather on the mountain: this is getting silly, it was ANOTHER beautiful day up here. not nearly as warm as it was yesterday so that was nice, but really, I hate to cash in all the perfect days in a row, I’d like to save some for a later date. Speaking of weather, our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone down in south Georgia and north Florida. I have family in north Florida and they are getting more rain than they can stand right now. As a matter of fact, the last time I talked to him, he said his pets had all lined up two by two and were lookin’ for the Ark!! Good luck to any of ya’ll in that area!!

Well its IS still early and I’m taking full advantage of the night and heading off to bed. Yall don’t stay up too late trying to find your daughters’ shoe, elbow, back of head, etc…(ya’ll are laughing, but some of ya’ll know I’m talking about you, don’t ya?) there’ll be lots more pictures on the way for you to get crossed eyed at while you search for your camper!! Take my advice, take your time and pace yourself (really), if not, you’ll be worn out by the time we get to the end of the week and we don’t want that, you still have a long way to go during this session!!

Ya’ll take care, like a slow kid in dodge ball……..I’m outta here!!!
LJ

First let me congratulate ya on doing such a good job this morning on check in. You guys did great and once everything opened up and got going, it wasn’t too long at all before everyone was heading to their cabins and meeting new friends. Although it was pretty warm during our check in today, everyone managed the day just fine. . Now before we go to far into this hear newsletter, let me just set down a few “ground rules” for some of you first timers here to the Roost. Rule 1, I type just like I talk, it just sounds better that way when ya read it. Now Billy Bob Gates’s little microsoft program sure don’t like the news letter too much, cause it keeps trying’ to cover up all my words with little red and green squiggly lines, Thats OK though, I just keep hitting “ignore” and movin’ on. Rule 2 If you think you see a mis-spelled word, well…you just might be right, (I knew I should have taken typing in high school), but when in doubt, refer back to rule #1 and just sound it out and it will all make sense. Now on the tonights news!!!

After all you guys got your campers checked in (yes, even those of y’all that were waiting in line when the rest of the world woke up…MB?) and everyone got settled in and all the parents left (some of ya’ll took a little longer than others…and we know who you are!!), the girls got down to some serious playing time getting to know they new friends and cabin mates. Why, even before we had lunch today, your campers had already chose their new schedule of classes and taken a camp tour (we don’t want the little darlings gettin’ lost now do we) and learned all the names of their cabin mates (and as you could see from this morning, thats a LOT of names)!!

After lunch they met their Skyline sister (its kinda like a big sis-little sis thing) where we split the camp in two and send the older girls to the dance hall. The younger girls all take off one shoe and put it in a bag. The bag is then taken to the older girls and they each pick one shoe outta the bag. When they return to the gym, they have to find the owner of the shoe they have and this is their new bestest buddy and Skyline sister. The fun part is when they learn the bitty buddy dance (this comes in hand later in the week during dance night!!).

Now tonight after dinner, as you can see from all the pics, we had our own “cabin Fun Night” where each cabin gets to choose what they want too do for the evening. We had everything from manicures and facials, (they TRIED to get me do get a facial…I escaped before I was surrounded by 9 year olds and held down to such torture) to shaving creme fights, giant slip N slides, ultimate charades, and even some fantastic S’mores. I’m pretty sure I got around to all the cabins tonight, but to tell ya the truth, once all these campers stated chasing each other around with shaving creme and covering each other with it, they all looked the same to me and it was awfully hard to tell one cabin from another. One of the best activities of the night was when I walked into the mini campers activities (of course, their’s was facials and manicures too) and got to see what a wonderful job those campers did of taking care of their counselors!!! To be honest with ya folks, when I walked in and saw how those campers had painted up the counselors, I thought I had walked onto the set of Braveheart and really felt the urge to yell “FREEDOM!!!” Be sure to check out their “Makeovers” towards the end of the pictures (now you see what happens to the ones who can’t escape from the little ones!!!)

Tomorrow will be our first full day of classes and all the campers will be going around and learning the ins and outs of the activities. We’ll be there right beside ‘em taking pictures and getting them up online so you guys at home can play along too!! Speaking of home, you should be receiving a card in a few days at your home with your campers schedule on it as well as which club their in. Now before you guys go running out to the mailbox to set up camp and way for your first letter, let me just warn ya, the mail up here in Mentone ain’t exactly breaking any land speed records if ya know what I mean. Why just last week, I passed the mail man 3 times while I was making one trip around the yard cutting the grass (now thats slow!!!)

Now tomorrow night is gonna be one rip roaring time up here on the mountain as we have our very own SOCK WARS -Episode 2 (second session get it??) Sock wars is where each camper will get several stuffed socks and then each club will go to a section of camp and hide their flag. when we ring the bell, each club member will head out and look for other clubs flags, BUT WATCH OUT!!! If your hit by a stuffed sock flying through the air (that was thrown by a member of another club) you have to report to the scorers table and then your back in the game. Confused? just wait till you see the pictures and then you’ll REALLY be confused!! but everyone will be having a blast and it always makes for some great pics so be sure to tune back in tomorrow night to see the details.

One last order of business tonight on the roost, Emails!!! Be sure to get your emails in by 10AM Central time each day if you want ’em handed out to your camper at lunch. Each email cost $1 from the camper spending money so be sure to protect who you give your login and password too. As a hint about emails, my suggestion is to type the little thoughts and “hello, we saw you in a picture”, etc, etc, etc… on a word document. You can type those all day and then at the end of the day copy and paste them all onto one email and send it. Its a much better idea than sending 5 separate emails at a buck a piece!!

Weather on the mountain: sunny, warm and a little humid. Fortunately, tonight before everyone went to bed the temps and the humidity had dropped and they’re was a nice little breeze blowing across the mountain. Just perfect to sleep tp after a busy first day of activities and playing with new friends. Should be more of the same tomorrow, but to be honest with ya, I really wouldn’t mind some of that rain from Debbie if Mother Nature wanted to send it this way.

You guys have a good night, there’s lots of pictures to look at so I know you’re gonna be busy for awhile. Take care and I’ll see ya back here tomorrow night
See ya
LJ

Can you believe for the last time first session 2012, I get to say…Helloooooooo Parents!!!

I hope you guys are comfortable ‘cause I gotta bunch of news to bring ya from all the action here at camp today. First and some of the most important breaking news is that the RANGERS have found the golden horseshoe that was hidden at camp. Its worth mega points toward the point cup (more on that later) that will be awarded tomorrow night during our banquet. All the campers have been looking under every tree and bush during any free time trying to find that horseshoe. Congrats to the Rangers for finding it today!!

Next on the news worthy news list would be the fact that some of the boys from LMC came back to Skyline today (can you blame them after all the fun they had at the dance last week?), except this time they weren’t here looking for a dance, those guys were here to challenge your campers in archery and rifelry this afternoon. I’m happy to report to ya that our campers took care of business in archery and sent those troublesome boys down the road kicking rocks and with their heads hangin’!! That’s right, the ladies of Skyline won the team and individual championship in the archery competition. Now when it comes to our little show down in the rifle range, well… lets just say our ladies came in second place and the boys of Lookout Mt Camp came in next to last. (if you don’t get it now, you’ll figure it out in a little while). Hows that for a spin on the news??

Now if you’re thinkin’ “man, they’ve had a busy day” well, your right. But it ain’t over yet!! Tonight we had one of the greatest Showtimes I’ve ever seen in all my years here at Skyline. It started with some great performances from our circus classes and then it just got better with an unbelievable show from our Glee class (if you camper is in Glee, they deserve a pat on the back those guys really were super!), and then it just got better and better with dance, flag and baton, gymnastics, cheerleading, and even a quidditch display from one of our quidditich classes. The gym was full of excitement with everything going on and the new and wonderful performances they got to see tonight. Be sure to have them show you what they did tonight when they get home, you’ll be glad ya did.

Now tomorrow will be a little different day here at camp as we sleep a little later (oh thank goodness!!!!) and then after breakfast, we’ll head up to the horse barn to watch our Grand Championship horse show. I’ll be there to get al the pics back to ya so you guys playing at home will know the results almost as soon as they happen. After lunch, we’ll have our awards ceremony and our musical theatre Matinee production of Annie. I can’t wait to see how that goes after all the talent we saw tonight.

Now tomorrow night is a whole new ball game folks. We’ll have our Banquet night where all the campers will come to the dining hall to have banquet and fir the first time, they’ll get to see some of the pictures you guys have been looking at during the while session. Each class will present its awards along with the honor camper awards. After the end of the awards, its what I like to call “Cryfest”. It ought to be sponsored by Kleenex there’ll be so many tears falling as the campers realize that camp is almost over and its the last time they’ll see their new friends and old friends for awhile (some of them won’t see each other until next week, but I’m out numbered here at camp so I don’t’ say anything and interrupt their long good byes) I know I like to make fun of all the tears they’ll have tomorrow night, but it really is a neat thing to see just how close these girls have gotten in only 2 weeks and what camp means to them.

After the banquet, we’ll all head down to the river for our river vespers where our campers that will “age out” will get a chance to talk to the rest of camp, the cabin wishes will be told and our counselor choir will get to sing as they canoe down the river. It really signals the end of the competition between the clubs and the end of camp so it’s a pretty moving time for all the campers and when some of the campers realize it really is the end of their “camper” career, its hard not to shed a tear yourself.

Folks, let me take this opportunity to say one last time how much we appreciate you guys checking in on the pics and newsletter and more importantly trusting us here at Skyline with your most prized possession for the last two weeks. Ya’ll have a safe trip up here on Thursday evening or Friday morning and please be sure to stop by the front office and say Hi, I’ll be the one out front that looks as tired as most of ya’ll do!!!

Ya’ll have a safe trip and we’ll see ya Friday morning, of yea, no need to jump the gun on getting here to pick up your camper. We won’t open the gate and let any cars in until AFTER everyone finishes eating breakfast and gets back to their cabin. So take your time and enjoy the morning!!

Thanks again for everything, we’ll have pics from the horseshow and matinee up tomorrow so be sure to check ‘em out!!

For the last time this session, I’mmmmmmmm outtttttttttttaaa here!!!!! (and heading to bed at a reasonable hour, I hope you do the same)

LJ

Another great day at camp hello to ya parents!!!

And we had just exactly that, another great day. All the campers are right at home here by now and enjoying everything there is at camp. You can see ‘em playing tetherball, just hanging out, and even occasionally starting their own game of pit ball. Of course the smart ones can be seen enjoying one of the many swings in the afternoon just hanging out and getting to know each other a little better. That’s the best part of camp ya know, when they realize they can just hang out and be themselves and make new friends every day.
Yesterday one of the girls today asked me why I didn’t go on the Ocoee rafting trip with them, she said “I was petrified,… it was awesome!!” now THAT’S a good day!!

Can you believe we only have 1 more day of classes left in this session? Man where does the time go when you’re having fun? These girls have had more fun than the law allows these past two weeks. They’ve been smiling the whole time, you made need to ice down their jaws when they get home to let their muscles relax (I know you’ll have to ice down their jaws from all the ‘singing’ they do at EVERY meal!!! Just check out the highlights video if ya don’t believe me!)

As you can see from tonights pics, our surprise was the animal guy with not only an entertaining, but educational night here at camp as they got to see and learn about all sorts of wild animals. If ya look through all the pics, you’ll see some of ‘em were a little more surprised than they thought they were gonna be by the looks in their eyes. I haven’t seen eyes look that scared since the boys got off the busses at the dance last Friday night!
They really enjoyed seeing all the animals (monkeys, snakes, crows and hedgehogs oh my!!) and getting to learn about them.

Speaking of the dance, don’t think just because your girls are here at camp their disconnected form communication. Now I don’t mean this hear internet thing, these girls are turning into little MacGyver’s when it comes to keeping in touch. As you know our canoeing classes are ‘forced’ to canoe past Camp Laney downstream and it seems that those boys are pretty creative too since the boys AND girls have devised a way to communicate by writing notes to each other and puttin’ ‘em into a bottle and floatin’ ‘em to each other as the canoes pass!! Who says these kids don’t learn anything when their outta school during the summer!!

Now if you think the animals were enough of a surprise, then you got another think coming. ‘Cause when the animal guy finished up, one of our counselors had her sorority step team here from Georgia State University as they put on one heck of a step team demonstration and even took the time to teach the campers several step routines of their own. Be sure to get your camper to demonstrate what they learned when they get home. You won’t be disappointed!!

Now if you can believe it or not, tomorrow will be our last day of classes here at Skyline and everyone will be puttin’ on the final touches in their classes as we get ready for tomorrow night’s “Showtime at Skyline” where each class will get to demonstrate what they’ve learned throughout the session to all the other campers. It’s a great time for every camper to show off what they’ve learned and get some time in the Skyline spotlight. We’ll be there getting’ all the pics for ya so you too will be able to see just how much your campers have learned these past two weeks!!! Be sure to check back and be amazed at what you’ll see!!!!

One important thing about emails tomorrow. We’ll print the regular emails for Wednesday on Wednesday morning. But the emails for Thursday will be printed at 6 PM (Central time) Wednesday afternoon!! The ladies in the front office need to start putting everyone’s account together so we have to do our last emails a bit earlier then usual. Be sure to get all your final “I’m so proud of you’s and we’ll see ya on Friday’s in to the email before 6 PM Wednesday afternoon. Those will be printed out then and delivered on Thursday.

Speaking of being proud, I can’t tell ya how proud I am of all you parents that have been keeping up with all the news and pics these past two weeks! The girls really enjoy telling me you guys have seen them in the pictures and getting the emails. Your campers will also be proud of how far some of you have come on the internet with all your surfing abilities. Quite frankly, some of the campers didn’t think you would be able to work the computer with out them at home (I gotta admit, there were times I had my doubts too…you know who you are :-)

Anyway, thanks again parents for everything these past two weeks. I’ll be back here tomorrow night for the final newsletter of the session and then Thursday night I’ll be up all night making picture DVD’s for each camper so you’ll have a DVD full of all the pictures you’ve seen this session waiting for ya when you come to pick up your camper on Friday!!

Well folks, we still have a full day of classes, a horseshow and all sorts crazy pictures to take for ya tomorrow so I’m gonna head off to bed get some rest and be ready for our final day of classes. You guys enjoy the pics, and I’ll be back here tomorrow night for our final evening chat

Weather on the mountain: seriously???? 61-84 and plenty of blue sky all around….again

Yall have a good night, I’m about to be like a detective and go “under covers”

LJ

Hellooooo Parents!!! An early howdy to ya tonight parents as we celebrate… um… I mean enjoy movie night here at camp tonight!! As you can see from all the pics all the campers enjoyed getting to have the worlds largest slumber party as they took in their movies tonight in their PJ’s. Of course you can’t really enjoy a movie unless you have some popcorn so we made sure every camper got their very own bag of popcorn to start the show. You can see it didn’t take long for them to get “comfortable” by any means necessary to have a nice night at the movies. The funny thing is when the movies end, the counselors will probably have to wake or carry most of the campers to get them back to their cabins (those girls have burned some energy this past week taking in everything there is to do here at camp!!) The ladies in Hut Row and The Lodge setteled down in the gym to watch “Despicable Me” while the ladies of Pickle Palace, Summerplace and Riverside decided to join forces tonight in the dining hall to enjoy “The Sandlot” (at least their watching a “sports” movie, I could have stayed in there and watched that with them)

As you can see form today spics, the girls in the equestrian program are in full stride learning how to perfect their riding skills and also learning the basics of jumping on a horse (the horse is the one doing the jumping, the girls have actually “jumped” on) and the ladies at tennis are really getting sharp with their serves and volleys (look out Wimbledon!!). Of course this afternoos pics at the pol are more my speed as they were perfecting their splashing and cannon ball’s in the pool (now THAT’S what I’m talking about!!)

We’ll (who’s this “we”??? I’m the only one with a camera) be back out tomorrow catching all the activities we haven’t been to yet and getting some of the girls in the circus, they’re really getting good at their tricks up on the trapeze and Mexican cloud swings not to mention the silks and lyra tube. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see more if their talents.

Some of todays best pics came from the zip line today when our quitich (yes, THAT quitich from Harry Potter) class took time to ride down the zip line opnly they were also riding their brooms just like in the movie. As you can see when you look at the pics, they weren’t having too much fun, ya think?

All our out of camp trips returned today from caving and the Ocoee river. Those pics are already online for you to look at and when ya do, just try to imaging yourself going into some of those tight spaces your campers were in when they went into the caves. I don’t think so, Skippy!!! Glad to se our girls aren’t afraid of getting a little dirty to have some fun. I think the best part was when they returned to camp and got to “play” in the river to clean up a bit!

Tomorrow night is surprise night here at camp and don’t tell the girls, but I think we’ve got some wild creatures coming in for them to see up close!! It should be a fun time for them to surprise themselves and see which ones will get outta their comfort zone when they bring out the surprises!! And if that’s not enough, theres another surprise in store for them when we finish with the animals, but I’m gonna let you guys be surprised with that one too so you’ll just have to wait to see the pics…(hows that for a teaser?)
Well, as I said before, I love movie night ‘cause its still early in the night and I can get back to some important work I need to do (I hope I can still catch “Hurricane Hunters” on the weather channel!!) so you guys enjoy the pics, and have a quiet night yourselves. I know I will!!!

Weather on the mountain: any guesses? Yep, same as before. Another perfect day, 61 in the morning and only up to about 82 this afternoon…don’t you wish you were here too???

Many thanks for those of ya’ll making comments on the newsletter, we reayy appreciate them and it helps to know what you guys are thinking. We really do appreciate you keeping up with everything going on here at camp and it helps to know someone’s out there actually reading these crazy letters!! (i.e. it helps to know that someones out there on the computer as much as I am!!- if not longer than I am- yes CT, I’m talking about you :-)

Oh yea, the highlights form week one are up on our youtube channel, just click the youtube link on the very top of our home page to take you there and get another look into what happens here at camp.

Yall have a good night, I’m taking full advantage of tonight and checking my eyelids for leaks!!!!
Talk to ya tomorrow,
LJ

just click the “youtube” link at the top of the page to go to our youtube channel and you can see the videos from the first week of camp this year!! Hope ya enjoy

A howdy Hi and well rested (sort of) hello to ya parents!!!

I don’t know about ya’ll, but after all the activity this past week and the dance last night, it sure felt good to sleep in a little longer this morning!!. Some of the girls still had a little bit of sleepy in their eyes at breakfast, but by the time they finished eating and bellowed out several songs they were all wide awake (kinda).

As you know, our summer theme is “Let the Games Begin” and one pretty neat thing they did this morning in Sunday school was each group had some sort of relay races just to compete against each other, Then today’s message was from 1 Corinthians 9:25 and tied everything together. Our Very own Nurse Sandra gave the message and everyone really enjoyed it.

After lunch we had a Luau Carnival here at Skyline. You should have seen those girls runnin all around camp trying out the sno cones (they WERE delicious), the giant slide and the dual racing water slide. Now as if that wasn’t enough, we added something called 9 square in the air. The girls loved it, not to mention the fact it was played in a sprinkler today. Now for those that didn’t want to partake in the water activities, we had face painting, hula hop contest, karaoke, sponge toss, dart toss, ah… heck, there was lots more stuff, just look though all the pictures yourself and you’ll see.

If you can believe it or not, there was even more in store for your campers tonight after dinner. For this evening’s activity, we had our very own counselor hunt where all of our lovely counselors hid all around camp and the campers got to go on a search and return mission for each counselor. I tell ya folks, your little campers didn’t leave a stone unturned as they looked in every bush, under every cabin, why some of ‘em even looked inside the trash cans (I know…thats gross, but would ya believe some of them have hid there before? Personally, I think I’d just rather get caught ). They had their flashlights, head lamps and anything else they could find to help ‘em locate the counselors. After it was all said and done, and the counselors (the ones that were found , that is) were returned to the gym, tonight’s final results are……. (can’t ya just hear that drum roll in your head?)
Troopers 3rd, Rangers 2nd, and the Mighty Mounties 1st!!!! Way to go girls!!

Anyway, remember a few nights ago when we talked about something called movie night?? Well, tomorrow night is the REAL movie night (again) here at Skyline. So to save time and maybe, just maybe give your eves a little rest, just remember back to the news letter 2 nights ago when I was talking about it then, it’ll all happen tomorrow (I promise this time!!).

Well parents, you guys have made it past the half way mark and youre on the down side of the run now. Less than one week left in first session and you guys have been doing great keeping up with the news and pics. Sometime tomorrow (Monday) we’ll have a video up on our youtube channel and a link to it from our facebook page with some highlights from our first week. Be sure to check it tomorrow and see when its up.

Speaking of tomorrow, its gonna be an exciting day here at Skyline. Not only is it the beginning of our second week, but it’s also trip day!!! This is where several groups will be taking an out of camp trip to experience some more adventures around the south. One of our groups will be heading into on of the TAG’s caves and do a little spelunking while another group will stay above ground (and water) while they ride down the rapids of the Ocoee river. We’ll have pics from camp as well as both of out trips, so if you guys thought next week would be the week you can get away from the computer and get some work done…..well…think again. You’re about to be right back in front of that screen looking for your camper!

Here’s something you might fins interesting, Numbers at camp today:

3162: number of pictures posted so far
314: the number of time I heard “Larry take my picture” during the carnival
272: the number of pictures actually taken during carnival
212: number of picture that got posted due to editing ( you don’t want to see the blurry pictures)
6: number of pounds I’ve lost this week while trying to run either away from or to, the phrase “Larry take my picture”
1: Number of campers that came up to me at the end of the day, laid their head on my arm, then looked up at me and said “ Larry, you smell like my grandpa” (I just smiled and said “your grandpa must be a hard working man” (what else COULD I say????)

Well, that’s about all for tonight and everything that’s happening tomorrow. You guys enjoy the night and get some rest as soon as you finish looking at all the pics. Don’t forget about the videos coming up tomorrow, you’ll love ‘em.

Weather on the mountain: see any of the previous 5 or 6 post. The weather has been around 61 in the morning and a bright sunny day with highs at 82, every single day!!! Its like Frosted Flakes……IIIIITTTTTTTSSSSSSSS GREAT!!!

Yall have a good night, I’m gonna start working on the videos
LJ

HELLOOOOOO PARENTS!!! What a night, what a night, what a night!!! Did you see all those fun pics from the dance tonight??? If you haven’t I hope you brought some Red Bull with you to the computer, ‘cause you’re gonna be up later than I am tonight, there’s over 200pictures for you guys to check out!!

I wish you could have been there when the girls realized that Old Yeller (the school buses the boys were riding on) was getting close. It wasn’t because they could see the buses through the woods, it was that giant cloud of AXE body spray we could all smell as soon as the buses got within ½ mile from camp!! Man talk about a cover scent!! Anyway, it must have worked ‘cause if you look through all the pics, you’ll see quiet a few guys were lucky enough to get a dance with some of our Skyline beauties!! It was a great night as everyone danced from some current songs to some of the better (the campers don’t think so) older songs from the 70’s & 80’s (I still had a tough time explaining to them that MC Hammer is NOT and oldie!!!!)

You could hear a unanimous groan when they announced it was the last song of the evening. But it didn’t last long, cause when we announced to our girls that since tomorrow is Sunday they would be able to sleep in a little longer, those groans turned into a much louder cheer!!! I guess they got over not being able to dance with the boys anymore pretty quickly, go figure…

Since tomorrow is Sunday (and by the time I finally finish this letter it will probably already be Sunday), we’ll let the campers sleep in a little later and then treat ‘em to a breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs, pancakes, and oh yea, homemade doughnuts!!! Can’t wait to get to sleep so I can wake up and start the day off like that!! It’s a good thing we’re gonna have such a big breakfast, cause we have an unbelievable day planned ahead of them.

After breakfast, we’ll have Sunday school, then church in the gym. After church, we’ll have lunch, then rest hour and THEN… we’ll have our luau carnival complete with huge inflateables, all kinds of competitions, a sno cone booth and all sorts of old timey county fair type activities. Its one of the funnest (is that even a word?) days up on the mountain.

After all that (can you believe theres more??) we’ll head to dinner and then get everyone ready for a camper favorite “Counselor Hunt”. This is where each of our counselors will go out and hide around camp and each of our campers will team up and venture out to try and find them for club points. Its always a big surprise when they bring whoever they find back to camp to see how many points they’re worth for their club.

We’ll be out there catching pictures and posting them throughout the day so be sure to check back through the day and see what all your camper is up too. Emails will also be delivered to the campers tomorrow but they won’t be printed until around noon so you guys can have a little extra shut eye yourselves (you’re looking pretty sleepy too)

Weather on the mountain: perfect as usual same ‘ol same ‘ol. 62 in the morning, up to around 80 this afternoon. Perfect for another great day in camp and a fun night of dancing!!

Ya’ll have a great weekend, I’ll see ya tomorrow night!
LJ

Helloooo Camp parents!!!

If you’ve looked at the new photo of the day you probably realize that doesn‘t look like “Movie Night” here at camp tonight like I said last night. Well just imagine my surprise at dinner tonight when I asked what movies were showing and they informed me it wasn’t movie night!!! Its was actually Miss Skyline night!! I realized I had informed you guys about the wrong thing (funny how a week of late nights will do things like that to ya…some of ya’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!!) Well… my first thought was that my news was wrong last night (I thought I was wrong once before…but I was mistaken!!). Anyway, don’t forget everything I talked about last night in the news, cause movie night IS coming up next week and I’ll just refer ya back to that to save a little time..Now on with TONIGHTS news!!!

As you can see from the photo of the day we have a new Miss Skyline here at camp this year. Miss Skyline is where each cabin will dress one of their counselors up at someone or something from around camp and then the campers get to help them in the “talent” portion of the competition. This contest is ONLY offered to first session so it’s a pretty big deal to have your counselor named as Miss Skyline!! You can tell from the smiles on the campers faces they all really wanted their counselor to win. Some of our contestants were the WHOA sign that protects the flowers, the T shirt corral, the shower house behind hut row (whos talent was the ability to shower 6 campers at a time AND even have some spare room for others to use the bathroom (now THAT’S talent!), of course we had our Talipia fish vs the chicken fries in the dining hall, our horseback director Trish, and even our head counselors Mellon and Brennen and many more!!

I have to tell ya, tonights winner “Frenchie the French braid’s” talent was outstanding (kind of like a farmer in his field…you know……out..standing!! Get it?? You’ll think that’s funny when you get a little more tired!!) those girls all had their hair whipping back and forth as Frenchie went around and French braided all their hair. (personally, I just don’t get the hair thing at all).

As you can see from all the pics today, we’ve been pretty busy here at camp trying to catch all the campers in their activities and we even caught some out on the mountain biking trail and even caught others under water!!! (hey it’s a rough job, but someone’s gotta do it!!) If you look though all the pics, you might even find some that a counselor took of some physically fit guy on the rope swing (hint hint)

All the campers are still running full speed ahead (how…I don’t know how???) and they have all learned the skill of yelling my name anytime I get within 100 yds of them yelling “Hey Larry, take my picture!!” You guys have trained them well, some too well!!!! I’ll keep shooting all the campers (with the camera of course, their not even in season right now) so you guys will be able to keep up with everything their doing throughout the day.

Now tomorrow night (I KNOW I’ll get this one right!) is one of the biggest nights of the session, that’s right, its DANCE NIGHT!!! Theis is where the boys from Camp Laney and Lookout Mountain Camp will come over and we’ll have a dance right here in our gym (nothing’s as much fun as having about 400 of your best little friends over for a dance, you should try this at home!). Don’t worry dads, I’ll be there in person to make sure I get a picture of every camper that dances with one of the boys so You can see it for yourself. The good news is the email will be running on Sunday so if you see your camper dancing and you’d like to make a comment, feel free to shoot ‘em an email and let them wonder how you knew who they danced with!! Anyway, we’ll be twistin’ and shoutin’ the night away as we have one heck of a time out on the dance floor.

One things that’s new this year at camp is that during morning Beli Deli, we had a “flash mob dance” break out where all of a sudden the music started playing and before you knew what happened, we had 70 counselors dancing all throughout the mass of campers and it didn’t take long for the campers to jump right in and get involved. As soon as the music stopped, everyone went right back to hanging out and standing in the beli deli line. It was pretty cool to watch it just appear and then disappear like that!! We’ll have a video of everything coming up on our youtube channel soon, so I’ll let ya know when that happens in the next few days

Tomorrow is a sad day here at Skyline though as we have to say good bye to all our Mini Campers. They’ll be headin’ home but I know they’ll keep the memories from this week for a lifetime. You mini camper parents be sure to show them how to log in (or maybe they can help you??) so they can keep up with all their new friend and their clubs through out the session. So long mini campers, we sure are gonna miss ya, you’ve been great to have here at camp this week!!!!

Weather on the mountain: I know this sounds like a broken record (does anyone even know what those are anymore?), but the weather really has been perfect this week. You couldn’t ask for anything better. Looks like its gonna continue throughout next week too!!

Well after all the fun of Miss Skyline and todays sunny activities, I think I’m gonna try to head off to bed and count sheep (I may get to 2 before I’m asleep) you guys enjoy the pics, keep up the good work of checkin’ in on the website and I’ll see ya tomorrow night after the big dance!!

Have a good night,
LJ

Helloooo Camp Parents!!

First let me congratulate all you parents out there. You’ve almost made it a whole week!!! Your campers would be so proud of you and the progress you’ve made in the last week. Can you believe were almost halfway through first session?? Man… the time flies when you’re having fun!!!

Speakin’ of fun, tonight was all about fun as we had our first ever Camp Clue activity where the campers realized during dinner that our very own head of our ropes course and long time Skyline favorite, Mark Pickle had been kidnapped (see the first photo) and stashed away somewhere around camp. It was up to your brave little campers to make their way around camp to all the stations with some famous people there, perform a task and then get a clue as to who did or did not take Pickle and where they should go next to get the next clue. As you can see form all the pics, some of the activities they had to do were, sing their favorite camp song for our founder Miss Eloise H Temple, practice roping wild Seabiscuit, one of my favorites was with our Super Counselor, they had to practice the mini showers and get 5 of their cabin mates in the shower, get fully soaked and had to do this all in 20 seconds. Oh yea, I forgot to tell ya, they were all fully dressed when all this was going on.. Some of the other guest tonight included Harry Potter, some circus clowns (ok even I was nervous around the clowns…), Taylor Swift, some boy named Beiber, and even our very own archer Catnis with some clues to help find Mr. Pickle.

At the end of the evening all the campers came together and looked over the answers they had gotten throughout the night and would you believe, we had one cabin actually get the who, the what, and even the where as to what happened to Pickle. That winning cabin was your very own…..Summerplace, rooms 5-8. Way to go girls. Everyone had a blast tonight and it was fun to watch all the campers try to do the task to get the clues (except for those clowns…they just kept scaring me!!)

Tomorrow night we’ll slow it down a bit as we have our own movie night here at Skyline! This is a great night for everyone after a full week of activities. It sure is nice to get to laydown and just have a quiet night (I know I’m looking forward to it!!!). No word yet on what the movies will be, but the girls in Hut Row and the Lodge will be in the gym watching their movie while the ladies of Summerplace will be in the top of Pickle’s Palace to enjoy their private showing and of course, the ladies of Riverside will be in the dining hall to have their very own theater. The best part about movie night (other than everyone getting popcorn), is that its pretty much like a giant slumber party and everyone will come to dinner in their PJ’s and then head to the gym to be treated to a dance by our very own Mini Campers!! After the minis dance, everyone heads out to their spots, and then just chill’s for the evening. Usually at the end of the movie, we have to wake about 50% of the campers up since they’ve gotten so comfortable while the movie was going. I can’t wait!!!!!!

Speakin’ of Mini campers, we sure are gonna miss them after they head home on Saturday! It’s been more fun than a county fair, to have those little guys around camp this week and watching them head from class to class like a bunch of little ducks. If you’re heading up here late Friday or early Saturday to pick up your mini camper, let me warn ya ahead of time. They’re gonna be happy to see ya, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be happy about leaving!!! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya if this happens, don’t worry though, it’s a good thing when this happens (in the grand scheme of things!!)

Speakin’ of minis, I hope everyone had the chance to see some of their pics today. There are several great ones (you know, the ones with YOUR camper in them of course!!!), but the ones that come to my tired and little mind are the ones at the waterslide where it looks like she just let go of the mat and is flying away from the slide and the other one is from their campfire tonight getting S’mores. I was able to catch a pic with one of our counselors helping a few minis with thier S’mores and it just seemed like the perfect camp picture. I know you have your favorites so be sure to comment and let me know!!

And finally as for comments, many thanks to those of ya’ll that post comments to our camp news! Some of ya’ll had some questions, and I though I’d take the time to answer them for ya so here we go…
1. About me with a writing career, that makes me laugh (and my high school English teachers cringe!!), but yes, I’ve talked about doing a book about running a girls camp, called “alone and adrift…in a sea of estrogen” Hanging out with all these girls sometimes AIN’T what its cracked up to be!!!
2. And for an early night…well kinda, not really. But sill happy to get to sleep when I did.
Weather on the mountain: Who ever has he connection with the weather man, I just want to say thank you!!! It was another perfect day with lows around 60 this morning and high temps of 81. Plenty of sun N fun for everyone (hey, I’m a poet and didn’t know it!!)

Yall have a good night, I’m falling asleep on my compuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Howdy Parents (that’s mountain talk for “hello” for you flat-landers),

Man, its been another beautiful day up here o the mountain, there have been campers running all around camp all day just itchin’ to get from one activity to another. I hope by now everyone has had a chance to see their campers’ cabin and club pictures that went up this morning. And if that wasn’t enough, well… theres plenty more that went up all throughout the day for you to look through. Not to mention pictures of all our talent show participants and winners. And if your fingers and eyes haven’t cramped up yet, just hang on, ‘cause there will be plenty more tomorrow too!!

As for the cabin and club pictures (and all the picture you see on the web site for that matter), at the end of the session, each camper will get a photo DVD that has every picture you’ve seen PLUS all the individual pictures we took today during their cabin pics (those won’t be on the web though). So if you’ve found that refrigerator hanger of a picture (or two), don’t worry, you’re gonna have the DVD with a full size image you can print out, copy, do whatever you’d like with just as soon as the session ends.

Now about tonights talent show!!! All I can say is WOW!!!!! Those girls were amazing in everything they did. We had singers, piano players, a fiddle player (although she was mistaken and called it somethin’ like a “violin”- up here those things are fiddles!!!), dancers, gymnastics, and even a karate demonstration. Those girls that got up on the stage really let it rip and the rest of camp knew it and showed their appreciation with several rounds of O’s (that’s our version of a standing ovation!) what a great performance. We had our own judges tonight (Steven Tyler, Randy Jackson, and Jay-Lo asked to be the judges, but they just didn’t make the cut with the talent we had here at camp) and they were treated to some outstanding performances. We even had our very own emcees (sorry Seacrest, you couldn’t get in either, it’s a pretty high standard) to introduce each act. As you can see from all the pics it was tough going to pick a winner, but our judges managed to do so and heres what you’ve been waiting for…the results are….
Groups 1, 2, & 3
3rd place: Eliza Rogers & Springer Tebwau
2nd place: Grace Hannahan & Giselle Tropeano
1st place: Summerlin Powers
And the overall winner for groups 1, 2, & 3 was….. Lucy Wilson!!!
Groups 4, 5, & 6
Honorable Mention: Sally Jones Caroline Rogg, & Molly Edmondson
3rd place: Emily Cain
2nd place: Katie Stark
1st place: Runa King
And the overall winner for groups 4, 5, & 6 was… Erin McGahey (which was kinda cool since she was the birthday girl in the beginning of the pics!!)

Congrats to all the girls tonight, like I said , it was one heck of a show!!

After getting to rest a little tonight, we’ll crank it back up tomorrow night with a new activity called “Camp wide CLUE”. This is were each group of girls will go around camp together with their cabin(we don’t want ‘em getting lost), and have to ask different characters around camp questions. Each character will give the girls some clues to decipher and they have to figure out where to go to get their next clue (or where the next character is). Once they get through all the clues and have made their way all around camp (some of them several times), they can then make a hypothesis (I’m pretty sure that’s the first and only time I’ll use THAT word in camp news!!) as to who the guilty party is and see how they did. Its gonna be a wild night of role playing and Q&A (I can’t wait till some of the younger campers start asking them “what if…” questions! That could go on for hours with some of these girls). Now I’m not saying they like to talk, but I bet it takes some of the campers AND counselors an hour and a half to watch 60 minutes if you know what I mean!!

We’ll be there to catch all the action in CLUE and bring it to ya just as quick as we can, so be sure to check back and see how they do!

Weather on the mountain: Like I said before, it was another perfect day up here on the mountain. Plenty of sun to go around and just right for some trips down the waterslide (see the picture of the day) or a ride on the BLOB. Looks like tomorrow should bemore of the same (keep your fingers crossed!!)

Well, after a great night of entertainment from our campers, I think I’m gonna head off to bed and try to catch up on some sleep (yea…right). I hope you guys enjoy all the pics and remember to get some rest yourself, we’ve still got a lot more fun to get to at camp and that means plenty of pics for ya’ll at home (you really didn’t think you would be able to get anything done this week other than look at pictures on the computer anyway did ya?)

So, like a slow kid in dodge ball………I’m outta here!
Have a good night
LJ

Whew!!!! HELLOOOO PARENTS!!!! HATE TO BE SHOUTING AT YA THIS LATE AT NIGHT BUT MY EARS ARE RINGING FROM ALL THE CHEERING That went on tonght!!! There that’s better! I know in the past I’ve talked about how loud these girls can cheer and yell for their clubs, but tonight they went off the charts with their club spirit!!! So much I had to get some makeshift earplugs to help keep the sound down (no joking!!) we had so much spirit in the gym tonight, you could probably hear them all across the south if you just walked outside and listened. They were cheering for their club mates in all the crazy Minute to win it activities and club competition events we had going on. Now when you look at all the pics (and you’ll be busy for awhile if you try to see ‘em all) you’re gonna be as confused as I was in calculus class. We had all sorts of races goin’ on like the mop bucket scooter race, the tortilla head relay, the paper dragin relay (where they had to unroll 2 rolls of crete paper by rolling it up around their arms), the shoe box relay (that was one of the funniest ones I’ve seen), of course we had the harry Potter Relay where they rode brooms around the cones, a hula hoop relay where they had to add an extra camper each time around the course and even our very own camp Dr. and nurses got into the act of supporting the clubs with a stack the cups relay. You should have heard those campers yell for the camp docs once they got started!!

After it was all said and done (and the ears were still ringing), the final results were….Rangers 3rd, Troopers 2nd, and the Mighty Mounties 1st!!! Way to go girls!! Be sure to congratulate all of ‘em if you send ‘em an email tonight!! They all were great!!!

Now as you can see from the pics today, the campers haven’t wasted any time jumping right into the camp activities. They were busier than a pack of politicians at a liars club convention today. And that’s pretty dad gum busy, especially in an election year!!

I’m still making the rounds during the day to catch all the girls at their activities and I’ll keep it goin’ tomorrow. There’ll be more pics from horseback, I gotta get over to the equestrian ring, the blob, rope swing and water slide is just getting cranked up and of course there a new activity this year at camp called quitich. Those of you that follow Harry Potter should know what kind of pictures to expect from there!! There will be lots more pics to come in the next few days so be ready to be glued to that computer screen if you haven’t already done that (I’m sure most of you have, I know for a fact several of you have- your husbands told me you were!!)

Anyway, tomorrow is picture day here at Skyline and well have all the cabin and club pictures up for you by the time you even think about having lunch so be sure to check back early to see the new pics. Its also a great time to see which club your camper is in if you don’t know. Don’t forget about the colors (I’d hate for you to start a family feud if you get it wrong) Just look at the color of their shorts and you’ll know which club their in. Red is Mounties, Blue is Rangers, and Green is Troopers (at least I think that’s right, I tend to get them mixed up myself sometimes…)

Now tomorrow night were gonna slow things down just a bit (thanks goodness!!! I know the little darlings could use the down time- I could too!!- no comment JP!) and we’ll have one of the best displays of talent America’s ever seen. Forget about that idol, or Americas got talent show, the REAL talent will be on our stage right here at camp as we host our annual Camp Skyline Talent night. We’ll have all the girls that want to, get up on the stage and perform right in front of all the other campers. Don’t worry though, yours truly will have a front row pass with my trusty camera to catch all the action for ya and bring it right back to you as soon as its over. I know you guys will be up waiting for the final results (why not, most of ya are up through out the night waiting on the pics and this crazy newsletter anyway, aren’t ya?)

So be sure to check out the pics, try to find a time to get some rest, cause you’re gonna be busy tomorrow with a whole new set of pictures and the latest results form the talent night!!

Weather on the mountain: hmmm… how do I say this…PERFECT!!! It was about 61 this morning when everyone woke up and only got up to the mid 80s this afternoon with a few scattered clouds to keep the sun from getting too hot. Should be another perfect day tomorrow (hey! What else would you expect??)

Ya’ll have a good night, I’m battling the sleepy eye disease and I’m gonna try to find my way back across the river to my bed, if that doesn’t work, I just might curl up under the stars and catch some shut eye.

Now ya’ll head off to bed, we’ll leave the light on for ya so don’t stay up too late. I’m outta here

LJ

Howdy parents!!
I hope you guys had as good of day as we had up here on the mountain, but I think that would be hard to do. We did have a little rain this morning, but everything cleared out and as you can tell from the pics, we were straight to our classes to start some serious playing! All the campers got to experience their first day of classes here at camp. And you can tell it didn’t take long before they were up on the horses, ropes course, circus, out on the tennis courts and all over camp. I’ll be making y way around each of the activities every day so if you didn’t see any pics of your camper this morning or afternoon, you’re bound to see some soon. Its just a matter of when I get by their classes. And how many days I can catch their schedule.

Tonight we played everyone’s favorite game…Sock Wars!!! Its like a 3D version of capture the flag where each club hides their flag and their captains and then heads out across camp to try and “tag” members of other clubs with one of the hundreds stuffed socks we have for them. If you love controlled chaos, then you’d love this game. There are socks flying all over the place. As a matter of fact, I hate to tell ya’ll this, but some of your daughters have terrible aim!!! I was clearly not a member of an opposing club, but I kept getting hit over and over again by socks thrown by the campers. You don’t think they would do that on purpose would they????

Anyway, after a full evening of throwing socks at each other the final results for Sock Wars, session 1, 2012 are….. Rangers 3rd, Mounties 2nd, and Troopers were first!!! Way to go guys!!!

You might be able to catch a glimpse of what color your daughter is wearing if its her first time here at Skyline. This is a very important thing to remember since once they become a member of a club, they’re a member for life!! I’m not saying it’s a matter of life or death, but there have been some small family feuds started by people calling someone by the wrong club name. If you see your camper wearing red, then she’s a Mountie, if its blue, then she’s a Ranger, and finally, if she is wearing green, then she’s a Trooper and she just won tonight’s activity!!! Way to go girls!!!!! We’ll have a video coming up on our youtube and facebook page showing what its like at dinner as well as when they announce the winners of the activities. You don’t want to miss these videos, its pretty amazing at the decibel levels these girls hit when they hear their club name called as the winners!!!

I gotta let you know the top 3 things I heard tonight while the girls were playing sock wars, you’ll love them, so here we go….

#3. (as a girl was surprised by 2 girls in a different club)” Oh no!!!” (2 girls) “were not gonna get ya, youre too cute”, girl 1 “ahhh thanks”…..”thud thud thud” as she was tagged with 3 stuffed socks from the 2 girls

2. in the middle of a barrage of socks being thrown back and forth from 2 different clubs one girl just stops, clasp her hands towards me and then says calmly. “look a lighting bug, I’ve caught 7 tonight!!”

And the #1 thing overheard tonight as I walked up with my camera towards the field where there was a massive sock battle was going on: A very young camper who had been tagged out and was walking back to the scorers table put her hand out and stopped me by saying “ don’t go in the field man… they are SERIOUS about it up there”

Its great to be at camp!!!

Tomorrow we’ll be back at our classes as we should have a full day of sunshine and plenty of smiles for everyone to go around. After a full day of activities, were gonna crank it up again tomorrow night with our own version of “Minute to Win It” and Club Competition together. Its sure to be a wacky night of events and we’ll be there to catch all the action and get it back to ya as soon as we can.

Eveyone that had a little trouble getting their emails sent in this morning will be glad to know that emails didn’t get printed out until around noon today, but everyone f them got delivered at lunch and the girls loved getting the letters! Keep ‘em coming!!

Well, that’s about all I can keep my eyes open for tonight so I’m gonna wrap this thing up and make my way back to the house to catch some sleep so you guys have a great night and get some rest. You have a long way to go and if you plan on keeping up with your campers every night, well…I wish you luck!!

Weather on the mountain: Like I said, it was a little wet this morning, but all the big storms they were talking about in Alabama and Mississippi, went just to the west of us and really didn’t do anything other than some light rain tonight as all the campers were getting into bed. I’m sure if any of them needed some help going to sleep, it helped, but I really doubt anyone needed the extra help…I know I wont!!! Ya’ll have a good night

LJ

Hellooooo Camp Parents!!!
Welcome back to Camp News 2012, the newer, brighter, stronger and more improved version of whats happening up here on the mountain!! First off, congrats to all you parents that braved the weather this morning to get your camper checked in. Great job adjusting to the weather and changes this morning. It was easy to tell the dads who had been here before (up at the hospitality room) and the first time parents (in line when I first drove past camp at 6:45 this morning) and then the really veteran parents who waited till about 9:30 or so and just drove in walked right through the check in with no wait and straight to their cabin. Oh well, its great to have all sorts here at camp and were glad you made it today.

I’m LJ and I’ll be your host for the next two weeks tellin’ ya all about the happenins up here on the mountain. For some of you first timers out there, you may think you’re seein’ some mis-spelled words, but if you’ll just read it like it looks, it wont take long to realize it sure sounds a lot better that way. Besides its fun to watch Billy Bob Gates’ Microsoft word program try to correct all the words he should have spelled the way I did anyway. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the news (I promise, it’ll be a lot better than any other news on TV you might watch!!) Now…on with the news!!!!!!

After a rather wet start this morning, would you believe we had an incredible day here at camp? After all the parents finally left camp (and yes, some of you took a little longer than other to head out…we know who you were) all the camper played some get to know ya games with their new cabin mates and talked about the different classes they could sign up for. You’ll be gettin’ a card in the mail pretty soon with their schedule on it so you’ll know what your camper decided to sign up for. Don’t expect it to arrive real soon though. It has to pass through the metropolis of Mentone mail system and that’s been know to take awhile. But it will get there sometime in the next few days.

After lunch today, we all went to the gym and played some high energy games to get everyone moving around. You can see in some of the pics, mother nature decided to let it rain a little but we were having so much fun inside, I don’t even think the girls knew it was raining!. As soon as we finished playing in the gym, just like that, the rain stopped and it was time to head outside to check out one of my favorite places, Beli Deli. This is where the campers can visit twice a day to get snacks or something to drink. With all the girls around here, its pretty much the local gossip place around camp too (who knew girls would like to gossip??)

Tonight was cabin fun night where each cabin decided what they wanted to do or play. As you can see from all the pics, Shaving cream wars was at the top of everyone list. I’m pretty sure I got at least one picture of each camper that was involved in a shaving cream battle, but to tell ya the truth, its kinda hard to tell one from the other once they get that stuff everywhere, And I do mean everywhere, it was in their hair, on their face, legs stomach, some of them even had it in their ears.

One of the cabins decided to do a little tie dyeing tonight, I cant wait to see how their shirts turned out, While other cabins decided to go for the spa treatment with some nail and facial time while they waited to sing karaoke. (that always goes together doesn’t it?)

The ladies of Riverside were playing a life size game of clue or something like that, but they just quit as soon as I was getting there (if there ever was an argument for human cloning, tonight was it, 15 cabins and events, all at one time, could have used about 3 or 4 more of me tonight)

Tomorrow will start our first day of classes and all the campers will get the ins and out of whats going on up here. I’ll be floating around to snap up some pics for you parents to see.

Tomorrow night will be one of the campers favorites. SOCK WARS!! This is where each club (more on that tomorrow night) will hide their flag around camp and then its pretty much a 3D game of capture the flag with about 2,0000 stuffed socks flying through the air. If you get hit by a sock thrown from another club, you have to report to the scorers table and then your back in the game. Confused yet? Just wait till you see the pics, then you’ll really be lost, but you’ll laugh the whole way through!!

Well folks, I’d love to stay and chat, but at the speed I type. I’d be here all night just trying to get another paragraph in. Beside, there’s still plenty of parents left to approve so they can get in to see the pics too. Before I leave though, I do want to warn you first timers. Don’t plan on getting anything done these next two weeks while pictures of your camper are going on line. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself stuck in front of that dad gum computer all day waiting for pictures and then looking for your campers elbow, shoe, back of her head, anything you think you can spot in a picture. Go ahead and laugh now, but just wait and see…I wonder who was already in line this morning while everyone else was still asleep…(JP & CT???)

Yall enjoy the pics have a great night I’m off to approve more campstuff applications and then to a much anticipated night of rest

Weather on the mountain: like I said it rained when we were inside and then quit when it was time to head outside. Right now al the campers are tucked in their beds and you can sleep to the sound of rain on the tin roofs. Funny thing how God works on stuff like that!!!

Ya’ll have a great night and I’ll see ya tomorrow
LJ

Happy Throwback Thursday, y’all! Our last Throwback Thursday for a while, as campers come in 3 DAYS!!!

We have just had a wonderful staff come in for staff training…it makes us really excited for summer. Happy Throwback Thursday, everyone!