Helloooo 4th session and Merry Christmas in July

Helloooo parents and welcome to 4th session which is our “Christmas in July” session so that mihght help help explain a lot of the Christmas decorations you saw today around camp. Im LJ and I’ll be telling ya everything that happened today on your daughters first full day of camp. Before I get going, let me congratulate all the parents that made drop off so easy and successful this morning. You guys were in and out and everything was as smooth as silk. Even though Mother Nature made some little threats of rain all throughout the day the only real rain we got was right before dinner and it only lasted a few minutes and was just enough rain to cool everything off and make tonights activities a lot cooler even if they were a little more damp than everyone had planned.

So right after everyone got checked into their cabins, each cabin played some get to know ya games so everyone could learn a little bit about all their new friends they’re gonna make this session. After that it was off to the gym for introductions and learn some camp rules and sign up for their activities and take a camp tour (we don’t want the little darlin’s getting lost on their first day going to activities). Now don’t worry about what their schedule is, you’re gonna get a post card in the mail pretty soon and it’ll have everything they signed up for plus what club their in (more on that later). But don’t go running out to your mailbox to wait on that card, Mentone has a slow life pace and quite frankly I’ve seen kudzu grow faster than our mail does sometimes!

After a full lunch of chicken fingers, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy it was time for everyone to go back to the gym and find out what club all the new campers are in. This information will also be on that postcard (when it finally arrives) and the info about what club they’re in is something you will want to pay attention to. Once these girls get into their clubs, they’re in them for life and there are some serious competitions between the clubs that will take place over the next two weeks. Fortunately they also took the club and cabin pics today and you’ll be able to tell which club your camper is in by the color of their shirt. If its green, she’s a Trooper, if its blue, then she’s a Ranger and if her short is red, then she is a Mountie. Make sure you file that one away in the long term memory file. You don’t want to start a family feud by calling out the wrong club for your daughter!!

After dinner it was time for some more get to know ya games with all their new cabin mates with Cabin Fun Night! This is where each cabin picks what they wanna do together for the nighttime activity. With the rain just before dinner some of the activities had to be altered but that didn’t stop our campers from having fun as they played together right up till it was time for campfire. Some of the fun activities tonight were karaoke, spa night ships and sailors, project runway, and some interesting games that were some type of charades. The best part was at the end of the night everyone joined around the Hut Row campfire for some S’mores and the night time devotions. This is the only night of the session they will all be together as the rest of the nights, the older girls in Summerplace and Riverside will have their own campfire on their side of the river.

Tomorrow will be full of excitement as they all head out to their activities like ropes course, horseback, circus, pottery, Bible study and more. Speaking of excitement, that’s exactly what the girls in the class that I teach, (Caving Survival and Rappelling) will experience tomorrow as they get to learn about all the equipment they’ll be wearing and what it does as they spend the next 2 weeks hanging off rock cliffs and playing underground. Stick around the pictures will be a hoot!!!

Here’s a couple of “pro tips” for those of you that might be experiencing that “first time camper parent” feeling. Believe it or not these will make YOUR next two weeks much easier!

1. Camper emails- they are printed out at 9AM Central time and delivered to your daughter each day at lunch. Emails are $1 a piece and they’re charged to your campers spending account so if you like to send a bunch of short emails saying “hi” or “We miss you”, that’s great but don’t pay a dollar each time you send it. Write them on a word doc and paste them all onto one email each morning or night. She’ll get it the next day at luncheither way

2. Camp pics- pictures are available through our partner Waldo and they have a great program using facial recognition where their program will send you a notice on your phone every time it finds your daughter in one of the pictures.Its pretty convenient and you’ll be amazed at how many times it finds your daughter. Waldo also has a feature called Waldograms where you can send a picture/Waldogram to your daughter with a picture from home or even one of the ones from Waldo. They get delivered each day at lunch with the emails also. Be sure to put her name and cabin on them so we can get them where you want them to go!

3. Last and most importantly, don’t stay up all night looking through the pics, go get some rest and have some fun. No need for both of us to loose sleep over the next 2 weeks!! You guys playing along at home have a good time, enjoy the pics and the blogs and daily videos and most importantly, get some rest, you got this and your girls will have a blast while you watch from your phone

have a great night, I gotta go get some rest too cause we all have a big day tomorrow as we kick off 4th session!!!

Have a great night and well see ya tomorrow night!

LJ