camp

For some stupid reason blogger has posted my pictures backwards so I invite you to scroll to the bottom of the posting and we will travel upwards to fill in the details of camp. Sorry I would repost but it took a very long time to even get these on here so I'm not about to delete and start again. I was a counselor for the girls group so most of the stuff I did was with Seraphina. I did end up with Sam's group one of the days so I was able to get some pictures of him as well. Enjoy our adventures at summer camp!



The girls doing their skit. (this is actually a practice as I don't have a picture in front of the fire pit of the girls)



The boys doing their skit.

Sam and the camp director Becca leading a song on the last event of camp (the camp fire was cancelled because it was over 100 degrees but we still did all the songs and skits)

Anyone who got a bulls eye was allowed to enter their name on the bulls eye poster. Sam did his without me so I didn't get the picture but when Pheenie hit her card I was able to take her picture. Directly above her head at the top of the poster you will see Sam's name.



The rope ladder, she was actually afraid to go over but Peiter walked along side of her the first time so she went and then after that she just kept going back for more.




Baby girl was determined to get a bulls eye before the end of the week. She actually never hit the target she saved her bulls eye for the playing card on the last day. She shot through the 8 of clubs and earned a special gold bead for all of the girls in our den.



Sam's den gets a turn to put up the flag. This is their practice run.

Getting ready to do the flag ceremony. Unlike most parents I believe it is highly disrespectful to take pictures when the flag is going up or coming down so I only have the practice run shots.

The end of the orienteering trail. I heard Seraphina was thrilled to find Peiter was there but I was with the boys so I don't have that picture.  



Sam's second favorite skill. He ended the week with 2 bulls eyes and he hit the license plate which was a big deal among the campers.




Just a close up so you can see how much fun they are having.




This is the last day of camp. The whole camp had 4 periods of swimming because it was so hot and as you can see Russell's hard work paid off. By day 5 she was in the water with no life jacket and playing happily.



Now that Sam is in the boat things are much better, though I still think she may be looking for leeches. 





Still freaked out....




Seraphina is not enjoying the boat ride. She was pretty freaked out but fortunately our den and Sam's den ended up having boating at the same time.




Eggstronaut survival rate among Den 7 100%! (I wish I had seen Seraphina's but I was with the boys on that day. From what I heard it was pink with a Disney store plastic bag for a parachute so that when it fell all you could see was Ariel, it also survived)




Did it break?




As you can see they carefully packaged the can inside bubble wrap and foam.




Why do these boys look so nervous? This is the egg drop. The kids had to craft a capsule and then drop an egg from the second story of the lodge to see if it survived. They could bring whatever packing materials they wanted but the capsule had to be a coffee can. Here Sam's and Christian's egg is about to go over.




Making a rocket at crafts. As you can see the boys weren't that into crafting.




According to Justin Sam has perfect form and it shows when he shoots.




First things first, the backwards hat is only that way because he is firing and they aren't allowed to wear them the right way. Sam was in his element here. He had 3 bulls eyes by the end of the week and really loved shooting.




Shooting our water bottle rockets.




Trying to hit the target. She never actually did though she did manage to at least get the arrow to the end of the line by the last day.




This is Justin. He also deserved a gold star for his work with all of the girls but especially Seraphina. Her dominate eye is her left so she is forced to shoot left handed and she just didn't possess the strength in her non dominate hand to pull back the bow. He worked really hard to help her but she just hated archery. She actually snapped his hand with the bow at one point and he still stayed completely calm and continued to try to help her.  




The other boy here is Space Captain Buzz (our theme for camp was Space Waaaay Out There, and his real name is Elijah ) and the kids all thought he was terribly funny but she only had eyes for Peiter.




Peiter. Seraphina fell head over heels for this boy and everyday her favorite part of camp was time with Peiter. On our first day of camp we found a lizard trapped in the rock bin. Most of the girls didn't care but my animal activist HAD to see it rescued. We were told very specifically not to mess with the wildlife so I made her leave it and told her we could report it at our next station. Which just so happened to be Peiter's, she charged up to him and demanded the lizard be saved. (most of you know that she isn't one to talk to strangers and she had never even met this boy prior to this exchange) He immediately rushed off to save the lizard (he even made a point to bring it and show her he saved it) and Seraphina was hooked. Here he is teaching her to build a signal fire.  




Here she is actually attempting to swim. Jeff and I decided that it really is time for both of them to learn and I am happy to report swim lessons start on the 19th of September. By this time next year we hope to see them in one of the roped sections of the lake.




He is trying to get her to put her face in the water here. Obviously he doesn't know how stubborn my little Aries can be. THAT wasn't going to happen but she did at least make an attempt to lay on her belly.




The lake is broken down into sections as you can see. The section she is in (and Sam was in) is for non swimmers, the next section is beginners, followed by intermediate and then swimmers. To get to the beginners section you have to be able to dog paddle, intermediate must know an actual stroke and swimmers must know both front and back strokes and be able to swim them the length of the docks.




The lifeguard standing by her is Russell and he refused to allow her not to swim. He got her a life jacket and set about giving her swim lessons. No one asked him to do this and the other life guards didn't take any interest in helping the kids who didn't know how to swim. I later found out he helped Sam as well. I was really impressed with him and we made a point to mention him to the camp director before we left on Friday.




The first day of camp, Sam told Seraphina there were leeches in the lake (there aren't). She ended up terrified and didn't want to go in.