We're 4 days into the final section of summer camp! Scary. But I'll tell you what, I have struck gold with these kids once again. Practically all of them are super sporty and super keen to know and do everything at camp! So naturally they ask a gazillion questions, which leaves turns me into a broken record almost. Thus we have started the 5 question limit between meals. A little harsh; but the biggest thing these boys need to learn is independence, thinking for themselves and a bit less reliance on the adults. We'll get there!
It's been so much fun already getting to know the new kids. Yesterday I played a bunch of tennis with 3 of them, then archery with some others as well as a small football tournament with 2 boys too! My position as GC (general counsellor) means I can spread myself out and have fun at all the activities its great! Today we had cabin activity down at canoe and kayak and for the first time I had my whole group in boats, enjoying the water. It was fantastic! Beautiful sunshine and fun games of 'keep the pool noodle' (floating thingy you grab and put in the kayak then run away!) it was lovely. And the best thing was my chinese camper started talking and playing with the other boys and now wants to do kayaking next week! Awesome.
I'm going to try a new system of blogging in the next couple of days. Instead of the pressure of writing down everything all at once I might just start writing short stories and memories whenever I have time.
Love to all my family, I have a day off on tuesday which I will try and use for skype calls and such so be ready! Until next time xx
Saturday 29 July 2017
Tuesday 25 July 2017
Start Of Session Two!
Today we have not only packed up and said goodbye to 4 phenomenal campers that I love, but we will be welcoming 7 new fresh kids to camp! Since the whole switch over changes the numbers at camp there have been some staff shuffles to correspond with it. So, all my co-counsellors have been moved! Gabor has gone to another fresh kid cabin, and Jonah has been moved on up to sophomore boys (the age group one up from fresh kids, so like 10-13.) Which leaves little old me remaining in F4 cabin in fresh kids with my new co. Jacob. This session brings a host of new kids with even more internationals, so in my cabin we have someone from Israel as well as Shanghai, China. Fun! Its shaping up to be an amazing group to finish up the summer and I still have bags of energy and enthusiasm to carry me through.
Also today, seeing as there are not many (if any) kids to watch over there were some special events around camp. A couple activities open for drop-in sessions and we had Archery District at camp - a Archery Tag company (instead of an arrow head there is a kind of foam marshmallow) so I totally jumped on the oppertunity to play and shoot kids in the face. Incredible fun and I got some epic pictures of me firing multiple arrows at once. Realising my dream of becoming Legolas..
The tanoy has just announced the arrival of the kids in 10 mins! Gtg xxx
Also today, seeing as there are not many (if any) kids to watch over there were some special events around camp. A couple activities open for drop-in sessions and we had Archery District at camp - a Archery Tag company (instead of an arrow head there is a kind of foam marshmallow) so I totally jumped on the oppertunity to play and shoot kids in the face. Incredible fun and I got some epic pictures of me firing multiple arrows at once. Realising my dream of becoming Legolas..
The tanoy has just announced the arrival of the kids in 10 mins! Gtg xxx
Monday 24 July 2017
Quick Check In
END OF SESSION ONE
Which means we're half way through the summer! Crazy! Been so busy last couple days, so much so that we cant even take days off! we had a camp wide competition which was great fun and now ive packed up all my kids stuff ready for session 1 to finish. love you loads xx got to run to banquet dinner now for our last meal together!
Which means we're half way through the summer! Crazy! Been so busy last couple days, so much so that we cant even take days off! we had a camp wide competition which was great fun and now ive packed up all my kids stuff ready for session 1 to finish. love you loads xx got to run to banquet dinner now for our last meal together!
Saturday 22 July 2017
Visitors day and candle!
Last night I got a recognition award in front of the whole camp and today i get to meet all my kids parents! So excited and proud. Its going to be a great day! Got to run - they're here in 30 mins!!!
Saturday 15 July 2017
Another Busy Week!
Camp life is busy and exhausting as ever and I love it. The skill of falling asleep in an instant at any point in time is quickly becoming a valuable asset. But who wants to when there is so much awesome stuff to do all the time! Last Tuesday was when I started this post (like a month ago camp time.) so there is a whole bunch of stuff to share and a lot to remember that happened so long ago!
To start with my hockey debut - something I have been looking forward to ever since the MHL (Manitou Hockey League) was first introduced to me. It a ball hockey league made up of keep staff member who are up for a bit of friendly competition. Ball hockey is the same rules and regulations of ice hockey, and also in a concrete hockey rink. Just a bit less aggression and a team full of uncoordinated players. My team are the Mouseketeers! Me and a bunch of my collegues from the fresh kid unit play along side me. The others who I had not met before are all super positive people who all support each other and are up for a match. This suits my attitude perfectly - because as soon as I get involved with an competitive game I start shouting and hyping up my team. I already embarrass my campers when we watch other peoples games by creating fun chants and shouting for my friends. Its great. Plus it helps! A girl on my team praised my positive vibes and loudness which made me smile.
So, more about my hockey career so far! My last game was certainly my best - Im a bit of an underrated draft thanks to my field hockey background so its fun to surprise people. I scored my second league goal, as well as setting up 3 goals for my team mates! Boom! Super happy!
Swimming. Love it or hate it fresh kids go in every single day! Some fake injuries to get out of it, some rush down in excitement.. Im somewhere inbetween. I was not comfortable when doing my swim test. It was a challenge. So its fun to try and improve my own swimming and stamina whilst helping out with the kids! Coaxing them into the water is the first challenge, from then on most get stuck in. By most i mean one kid is the least keen to swim in the unit and hes my camper BUT today he actually went in the water straight away and even complete his laps in the pool! (Pool as in a square made by floating docks in the lake.) Such a proud dad moment, particularly because hes my mini-me and my unoffical favorite.
Beach day! Last week the whole unit packed onto 3 school buses and headed to the local lakeside beach in Parry Sound. Classic camp scenes of a sing along bus journey, beach and water games it was really fun. Luckily we had perfect weather that day for it, terrible storms and dreary rain still plague us. So much so that we had an incredible lightening storm that lit up the sky with every great crack. It was so fun to watch from a far as the cascading rain was over on the other side of lake Manitou-Wabing. Thank goodness.
Now we have reached the second week mark most of the camper know where theyre heading, which is great! Less rushing around for me and more time to spend enjoying activities like high-ropes, tennis, OCS (other camp sports like lacrosse NFL frisbee etc) or even pottery. Getting out on the lake is also a favorite of mine, in a kyak sail boat or canoe! With all the positives of really bad pirate jokes and water fun! Sailing as a cabin for our morning activity was a lovely morning.
Which brings me on to Drama Inc. Every morning for the first hour of the day the whole cabin comes together to do an activity. This is a fresh kid specific initiative so they can try different activities at camp they might not always try. Like Drama. The staff their are super fun and we played a bunch of name learning games and then musical mats (instead of chairs.) but the best part was the game after this.. musical mats WITH a story. The staff at drama were super suprised that i wanted to get so involved in all the games bit it got all the kids super pumped and happy. Involving the cabin, me, my marriage to another female counsellor and the ensuing alien abduction and wedding party! So good!
My next memorable moment was the fresh kid canoe trip. 20 odd kids and 8 staff canoed across the river to *Fresh Kid Island* for an over night trip in tents. It was a lot of fun, we had a bbq and a fire; as well as some little games with the boys.
Best moment in hockey or my entire sporting career... or possibly life. (I hope I can write it in a way that does it justice to how I feel!)So its my third game of the season and our team is down a player due to injury so we've all been run ragged. Midway into the second half, I pick up the ball in our final third from a controlled pass. I look up and non of my team are open or even ahead of me so I grit my teeth and decide to run at the 5 opposition players in front of me. A side to side drag manouvre down the centre of the pitch sends me past 2 players and I'm picking up speed. (FYI there are 2 players left and a goalie between me and the goal.) I sprint down centre field and the second last defender delivers a crunching tackle that sends the ball flying upwards but still in my direction of travel. With the momentum I have going forward, I run past the tackler. Punch the ball midair around the final defender (rules in our ice/ball hockey: one can catch/touch the all in the air to prevent raising their stick) which is also their best player. The ball goes around one way, and I career round the other side, and I'm through 1 v 1 with the goalie. I take the shot first time - ball still bouncing and send a scorcher towards the top right corner. AND I hit the crossbar, and it flies out of the court. I was so hyped! People were on looking with mouths dropped open! Even one of my friends who was on the opposing team wanted to congratulate me but felt it wasn't appropriate at the time. So that's a super long paragraph detailing about 15 seconds of the last week!! Hope you enjoyed!
Last week was the half way mark for the first session (first month of camp) which meant that some of the fresh kids are leaving! Being the youngest campers at Manitou they have the option of staying a shorter amount of time. 7 / 10 of our cabin were scheduled to leave, however, one kid decided he wanted to stay longer! Woo! Consequently we had enough cabin members to keep our cabin open and prevent any moving around and merging. For the next 2 weeks that means we have only 4 kids which makes life a breeze to manage, but i have notice more clashes as theres only a certain amount of freinds you can play with.. so they're kinda forced to get over any minor disagreements.
If anyone wants to send me mail.. Send it to: 10 camp road, Parry Sound, Ontario, P2A 2W7
Its so funny to see how proud kids are when their family send them mail, it can actually disturb the peace! So to make some ripples of my own would be fun!
Love to all my family xxx
To start with my hockey debut - something I have been looking forward to ever since the MHL (Manitou Hockey League) was first introduced to me. It a ball hockey league made up of keep staff member who are up for a bit of friendly competition. Ball hockey is the same rules and regulations of ice hockey, and also in a concrete hockey rink. Just a bit less aggression and a team full of uncoordinated players. My team are the Mouseketeers! Me and a bunch of my collegues from the fresh kid unit play along side me. The others who I had not met before are all super positive people who all support each other and are up for a match. This suits my attitude perfectly - because as soon as I get involved with an competitive game I start shouting and hyping up my team. I already embarrass my campers when we watch other peoples games by creating fun chants and shouting for my friends. Its great. Plus it helps! A girl on my team praised my positive vibes and loudness which made me smile.
So, more about my hockey career so far! My last game was certainly my best - Im a bit of an underrated draft thanks to my field hockey background so its fun to surprise people. I scored my second league goal, as well as setting up 3 goals for my team mates! Boom! Super happy!
Swimming. Love it or hate it fresh kids go in every single day! Some fake injuries to get out of it, some rush down in excitement.. Im somewhere inbetween. I was not comfortable when doing my swim test. It was a challenge. So its fun to try and improve my own swimming and stamina whilst helping out with the kids! Coaxing them into the water is the first challenge, from then on most get stuck in. By most i mean one kid is the least keen to swim in the unit and hes my camper BUT today he actually went in the water straight away and even complete his laps in the pool! (Pool as in a square made by floating docks in the lake.) Such a proud dad moment, particularly because hes my mini-me and my unoffical favorite.
Beach day! Last week the whole unit packed onto 3 school buses and headed to the local lakeside beach in Parry Sound. Classic camp scenes of a sing along bus journey, beach and water games it was really fun. Luckily we had perfect weather that day for it, terrible storms and dreary rain still plague us. So much so that we had an incredible lightening storm that lit up the sky with every great crack. It was so fun to watch from a far as the cascading rain was over on the other side of lake Manitou-Wabing. Thank goodness.
Now we have reached the second week mark most of the camper know where theyre heading, which is great! Less rushing around for me and more time to spend enjoying activities like high-ropes, tennis, OCS (other camp sports like lacrosse NFL frisbee etc) or even pottery. Getting out on the lake is also a favorite of mine, in a kyak sail boat or canoe! With all the positives of really bad pirate jokes and water fun! Sailing as a cabin for our morning activity was a lovely morning.
Which brings me on to Drama Inc. Every morning for the first hour of the day the whole cabin comes together to do an activity. This is a fresh kid specific initiative so they can try different activities at camp they might not always try. Like Drama. The staff their are super fun and we played a bunch of name learning games and then musical mats (instead of chairs.) but the best part was the game after this.. musical mats WITH a story. The staff at drama were super suprised that i wanted to get so involved in all the games bit it got all the kids super pumped and happy. Involving the cabin, me, my marriage to another female counsellor and the ensuing alien abduction and wedding party! So good!
My next memorable moment was the fresh kid canoe trip. 20 odd kids and 8 staff canoed across the river to *Fresh Kid Island* for an over night trip in tents. It was a lot of fun, we had a bbq and a fire; as well as some little games with the boys.
Best moment in hockey or my entire sporting career... or possibly life. (I hope I can write it in a way that does it justice to how I feel!)So its my third game of the season and our team is down a player due to injury so we've all been run ragged. Midway into the second half, I pick up the ball in our final third from a controlled pass. I look up and non of my team are open or even ahead of me so I grit my teeth and decide to run at the 5 opposition players in front of me. A side to side drag manouvre down the centre of the pitch sends me past 2 players and I'm picking up speed. (FYI there are 2 players left and a goalie between me and the goal.) I sprint down centre field and the second last defender delivers a crunching tackle that sends the ball flying upwards but still in my direction of travel. With the momentum I have going forward, I run past the tackler. Punch the ball midair around the final defender (rules in our ice/ball hockey: one can catch/touch the all in the air to prevent raising their stick) which is also their best player. The ball goes around one way, and I career round the other side, and I'm through 1 v 1 with the goalie. I take the shot first time - ball still bouncing and send a scorcher towards the top right corner. AND I hit the crossbar, and it flies out of the court. I was so hyped! People were on looking with mouths dropped open! Even one of my friends who was on the opposing team wanted to congratulate me but felt it wasn't appropriate at the time. So that's a super long paragraph detailing about 15 seconds of the last week!! Hope you enjoyed!
Last week was the half way mark for the first session (first month of camp) which meant that some of the fresh kids are leaving! Being the youngest campers at Manitou they have the option of staying a shorter amount of time. 7 / 10 of our cabin were scheduled to leave, however, one kid decided he wanted to stay longer! Woo! Consequently we had enough cabin members to keep our cabin open and prevent any moving around and merging. For the next 2 weeks that means we have only 4 kids which makes life a breeze to manage, but i have notice more clashes as theres only a certain amount of freinds you can play with.. so they're kinda forced to get over any minor disagreements.
If anyone wants to send me mail.. Send it to: 10 camp road, Parry Sound, Ontario, P2A 2W7
Its so funny to see how proud kids are when their family send them mail, it can actually disturb the peace! So to make some ripples of my own would be fun!
Love to all my family xxx
Monday 3 July 2017
TIME FLIES
OhMyGoshIt'sBeenSoLong!
Since we last spoke it has been a complete whirlwind. I have my 10 campers and they are all such sweethearts! Even though its been such a short amount of time I feel every single one of these boys have learnt something and are developing. Ranging from everyday manners, ways to talk to each other or even how to fold/tidy clothes and make their bed!
Our cabin is super cute. I had the idea of splitting top and bottom bunks into elephant / hippo group for the shower schedule to make it more fun and it went down a treat! We even made colourful paper cut outs in those shapes to welcome the kids. It was a good job we went the extra mile because the weather over the last few days have been appalling. Eg. Canada was super strange.. Glorious sunshine in the A.M and then a massive thunder storm with lightening the practically shut the camp down. Supervisors and directors were whizzing round in caddies yelling at everyone to take shelter! Unbeknown to myself who at the time was running around like a headless chicken in my full Canadian set up. (fake tattoo sleeve, temp. tattoo on the cheek and a 150 Canada shirt) I. Got. Drenched. Soaked to the skin. But eventually someone caught me and my kids so we jumped under Marks porch (the owner) until it died down and his wife brought us crisps. Not bad.
The kids are so hilarious, so full of energy and life. Paired with their sweet obedient nature, it sets the scene for some fun times. There have been many already! For example the mundane task of getting dressed making beds brushing teeth etc.. in the morning has now been transformed into the 'Potato Challenge!' We made up a hand shake based on different potato dishes(potato chip = hi-five etc..) which meant that all of a sudden children weren't refusing and getting annoyed but rushing through the step and excitedly asking for their reward!
Another major peak was the best evening cabin activity ever.. The story goes like this. Midway trough the final period of the day there is a thunderstorm so everyone has to run back into their cabins out of the storm. (Me and a couple of the boys were playing football and splashing in the lake at kayaking because they were afraid of the boats. So we were wet already before we had to go inside.) **UPDATE** However some kids disobeyed and decided it would be way more fun to make a mud slide on main field instead! The slide was in direct view of our cabin window so naturally all the boys piled onto the beds by the window and stared out jealously. They wouldn't stop asking to go outside even after we told them the rules so to quiet them down we said that we would consider it if they stopped bugging us! Which worked perfectly because secretly me and my co-counsellor Jonah were plotting a prank after dinner.. After dinner and tuck (candy night) we got all the boys sit down and played up a serious telling off, concluded by... For evening program WE ARE GOING MUD-SLIDING! The boys almost exploded with happiness and excitement, one was crying with joy it was THE highlight of the camp so far.
The only problem was that the sun had started shining after dinner which was causing the slide to dry out. So all the campers and counselors filled up their water bottles (I even filled up the bin in the shower which caused another ripple of excitement) and went out to wet the slide and play. Needless to say we got filthy and they loved it! We also played mud tag and mud ninja games. It was hilarious! And then goodness me the clean up was tricky! Luckily all the boys stuck to their promise of showering (despite some being told to go back in because they were still gross) and we hung out all the dirty clothes and towels but I still had to spend the next day mopping and sweeping for 2 or so hours! Otherwise there was no chance in hell it would get cleaned.
It feels like I've spent forever at camp, but also that time is flying by. Everyone is so nice and getting to know everyone s name around camp is so fun i love it.
Love to my family until next time! xx
Since we last spoke it has been a complete whirlwind. I have my 10 campers and they are all such sweethearts! Even though its been such a short amount of time I feel every single one of these boys have learnt something and are developing. Ranging from everyday manners, ways to talk to each other or even how to fold/tidy clothes and make their bed!
Our cabin is super cute. I had the idea of splitting top and bottom bunks into elephant / hippo group for the shower schedule to make it more fun and it went down a treat! We even made colourful paper cut outs in those shapes to welcome the kids. It was a good job we went the extra mile because the weather over the last few days have been appalling. Eg. Canada was super strange.. Glorious sunshine in the A.M and then a massive thunder storm with lightening the practically shut the camp down. Supervisors and directors were whizzing round in caddies yelling at everyone to take shelter! Unbeknown to myself who at the time was running around like a headless chicken in my full Canadian set up. (fake tattoo sleeve, temp. tattoo on the cheek and a 150 Canada shirt) I. Got. Drenched. Soaked to the skin. But eventually someone caught me and my kids so we jumped under Marks porch (the owner) until it died down and his wife brought us crisps. Not bad.
The kids are so hilarious, so full of energy and life. Paired with their sweet obedient nature, it sets the scene for some fun times. There have been many already! For example the mundane task of getting dressed making beds brushing teeth etc.. in the morning has now been transformed into the 'Potato Challenge!' We made up a hand shake based on different potato dishes(potato chip = hi-five etc..) which meant that all of a sudden children weren't refusing and getting annoyed but rushing through the step and excitedly asking for their reward!
Another major peak was the best evening cabin activity ever.. The story goes like this. Midway trough the final period of the day there is a thunderstorm so everyone has to run back into their cabins out of the storm. (Me and a couple of the boys were playing football and splashing in the lake at kayaking because they were afraid of the boats. So we were wet already before we had to go inside.) **UPDATE** However some kids disobeyed and decided it would be way more fun to make a mud slide on main field instead! The slide was in direct view of our cabin window so naturally all the boys piled onto the beds by the window and stared out jealously. They wouldn't stop asking to go outside even after we told them the rules so to quiet them down we said that we would consider it if they stopped bugging us! Which worked perfectly because secretly me and my co-counsellor Jonah were plotting a prank after dinner.. After dinner and tuck (candy night) we got all the boys sit down and played up a serious telling off, concluded by... For evening program WE ARE GOING MUD-SLIDING! The boys almost exploded with happiness and excitement, one was crying with joy it was THE highlight of the camp so far.
The only problem was that the sun had started shining after dinner which was causing the slide to dry out. So all the campers and counselors filled up their water bottles (I even filled up the bin in the shower which caused another ripple of excitement) and went out to wet the slide and play. Needless to say we got filthy and they loved it! We also played mud tag and mud ninja games. It was hilarious! And then goodness me the clean up was tricky! Luckily all the boys stuck to their promise of showering (despite some being told to go back in because they were still gross) and we hung out all the dirty clothes and towels but I still had to spend the next day mopping and sweeping for 2 or so hours! Otherwise there was no chance in hell it would get cleaned.
It feels like I've spent forever at camp, but also that time is flying by. Everyone is so nice and getting to know everyone s name around camp is so fun i love it.
Love to my family until next time! xx
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