Happy Birthday America

Helloooo parents and Happy Birthday America!! Even though 3rd session is our “Christmas in July” session and we officially celebrated the 4th of July in 2nd session (yea, it was kinda weird celebrating Independence day, 4 July in June), we still celebrated America and the greatest country in the world here at camp today. It started with a special flag raising and there was plenty of red, white and blue on all the campers and counselors everywhere you looked. As we went through the day, there was plenty of impromptu “America songs” breaking out all over camp as the camper went through their daily activities.

Everyone found a way to “celebrate” with some good old fashioned fun like water gun wars in cooking class (actually out side the building, not in the kitchen where they cook). The staff at the Tower of Power actually hauled a bucket of water balloons up to the top of the tower and surprised the campers below throughout the day. Some of the campers were even challenged to make the climb up the tower with a water balloon in tow and when they got to the top they could launch it as everyone below. Noting like having a fun reward for your hard work!

Sports class had some fun playing an American favorite, Ultimate Frisbee out on our sports field. Of course that was followed by plenty of water hose spraying of each other to cool off. (I guess they’ll never know how good water from the hose taste when you’ve been outside playing all day….oh how things have changed).

To help spread out the celebration a little bit we have our picnic on the grounds scheduled for Sunday and we’re gonna break out about 40 of the plumpest watermelons you’ve ever seen and let them dig into them the old fashioned way…. mouth and face first!! Who knows, maybe we can even bring back “bobbing for apples” that day too and let them think its a new viral craze!!

We finished the day with another special flag ceremony. This time at flag lowering as we lowered and folded the flag, we explained what each fold stood for and how our country was founded on these principals. The campers all listened attentively and were appreciative of the information as we went through fold 1 to fold 13. It was a very nice and quiet time where everyone showed their respect for our country and the men and women that have fought to protect it and provide us our freedoms that we enjoy today. It was the perfect way to end the day of playing and celebrating.

Tonight we (finally) played Candy Crush and the campers had a ball going from counselor to counselor completing crazy task trying to get balloons with point values in them. Not too fast and not too slow, it was the perfect paced activity to keep everyone going but not wear ‘em down too much. There were campers singing, dancing, rolling, doing push ups, building human pyramids and more trying to get their balloons form the counselors. That may help explain some of the crazy pictures you’ll see tonight.

Tomorrow we’ll be back at our schedule with the CSR class making their first out of camp trip to rappel and climb on the Georgia side of the mountain. Technically, I guess you could say the canoeing and mountain biking class has already been taking out of camp trips as they’ve made their way down Little River (no word yet if they’ve made it all the way to Camp Laney yet or not, but with the dance coming up tomorrow night, my money is on the ‘over’ on the number of times they’ve canoed that far) and mountain biking has been all over the mountain from downtown Mentone to the edge of the western brow to enjoy the view there. I think they made their way to the Mentone Wedding Chapel yesterday and enjoyed all the sights like the alpaca farm on the way.

Now even though its been a busy week, everyone is still getting excited about the big night tomorrow night. Thats right, its dance night and the boys from Camp Laney will be stopping in (for real this time, not our counselors dressed up as them) to enjoy a night of music, fun and socializing out under the stars as our tennis courts will be transformed into one big dance floor. They’ll enjoy the cool night weather and music as they dance and get their groove on (does anyone even use that term anymore or know what it means??). Don’t worry dads, we’ll be out there right in the middle of it all and make sure to get plenty of pics so you can see who’s dancing with your camper!

Well, its been a busy and fun day and theres still a whole lot more to come so I’m gonna head off and get some shut eye. I hope you guys enjoyed America’s Independence day celebrations, no matter where you were. And the most important thing I can write tonight is a big THANK YOU to all the men and women, past and present that have sacrificed to help protect the greatest country in the world and help insure all the freedoms we enjoy in it every day. Thank you for your service.

So thats it for tonight, you guys have a good night and I’ll see ya back here tomorrow after the dance! Take care, get some rest and God Bless America! Happy birthday America! You’re a good looking 243 years old!!

Have a good night!

LJ