opening Day 4th
Hellooo parents and welcome to the Roost, which is our vision of the camp blog. Whatever you wanna call it, this is where you’ll come each night (sometimes its late night though…) for all the details of what happened each day and whats just around the corner. We’ll also let ya know any important information you might need to know while your camper is here at camp these two weeks (like email and Waldogram deadlines, which club found the golden horseshoe and more important stuff).
I’d like to congratulate everyone for a smooth check in this morning, even if Mother Nature kept looking like she wasn’t gonna cooperate. It all worked out and everyone seemed to get in and out in record time with the new opening day procedure! I know your campers were glad to hurry and get in their cabins and get started seeing old friends and making new ones as each new group of campers arrived. It didn’t take long before all the campers were here and everyone got settled in and started getting to know all their cabin mates and playing some more “get to know ya” games.
Before lunch everyone got to pick their activities and do their club drawings. You guys at home will be getting your first card (from your camper) in the mail soon and it will have all that information on it. Now before you run out to the mail box and wait for the mailman to deliver that card your desperately waiting on, let me just warn ya… the mail up here in Mentone sometimes can take a little while to get where its going. I’m not saying the mail up here is slow……but sometimes it takes those people an hour and a half just to watch “60 Minutes” if ya know what I mean, so I hope you get the idea. It may take longer than you want, but it will eventually get there.
After all the class picking was done, it was time for a delicious lunch of chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and desert! Don’t be surprised if your camper comes home with a new favorite food (like fried okra)… it’s happened before and it will again. Right after lunch was rest hour and would you believe, that’s when Mother Nature decided she just couldn’t wait any longer and decided to give everything a little shower. What a perfect time to kick back and take little break enjoying the sound of the rain hitting the tin roof.
Right after rest hour it was time for everyone to come out and see which club they were going to be in. Now for all you first time camp parents, be sure you pay attention. Once your camper picks a club, they’re in it for life! We’ll have all sorts of wild competitions for our nighttime activities and these clubs will compete like nobody’s business. They’ll be cheering, running, yelling and everything they can to help their club win the activities and get points trying to win the spirit cup and point cup at the end of the session. Heres you’re tip of the day if your camper is here for the first time. In their cabin and club pictures, which are already up on the web, if your camper is wearing a shirt that has red on it, then she is a Mountie, if it has blue, she is a Ranger, and if its green, she is a Trooper. Make sure you remember this, I’m not saying they take it that serious, but small family feuds have been started by one family member calling their camper by the wrong club!
Tonight we had “cabin fun night” where each cabin chose an activity just for them. This way they still get learn a little more about all their new cabin mates and friends. We had some wild games going on tonight. We had everything from “Hungry Hungry Hippo” (human version), spa night, water balloon wars, shaving cream wars, face painting, a camper favorite GaGa ball tournament, board games and fingernail painting, and even an activity called “Star Wars” in the gym.
I can tell ya this, those girls aren’t gonna have any problem getting to sleep tonight after all the action today, they’ve been running wide open since y’all left. Getting some good sleep is important since tomorrow will be the first day of classes and everyone will be in their classes learning all the do’s and don’ts for each activity and then it won’t be long till they’re all busy doing all the “do’s” in each activity. We’ll be out there with them getting pictures and videos for you guys that are playing along at home to see throughout the day. The video will be posted each night on our webpage (just click “MY CSR” button on the top) as well as the Roost (blog) which will have several pictures of the day, too much information from me and also have the day’s video. The video os also available on our youtube channel.
If you want to see all the pics (we’ll post hundreds each day) you can click on the picture link and then see them through our picture partner “Waldo”. With Waldo, for a small fee, you can join their program to have your campers pictures sent straight to your phone (and still be able to see all the other pictures also). You should have already been emailed a link to join the Waldo program, just follow the instructions when you text the join code to them and it will walk ya through the process. Or you can choose to just see every picture we take and search for yourself without joining their program. If you choose to just be able to see every picture and search for your camper yourself, all you have to do is go to www.waldophotos.com/galleries and enter the same join code “skyline21”. Either way you’ll be able to keep up with your camper, but so far the parents have really enjoyed letting Waldo search for them and letting them know when it finds them.
Before I forget, I did mention deadline for emails and Waldograms, so here ya go! Emails are downloaded and printed each morning around 9 AM CENTRAL time. They’re delivered to your campers after lunch with the regular mail each afternoon. Waldo has a feature where you can send a Waldogram to your camper that will be printed on card-stock and in color. You can also add 2 picture to it if you’d like. They can be pictures from camp or any one that’s on your computer (family, pets, etc…). They’re downloaded around 9 AM each morning and printed out/delivered with emails. So if you want your camper to get that special email or Waldogram be sure to send it in before 9 AM.
Another pro tip for ya on emails- since they’re only downloaded once each day, if you want to send several emails during the day, save your camper (and yourself) some money (they’re $1/email) and write out those several emails in a word or pages document and then paste them onto just one email. They’ll get it at same time and you won’t run your campers spending account down.
After all the games today and the cabin fun-ness tonight, all the campers joined around the campfire and listened to our camp Chaplain Sara Lee as she discussed our theme for this summer, “Bloom”. Each morning and evening well have devotions from different counselors talking about what it means to bloom, like a flower, in Gods word. Its a great way to start and end each day.
Well, it’s been a long day and I’m sure you guys are tired too (after all, some of y’all have already been scouring through all the pics, just looking for your camper…. or the back of their head, their elbow, ear, shoe or any other thing you can find to help you identify her!!! Trust us….. we know how ya feel!!!)
You guys have a great night and be sure to pace yourself when it comes to staying up late looking at all the pics and video. We’ve just started and we still have a long way to go this session and you don’t want to burn yourself out the first week!!!
Y’all have a great night and we’ll see ya tomorrow,
LJ
