Between Sessions

This is the time at camp when we have our 4-week campers but not a mini session group, a “between session” time. The first July Mini session girls left on Thursday and the second mini session girls arrive tomorrow. That means we have about 80 fewer girls around, but wow are they enthusiastic camp kids. Since they are here the longest, they know camp really well, and have loads of time to deepen their friendships and dig deeper into different activities. It’s no surprise that we have our best climbers and paddlers with us right now. These 4-week campers also tend to be Middlers and Seniors who, as they’ve returned each summer, move up from a shorter sessions just to have more time at camp. These are the girls who more than “love” camp; they say they “couldn’t live without it!”

Dinner tonight included a fun southern traditional food— boiled peanuts! Rick was able to get 80 pounds (!) of green, unroasted peanuts, so he decided to boil them up. It’s amazing how nice and sweet they taste even with nothing added but a little salt. With the peanuts, we had BLT sandwiches, chips and fresh pineapple. Over on the sidebar, I saw some leftover fried green tomatoes from lunch earlier. Talk about southern food! Rick’s been keeping us very well fed.

Tonight’s evening program was an all-camp game of “Minute to Win It.” We divided everyone up into small teams that then competed in several different crazy relay races. We found out who could eat an oreo cookie the fastest when it’s first placed on your forehead (no hands!). We raced to sort a bag of skittles by color. We tried to juggle balloons. We stacked Swiss Rolls, and balanced gold balls. It’s all pretty funny to see the girls tackle these challenges, so even the spectators had a great time laughing as different groups struggled through the relays. It’s marvelous to have this much fun with such simple props. Camp is often just that, being with your friends and enjoying activities you wouldn’t ordinarily do at home. Really great stuff!