I wonder where that saying came from?

Oh! Anyway, blogness. The MAC campers had all kinds of fun in Enrichments this morning. They made SLIME, painted and did magic tricks, among other things! You’d probably like to see some pictures… Fortunately, I have some. =]

We’ll start this thing off right: with SLIME.

It’s just water, glue and Borax with a little bit of food coloring, but in terms of Fun to Effort, it’s off the scale.

In my opinion, it’s kind of sad that something that looks so cool and is so fun to play with is not edible. Cool things should be edible. Like lobsters. =]

Yup. SLIME:

Yup, it’s great. It sticks, it stretches, it bounces, it jiggles, and it washes out of clothes rather easily. You just can’t beat it. =]
Next, we had painting. Painting clay, to be exact. These campers made the clay figures in previous Enrichments, and today they colorized them. =]

I know it’s a bit of a strange angle, but the figure displayed above is definitely a dog. A pretty good dog, too, though it’s hard to tell in this shot. Just sayin’. =]

Okay, another session. The following are from the Wizard Training Enrichment. Campers learned card tricks…

And had a brief wizard duel!

That was ended pretty quickly, though. There was a magical mixup right after these pictures were taken. The first duelist (top picture) turned into an albino ocelot, and the second (bottom picture) shrank to roughly half his usual size.

Both duelists took the situation very well, and we had them changed back within the hour. Now if we could just get the first camper to stop chasing squirrels…

We hope to try again in a few days, hopefully with better results.

One day, I hope to get one of the aspiring wizards to turn my slime into a lobster. Now THAT would be magical! =]

-Derek

AARGH! Here thar’ be pirates! The counselors put on a introductory show for the campers and their families. Pirate gear and accents abound in these parts, mateys!

After introduction, we played some games and got to know each other! Jake, front and center in his favorite straw hat, took the MACsters on a zig-zagging tour between activities.

One of those activities was a relay race! Campers ran, jumped and dove through the course, cheered on by their friends, both old and new.

The hurdles were no problem for this group of campers!

Later, the campers met up for dinner at Ford and sang camp songs around the campfire…

…before heading to the cabins and getting cleaned up for some well-earned rest.

We had a great first day of camp. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough!

We played games and learned about each other.

Yeah, probably the best job-training ever!

Aargh! Is that a pirate? Nope, it’s Tim, getting into the spirit of camp!

We finished up singing camp songs around the fire. This is going to be a GREAT summer! =]

Today we welcomed our Discovery Campers! We’re so excited to have them with us for this whole week. There are so many fun activities in store for them.

MAC campers are keeping busy as usual! We hit a bit of rainy weather today but that certainly didn’t stand in our way.  Campers had a chance to climb, learn to pitch tents and hit the pool in their Great Outdoors. Never a dull moment!

Today MACsters we given a treat….two extra hours to sleep in! Around here that’s a big deal considering each day is jammed packed with activities. And although they woke up two hours later than usual, today was filled with plenty of activities.

After a late breakfast the campers took care of some duties in the cabin’s like cleaning and laundry. When the finished up with that there were plenty of board games and nailpolish (for the girls). And after lunch the campers went to their enrichment classes to do all sort of activities like tie-dying, music making, and rocket launching! That’s right, the Physics Fun class made model rockets over the last two classes. With a great success (some greater than others(a few were captured by trees on the way down)) they flew to hundreds of feet! Many oohs and ahhs!

Tonight is Camp Out night! Our brave campers will be roughing it tonight by sleeping out in the tents! But before they headed to bed the got to go to the astronomy shed to check out the stars through one of the powerful telescopes! Star gazing is particularly good here at Mercersburg since there aren’t any large cities around.

Also, a newly introduced feature (unfortunately we didn’t have the time before this session) is our Featured Campers of the Week! Around the end of each week, we pick one or two campers to highlight on the website with photos. This weeks it’s twins, Gavin and Garrick who just celebrated their birthdays earlier this week!

That’s it for today, and be sure to check out the Flickr site for the rest of todays photos!

A quick update on camp! Todays sunshine provided the perfect weather for our MACsters to head for the Great Outdoors. This time they got to spend a whole day with their activities- rock climbing, canoeing, horseback riding, wilderness skills and others. One of our camera crew was able to tag along with the geocaching group as they searched for buried treasures with handheld GPS units. The JACsters also had an event filled day with many activities including a slip n’ slide and obstacle course!

And of course an ice-cream stop was in order on the way home at the camp’s favorite Maugansville Creamery!

Both the MACsters and JACsters ended the day with a campfire, camp songs and treats! Check out the rest of the photos from today here! (Don’t forget you have to sign into the summer account!)

Today MAC and JAC campers had an action packed day! And the small bouts of rain didn’t hold anyone back from having an awesome fun time!

After a hearty breakfast the younger JAC campers headed out to “the Barn” to try out some rock climbing! Harnessed in and using all fours and grabbing with all their strength they were able to scale the mighty walls! Counselors and our certified climbing instructor were all there to make sure all the kids were having a fun and safe time. After lunch, all of the JAC campers loaded up and headed to the historical Antietam Creek to do some tubing! Smiles were abundant as they laid back and floated down the river- they even got a special treat by seeing a turtle and some big canadian geese! Later in the day they returned to Mercersburg to find that a carnival had been set up while they were gone!

Hamburgers, hotdogs, corn dogs, cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones were enjoyed by both MAC and JAC campers! There was also a giant inflatable obstacle course and a dunk tank set up! And lets not forget the traditional carnival games- ring toss, balloon pop, and ball toss!

But lets rewind a bit for the MAC campers. MAC campers started the day off with enrichments, leaning things like magic, contemporary dance, photography. The physics class was even building model rockets! After lunch they headed to they Great Outdoors to do activities like canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing and learning wilderness skills! The big highlight of the night (after the carnival) was the opening ceremonies of Hurricanes vs Tornadoes and the drafting of team members! The first competition included an intense game of capture the flag! Campers from each sided ran across the middle line to search high and low for the opponents flag! One team prevailed. Drumroll please………the HURRICANES! But no worries Tornado fans, there are MANY more HvsT competitions to come.

Until then, please check out the Flickr site for todays photos! Don’t forget you have to be signed into the Summer Camp account. If you aren’t sure how to do that, check your email inboxes! And as always, please feel free to leave comments (we can always make sure a small little message will get to your camper)!

Campers both Teen and Mac campers took to the great outdoors today, exploring a variety of activities such a rock climbing, geocaching, kayaking, wilderness skills, and many others! It might have been a little overcast here in Mercersburg but the sun managed to break through more than a few times and the temperature was great for being in the outdoors! The campers also got to take more of their enrichment classes today, working on films, dances, art, music, and more! They’ll present what they’ve been working on to their fellow campers at the end of the week!

One of the post-dinner highlights tonight was the Teen’s “Westerned” Theme Night! Teens got decked out in their finest dungarees, boots, and straw hats. Smiles were seen all around as they doe ce doed around the room. They learned a few new line dances as well as performing some old classics like the Macarena and Cupid’s Shuffle! YeeHaw!

The evening also brought heavy rains which prompted the younger Mac campers to challenge the Teen campers to a game of ENDZONE, a varied form of dodgeball. Both teams were out to defend (and prove) their pride! A fierce battle ensued between both sides with a plethora of ducks, dips and dives to avoid the flying balls! It was in fact a battle so fierce, its hard to say which team came out on top! But then again this is Adventure Camp, where it doesn’t matter!

I think its fair enough to say that the campers will sleep well tonight considering their unrelenting enthusiasm all day long! We sure hope the mother nature will have all her fun with the rain tonight and send us sunny skies tomorrow! Be sure to check out the Flickr page for more photos!

What a beautiful day it was here today in Mercersburg! Mother nature helped us out with some much needed rain last night and managed to keep it sunny and cool for us all day today! It was truly refreshing to have a break from the past few week’s heat!

Our MAC campers had a particularly busy day today as the started of with some sports in the morning and headed to Cowan’s Gap State Park in the afternoon to enjoy the beach! Later in the evening they headed to a baseball game to watch the nearby Frederick Keys! A fantastic game followed by an awe-inspiring fireworks show!

The Teen campers were busy today also, taking part in “The Amazing Race” scavenger hunt! This evening they took part in some Hurricane vs Tornado games (including a water balloon slingshot) before getting ready for their Camp Out! That’s right, these brave campers with be parked out under the stars tonight in tents. Tomorrow morning will tell us if they managed to get any sleep out there, or if they told a few to many ghost stories!

Don’t forget to check out the Flickr site to see the rest of today’s photos and make sure you are signed into the Friends and Family account!

BONUS: A video of what our campers have been doing the past week!