Wednesday, July 15^th 2015

The campers had another day full of activities yesterday! A lot of campers hiked. In swimming class, Abby from Cabin F won the freestyle race, and the Super Singers (Margaret, Olivia, Charlotte, and Jamie) won in water polo!

Last night’s evening activity was MTV Night! Each cabin picked a genre out of a hat. For example, some genres we had were opera (Girls’ Tents), Disney songs (Boys’ Tents), oldies but goldies (Cabin F), and country (Cabin 3).

All of the skits were put together well. A few that stood out were Cabin F and Cabin 3.

Cabin F did a skit about a surprise birthday party for grandma. Margaret and Jamie played grandma and grandpa. They were hilarious. It was Grandma Margaret’s 52^nd birthday, but she was walking and acting like she was 100. She used a cane and couldn’t hear well. Her grandchildren tried to show her and grandpa how to dance. Margaret fell down. Olivia loudly asked her if she had broken her hip. The grandparents then decided that they would show the kids how to dance like they did in the old days. The song “Grease Lightning” came on. They did the dance from Grease. Then they did the hand jive. After that, grandpa decided that it was their bedtime (it was after 6:00).

Cabin 3 did a dance to a “You Belong With Me”. Teddy told the story about how he met the kids’ mother. John and Leonard played two girls who were fighting over the same guy. Leonard wore high heels, and it impressed us all how well he could walk in them. In the end, John won.

These skits were the top two of the night. For a tie-breaker they had to make a rap about the judges (Megan, Kasoff and Lynn). Cabin F beatboxed while Jamie rapped, “All we do is win, win for Lynn no matter what. Got Megan on our mind we can’t ever get her off. Every time Kasoff walk up in the gymnasium, everybody turns and says WHAT? Camp Tall Timbers. Camp Tall Timbers. Blue, white. Blue, white. Blue white.”

All of Cabin 3 rapped, “Sittin’ here with my best friend Lynn. Megan, you look better than Megan Fox. I’m too lazy to write the next verse, but I do like your socks. I really enjoy playing color war with you Kasoff, even though you’ll lose when blue and white faceoff.”

In the end, Cabin 3 won because all the campers rapped and were included. It was a fun night. I love to watch the kids get involved and be silly. I like that at camp, no one is worried about what others are going to think about them. They come out of their shell and do ridiculous things they would never do at home or in school. It’s awesome to watch.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

All day, the campers thought that the evening activity was a cabin activity night. They were all ready to have a relaxing night. Some were planning on having movie nights, while others were going to paint nails and take it easy. They all gathered around the office to find out where their location was for the night and to get their snacks (Canteen). Josh, one of our Junior Counselors was already eating the Canteen, which was candy. All of the sudden he fell over. We called Nurse Melissia to help, but it was too late.

The returning campers knew right away that it was now a Murder Mystery Night! The campers were immediately put into teams to go out and collect clues. There was a ton of stations set up around camp. Every station had clues, and a way the counselors were supposed to act. There was a dancing station set up in the rec hall. In order to get a clue, the campers had to dance. At another station, the campers had to climb to the top of one side of the rock wall to receive the first part of the clue, and climb the other side to get the other half of the clue. Two counselors were sitting out in the middle of the lake on a canoe. They were sobbing and screaming. The teams had to canoe out to them in order to interview them.

After the teams went to all of the stations, they had to write out their theory on what happened. Some teams had the motives right, but the killers wrong, and others had the motives wrong but the murderers right. A couple of teams were just completely off the wall. The winning team figured out the storyline to a T. That winning team was made up of: David, Damara, Jack G, Jacob S, Caitie, Mayson, and Brendan!

The storyline was that Kasoff was upset with Mark for making him do the Dippies dance at meals, so he attempted to poison the candy that was for Canteen. Since Mark usually puts together the Canteen, Kasoff figured that he’d help himself to some of it before it was handed out. Unfortunately, Josh got into the candy before Mark did. He died right there in front of everyone on the office porch. While the campers were avidly collecting clues, another death struck. Carl, who was extremely torn up about Josh’s death drown Jenna in the pool. Apparently he had heard Josh and Jenna arguing about flag football earlier in the day, and Carl thought that Jenna was the killer. The campers were continuing to gather information when the final death occurred. The kids found out that Mark had been run over by a mountain bike. Kasoff had come back for him after all.

The campers had so much fun with this activity. There was so much laughter and camaraderie between all ages.

Today, we are having a normal morning of activities, but we are doing clinics again in the afternoon! I’ll keep you posted on how everything goes!

Tuesday, June 30^th 2015

Hi there! Yesterday, the campers had another full day of activities! In dance class, Euan taught the kids a traditional Scottish dance. He played some Scottish music, and everyone really got into it. It was fun to be a part of. The mountain biking class had a long ride yesterday that included a big hill! The upper field activities class played some football, working specifically on passes and catches.

The Purple and Red teams played against one another in flag football. They were pretty evenly matched up. The Purple team came hot right out of the gate. They worked hard with one another. In the second half, the Red team started to come back, but they ran out of time. The Purple team won.

The ping-pong tournament also started up yesterday. We have a huge bracket posted outside of the dining hall. Almost 50 people signed up to play!

For the evening activity, there was a campfire down by the lake. They created skits by cabin. Each group was given a location where their skit had to take place. One group was given outer space, while another was given the wild west. The campers then roasted marshmallows, made s’mores, and sang songs before it was time for bed.

Dippies are a Camp Tall Timbers tradition. Kids wake up at eight and run down to the pool. They jump in and swim across one time to wake themselves up. Lately, there haven’t been many campers participating. Matt Kasoff is one of our Junior Counselors and an avid dippy participant. He made a deal with the campers that if at least 29 people showed up for dippies, he would dance every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch for the rest of the session. This morning, there were 36 campers that participated in dippies! Mr. Kasoff will be showing us his high-quality dance moves today at lunchtime.

We also had Girl Power Hour and Boys’ League this morning! The boys played games of dodgeball in the gym. The girls met on the gym mats for a cheerleading session. They learned a short cheer dance. They also were able to practice stunts. All of the girls were excited to get involved in one way or another. Mayson, Cora, and Damara all made it into full extensions as flyers! They also learned how to cradle out of the stunts. It was a fun experience.

Tonight, we are taking the campers bowling! I’ll update you tomorrow on how it all goes!