You know that awesome feeling you get when you wake up the morning after a really intense day, knowing it went well, knowing you worked and played your hardest, and knowing that it’s over? That’s how I feel right now, and that’s how camp generally feels on a Sunday morning.
Saturdays are kind of a big deal here. Counselors who are leading Saturdays (so, this past week, me and Arnaud and Euan) spend the whole preceding week planning hours and hours of activities along a specific theme. This time it was Fantasy Day, and it was awesome.
It began with Breakout, which is where we three counselors in charge introduced the day with a bang. The story: the human king was dying, and the elves, dwarves, giants and goblins were competing to win control of the realm. There may have been a pretend swordfight. We broke everybody into four teams according to these four fantastic species, and then the fun began. In the morning, groups switched off in games of Jousting and Goblin Gold Hunt. In Jousting, one camper steered a paddleboard on the lake while another camper, standing on the board, tried to knock the jouster from the opposing team off their board using a pool noodle. It was awesome.
In the afternoon, we tried a little something the wizarding world calls Quidditch. Mounted on brand new Nimbus 3000 CTTs, fresh off the boat from Diagon Alley (okay, fine, bright orange plastic sticks), campers tried to get the quaffle into hula hoops suspended from soccer goals while the Seekers from the two teams ran around camp looking for the Snitch (Euan wearing all yellow). The hilarity was so real. The afternoon also contained rousing games of Catapult the Castle, where teams threw wet sponges over the Wall Ball wall and tried to soak the opposing team, as well as an art project: decorating a scepter for your team’s King or Queen. After dinner, the four teams shed their team colors and all joined together in a social. There was music and dancing and soft pretzels, so all in all I’d call it a rousing success.
Saturday activities are good fun to plan, and super stressful to execute, and the kids have so much fun. The Red Team (the Giants) came up with their own cheer. The Green Elves made signs in the art shack and “tagged” camp, effectively tagging elven territory. The Blue Team won, mostly because Brady Osterman is a beast at Quidditch, but ultimately winning isn’t what matters. The whole camp got to spend the day in a fantasy world, and that’s pretty awesome.
Other Tall Timbers Happenings
– Wet Your Feet Weekers had a great time on the zip line
– Mikey Lundy stood up on the tube in Tubing
– Conor Roberton completed his first dive off the diving board
– Emma Katzker and Jamie Stern won gagaball
– Nick Galanis learned to serve in tennis
– The Chilly Chileans won the quarterfinal futsal game
– The Dominant Dutch are advancing to the semifinals in futsal
– Ryan ‘Buns’ Bernstein won jail in Tennis
– Robert Bell flipped over on his tube, stayed on and righted himself… again!
– Horseback riders learned to ride bareback for the first time
– Adam Slafsky got two bullseyes in archery