Movie Night

We enjoyed a great concert last night by Randall Goodgame, a wonderful songwriter from Nashville who gave us a very nice play night by the lake. The moon is getting more full every night and it rose over the lake as we played on the lawn. Fireflies rose around us, the girls were laughing and running, or sitting by groups singing along, or dancing in front of the stage. It was really great.

I think that camp is amazing. The whole experience just delights my soul and makes me smile and laugh. Each day surprises me, and I am in the middle of the planning of these events days before they occur. We work hard to make every moment count and all that preparation pays dividends that accrue at an astounding rate. The cumlative effect of these moments is what makes camp hard to explain to “outsiders”. It is possible to duplicate it (in a smaller way) at home.

Be intentional about your week. Plan family moments that will be surprises to the children, plan family moments that are anticipated and talked about for days in advance. Surprises might be such things as a picnic in the back yard, a “skip homework” board game night, make a fire and cook smores for dessert, or a get away weekend to a hotel with a pool. Anticipated events can be such things as Movie Night!

That is what we are doing tonight… it has been on the calendar from day one and the girls know it is going to be great. We break into three groups:

Seniors (C9-12) board busses for Greenville where Margaret and I host them to a feast at Don Pablo’s. The girls order whatever they want (lots of frosty “specialty” drinks with unbrella’s will be consumed) and we make quite the impression on the “citizens”. Add our campers and counselors up, it is 91. Ninty One beautiful girls, dressed up, and giddy with the excitement of the moment. After dinner we have about an hour to browse in the Barnes and Noble (is there a better smell in the whole world than Barnes books and magazines mixed with Starbucks?). Then we board the brand new Luxury Prevost Busses and are taken in style to the movie theater. Popcorn, candy, soda, and a new release movie! Joy of Joys!

Cabins 1-8 will enjoy their overnight in style… setting up a camp out on Apple Hill (40 mile views and a “Sound of Music” field to play on), building camp fires, cooking s’mores, and then watching a late omove on our incredible 24 foot inflatable screen.

Tentalows and Cabins will enjoy spreading out in the Pavilion and watching their own movie with candy, popcorn, and soda’s… we are even providing them custom “cozies” for the mini-shasta cans that we always use. This night is going to be a huge hit, the girls are FIRED UP!

Dinner tonight is Taco in a Bag… possibly the most exciting invention of my father. Get a bag of Frito’s, open it and fill with your choice of taco fillings, top it off with sour cream and salsa; shake and eat. YUM. It is disgustingly delicious and very easy to make and serve. Be the hit of the neighborhood and host a party sometime. It is AWESOME.

Weather is hot and humid this week… pretty much the same forecast every day and we are loving it. The Wall, Ropes Course, Gym, Fencing, Landsports… will sweat. Waterpark, Canoeing, Kayaking, Sailing, Swimming, Diving, Rowing… will cool off. Between classes we will cool off in the “Mist Machine” set up on the road. At rest hour it will rain and we will sleep. It is a nice routine and will form the foundation of memories that we soon cherish.

One quick point on the Photo’s of camp… we take a bunch of pictures every day, but it is hard to satisfy ALL of your high expectations on this front. At June Camp I wrote an update for those parents who had “concerns” about the photo’s. I hope to roll out our own photo service next summer, providing free high resolution downloads and the ability to “tag” all the photos with the names of the people in the shot… you will then be able to search by names and not be bothered by “merchants” in your camp experience.

Thanks for checking in.

Jimboy