We are so lucky to have an amazing staff at Canadensis – and I wanted to dedicate this blog post to one of them…

Rebecca is lovingly known by everyone at camp as “BeckyJ” and she loves summer camp so much that she is even studying it in college!  She has recently signed up to return to camp for her 13th year – and for the first time, she will be in the role of Group Leader!  We are so fortunate to have her at camp – she is creative, thoughtful, and makes everything more fun!  She is passionate about all things Canadensis, and has limitless spirit!  She is a two time Blue Team Color War Captain (as a CIT and counselor) and she can probably sing you every Color War Alma mater that has ever been written.

BeckyJ is always volunteering to help, or do more.  She has been up during pre-camp for two years (and she’ll be back this year too), working in the office to help with administrative tasks.  She’s willing to do anything – we’ve had her sorting t-shirts, cleaning buildings, calling new staff members and even making Harry Potter quizzes!  She sacrifices her precious college winter break to come into our office to volunteer!  She was here twice this week, and she put together promotional boxes, rolled posters for the Reunion, helped us with a mailing, and above all else, she brought extra spirit and fun to the office!

We are so thankful to have BeckyJ in our Canadensis family – and I am personally lucky to have her in my life!  She sent us a super sweet thank you fruit basket this week…it’s just more proof of how wonderful she is!

I had a super fun trip to Long Island last week, and I got to hang out with two sets of twins that will both be coming to camp for their first summer!

First, I met Alexis & Ilana who current 3rd graders, and will be Junior Girls at camp this summer.  When I rang their doorbell in Roslyn, they answered wearing the adorable airbrushed Canadensis shirts above!  I’ve gotten to meet these girls a few times…I gave them their tour of camp this summer, they came back to visit their cousin the next day for Visiting Day (Zach S was in boys bunk 8 last summer), and I saw them at the Canteen on the Fly in Long Island…but there is still so much stuff I didn’t know about these awesome girls!

Ilana is super sweet and did an excellent reading of reading the packing list reminders about not over packing for camp!  Her favorite colors are red and purple…so maybe she’ll decide to decorate her camp bed that way?  Alexis is ready for an adventure and will be the first to get in line for a big scary roller coaster!  She was wearing a Mets shirt, which shows some of her “team spirit” and she’s also very patient (she waited with no problems while we were checking out Ilana’s room first).  Her favorite colors are blue and pink.  After the girls had shown me their rooms (both of them have a chair FILLED with stuffed animals in their room…so cute!), we went to their basement and wow! They have super cool parents who have let them and their friends write on the walls!  There were names and pictures drawn everywhere…and “Canadensis” was up on the wall a bunch too!  The girls even asked me to add my name, so I wrote it in their favorite colors – it was a big honor!

They already know a lot of stuff about camp because their mom is a Canadensis Alumni.  Dad also went to sleepaway camp (the same one I grew up at!) and since cousin, Zach was at Canadensis last summer, they watched every episode of the Canadensis Today Show, and they are huge fans!  They also have excellent memories, so they remembered the names of staff members, evening activity programs, camp shows, meals…and pretty much every detail about camp there is to know!  They even remembered that my favorite snack is a can of Fresca with a Red Vine as a straw, and they sent me home with a thoughtful gift that I will be enjoying soon!They’ve got tons of excitement and spirit!  We took the photo above to show off their “pizzazz”!  They stay busy during the year with after school activities, including dance classes, gymnastics and tennis.  They also like drama, and they suggested we do “The Lion King” or “Mary Poppins” this summer – both are great suggestions!  Alexis & Ilana are good skiers, so I’m sure they’ll be water-skiing around Lake Lenape this summer! During dinner, we enjoyed some good food (including a candy popcorn cake for dessert!), and the girls told me how much they love sauce! That means I’m going to have to warn their counselors about not wearing white shirts on pasta day!  During dinner, we took a break to answer their really well planned questions about camp (see below) and they even did some “line dances” including the “Dougie” – they are totally ready for the Rak Dan Evening Activity this summer! Their birthday is only a few days away, and I wish them a ton of fun and their glow-in-the-dark roller skating party!

About 20 minutes away, I also met with twins who live in Melville, LI.  Jessica and Amanda are current 4th graders, who will be Lower Inter Girls at camp for their first summer.  Because my visit ran a bit long, the girls and I were up until almost 10PM on a school night – but they said they have no trouble staying up late…luckily, they are good at waking up in the morning too!

Jessica (or maybe she’ll go by the nickname “Jessie”) is super bubbly, and loves to talk!  She has a personality that sparkles, almost as much as the sequiny shirt she was wearing!  She was telling me about some of her favorite activities at her day camp, including the time she caught a coy fish!  Amanda is incredibly sweet, and had some awesome questions to ask about camp!  Amanda has a lot of nicknames she likes to use, including A.J. & Mandy, but she’ll let you know what she wants to be called this summer!  The girls already know a bunch about camp because they took a tour last summer, they came to Canteen on the Fly to meet all of the camp staff, and best of all…they are friends with someone who came to camp last summer!  Sarah A. was in girls bunk 4, but she will be a Lower Inter with Jessica and Amanda this summer.  Sarah’s been giving them all the inside information about things like Color War and flashlight time.

Some of their favorite activities include soccer and dance.  They also really like playing tennis, which is great because they have tennis courts right across the street from them!  We will definitely teach them some extra tennis skills at camp which will improve their game!  They are really excited for the ropes course and zip line at camp, and they are planning to work on their bike riding skills so they can hit the 12-miles of private Canadensis trails!  Amanda & Jessica actually have bunk beds at home…how cool!?  When I asked who slept on top, they said they switch every night, which proves they are great at sharing, and will be awesome bunkmates this summer.

I ended the home visit by going out to the car with their dad, and putting the “Camp Canadensis” magnet on the trunk!  It’s official now, and all of Long Island will know where Amanda & Jessica are going to camp!

So, I told you above how Ilana & Alexis had really organized questions about camp…they actually made these giant posters that you see above which are covered with questions!  I’ve never seen such an awesome display!  If you have a home visit with one of the Canadensis directors, you definitely do not have to make an amazing art project like this (unless you have a snow day with time to waste!) – but it’s so important to spend some time in the days before thinking about questions to ask!  We want to make sure campers and parents feel completely comfortable asking us anything…but if you forget anything, you can always call, email, tweet, facebook message, blog…

I just wanted to do a quick blog post with some photos from our AMAZING camp reunion this weekend!!  We had nearly 300 campers, and many more staff members, join us for some winter time camp fun!  Thank you to everyone for coming out and being so flexible about the location change.  Can’t wait for summer 2012!!

Alex, Josh M., Ben, Josh R. & Alec – They will all be back for their second year as a Lower Inter Boy in 2012

Valerie is coming to camp for her third summer, and will be an Upper Inter Girl

Jordan will be coming to camp for her 2nd year in the Junior Girls division, and she was randomly selected to be the first recipient of our new Flat Indian Head – which will travel to different campers this year, just like “Flat Stanley”.  I know she’ll do a great job with it!!

Okay, I know this might sound lame…but this blog post is all about the dog sweater I crocheted for Annie.  Annie loves camp almost as much as I do, and although the kids at camp might paint her nails or use washable hairspray to make her blue & gold for Color War, she really doesn’t dress up much (except for her Halloween costume!).  I don’t expect to use this sweater much – but it was a really good project for me to learn new skills, and now that I’m telling the whole Canadensis community about it, I’m just going to proudly admit that I made a dog sweater.  Anyway, we are in the photo above showing off our crochet creations (I made the scarf I’m wearing).

I’ve never made any clothing before, and the idea of making a shirt for me seemed overwhelming, so I made this instead.  The sweater is orange with beige details and monogram.  This was my first time learning how to make a letter in crochet, and I found this tutorial really helpful.  The collar is ribbed crochet, there is a cable running down each side of the letter, and the stitching around the arms and bottom are slipstitches.

You can see that I started with the collar at the neck, and the sweater grew and grew from there.  I had to keep trying it on her to make sure it fit, and I took a photo each time.  Whenever you are crocheting with multiple colors, you have a lot of loose ends to weave in at the end, which is my least favorite step, so I wait until the project is finished to do them all.

Annie was very cooperative with my crochet experiment, and I think she enjoyed her trip around the block to show it off…

On the last day before winter break ended, I got to spend some time with Jordyn, a current 3rd grader that will be a Junior Girl at camp for her first summer.  I met her for the first time at her house, but it was clear from the home visit that she is going to be an awesome Canadensis camper…camp is in her genes because both of her parents went to great overnight camps when they were kids.  She lives in Lafayette Hill, PA and through her day camp and extra curricular activities, she’s met a lot of kids who have been going to Canadensis, or are coming for the first year.  I’m sure they will be looking out for her, and helping to make her first summer amazing.

There is a lot to know about Jordyn, but above all, she loves to sing and dance.  She gets a bit nervous to be on stage (just like me!) but it doesn’t stop her from performing, and most recently she played the role of Jan in Grease.  She is a well rounded girl, she loves to rock climb (even when she slips), she is excited to do the lake activities, and basically try anything that her bunk does.  She can learn how to do things really quickly…for example, her family went on a ski vacation last week, and she learned how to ski in one day, and made it all the way up to level six!  She also went swimming in a pool on vacation that was half indoors and half outside…which seems crazy for a winter ski resort!

Jordyn is most excited for dance because she dances two hours a week, she loves hip hop and plans to tryout for our dance team this summer!  She also was very excited for soccer & softball because she plays on teams for those sports as well.  She is also a great artist, and I got a tour of her room to see a bunch of her projects that she has made and painted.  She is a great student, and has tons of Golden Tickets and Awards on her wall from her teachers.  She’s also really neat, and had one of the cleanest camper closets I’ve ever seen – apparently she is good at folding!  Most importantly…Jordyn was the Gaga Champion of her camp age group last year, so you better watch out if she’s in the Gaga pit with you during Free Play!!

She also loves pillows, and we counted 19 of them on her bed at home! This will help her make friends easily at camp because she’ll have the most comfortable bed in her bunk!  She has a little brother named Jared (he’s a huge Eagles fan!), and she’s excited to meet her new “camp sisters” at Canadensis!

Speaking of sisters…check out this adorable photo of sisters Dylan, a current 1st grader who will be a Lower Junior Girl and Madison, a current 4th grader who will be a Lower Inter Girl. The girls will both be coming to camp for their first summer, and they found out during winter break by opening up a present that had these two Camp Canadensis t-shirts inside!!  Madison plans to wear it every day until camp starts (mom might have to put it in the washing machine while she’s away at school!), but clearly the girls are pumped for their first summer, and we can’t wait!

I had such a good time during Winter Break, I thought I’d make a Top 6 Memories list (I couldn’t stick to 5)…

#6: Waking up to breakfast in bed

#5: Going to see a taping of the Jimmy Fallon Show in NYC

#4: Doing tons of Arts & Crafts projects (see “I Made This” Monday…I have craft projects to post for months to come!)

#3: Baking Challah with my TBF (“The Best Friend”) and her 2 year old twins

#2: Going out to Chinese food on Christmas with friends and running into Marc Summers – host of my favorite childhood TV game show “Double Dare” and more recently the host of “Unwrapped” on the Food Network.  Marc Summers thought my friends son, Sammy, was SO CUTE that he actually came over and introduced himself!

#1: Without a doubt, meeting my cousin’s newest addition to the family, and being asked to be baby Simone’s legal guardian was one of the most special moments in my life!

Believe it or not, the scene behind us is the frozen lake at Camp Canadensis!  This picture was taken last winter, but on a trip up to camp, I started to crochet.  Crocheting is one of my favorite activities of all time, but it’s especially great to do in the car on long trips.  Hats are pretty simple projects, and it only takes me about two hours to make…so a trip up to camp is the perfect length of time!

This hat is considered to be “marbled” because I held a strand of black yarn, and white yarn at the same time, and it creates this cool effect where the colors are mixed together throughout the hat.  At the end, I added a bow applique that I also crocheted, and it’s so simple!  The bow is just a rectangle that you wrap a string around in the middle, and it pulls it into shape!

Once, I even made a quick hat for our director Eric Forti!  He didn’t think I could make a hat from start to finish on a flight between Moscow & Prague, but I proved him wrong!  Granted, it’s not my best work…and it might have been left behind in a Czech Republic trash can somewhere, but at least I have a photo of him modeling it on the streets!

The cutest hat I’ve made in a while is for baby Simone!  My cousin Heather & her husband Vin, just welcomed Simone in December, and they asked  me to be her legal guardian, which is the most amazing honor ever.  They setup an incredible nursery for her which had an elephant theme.  I decided to make her an elephant hat to match her nursery, and it came out pretty cute (I guess it would look like a mouse without the trunk…)  but without a doubt, Simone is adorable, so no matter what hat she’s wearing, it’s going to look pretty cute!

If I get photos of Simone wearing the hat, I will share them here!  I also made some other animal hats over break…my friend has twins, and when I asked the kids what they wanted, they said “Giraffe” and “Nemo” – so I’ll post those photos in a future Monday blog.

I got to spend the first night of Chanukah in Cherry Hill with new camper Molly, who is a current 4th grader and will be in the Lower Inter Girls division for her first summer.  She has an awesome family, including big sister Maddie, who is currently in 7th grade, going to lots of Bat Mitzvah’s, and will be back at camp for her third summer in the Lower Senior division. Molly made an awesome “welcome” sign that greeted me at the front door, and even though I already know her from the Tour & More Weekend in 2010 & 2011, I know tons more about this awesome new camper now!

First of all, she reads the camp blogs, and she is very excited to meet some of the other new campers.  She saw that a lot of the girls coming to camp are dancers, and Molly is also a very talented dancer.  She was asked to join the Petite Ensemble for her dance group this year, which means she is practicing routines 4-5 nights a week, and she’ll get to perform in Philadelphia & NYC!  Jazz is her favorite (more than ballet or tap) and she has performed for audiences as large as 700 people, so she’ll have no trouble up on the camp stage this summer.  She had to give up some other activities in order to be in this group, but she also loves other sports like swimming and basketball.  She is really excited for other activities too, including glass fusion, art, waterskiing and intercamp games.  She is planning to be on both the dance and swim teams that travel and compete again other camps during the summer.

As you can see from the wrapping of her Chanukah present above, she is also a huge Justin Bieber fan!  And, Molly is a very good little sister…she even plans to wake up early in the morning to wish Maddie a “Happy Birthday” at camp this summer before she gets on the bus for her three day trip to Lake Placid!  Molly also promised to write long letters home to her parents, but she has a lot to live up to because Maddie is known for writing long two-sided letters daily!  Maddie told me some really funny camp stories while I was over…and most of them ended up being about falling off stuff!  She also told me some top secret things about her Bat Mitzvah in March, but my lips are sealed!  It sounds like it will be very fun!

We ended the night by checking out their Chanukah Menorah, that will be filled each night with blue and gold candles (Canadensis colors!!) and the family sent me home with a latke to-go.  Molly also wrapped up the most chocolately chip cookie she could find…doesn’t that sound like a perfect person to be camp friends with?

I got to spend the second night of Chanukah with Anna, a current 3rd grader who lives Penn Valley.  She will be coming to camp for her first summer as a Junior, and I first met her at Tour & More Weekend in 2011.  She is a super sweet & can be silly too!  On the day I came over, she had given a book report on Pippi Longstocking to her class, and she actually put pipe cleaners in her pigtail braids so they would stick straight out!  Anna is also a well rounded girl…and I’m serious, this girl likes everything!!  She plays basketball, goes to Hebrew School, takes classes at the Handworks Studio and she is about to start hip hop dance classes in the new year.

Anna had made me a picture at school that day, and it’s hanging on my office bulletin board now.  She also prepared a very organized list of camp questions, which included…

1.  How is eating in the dining hall different than eating on the back deck during Tour & More?

2.  When do you find out what bunk you are going to be in?

3.  What are Special Days?

After she asked those great questions, she made a list of the elective activities that she would enjoy doing, and she wrote down EVERYTHING!  She’s excited for the ropes course, lake activities, mountain biking, arts, sports, and she thinks she might even try golfing!  She plans to sign up for water-skiing (she snow skis regularly during the winter) and she may audition for the camp show because she likes being on stage, and was recently a villager in Beauty and the Beast.  She really likes the Phillies baseball team, and has a Phillies Phanatic doll in her room.  She already picked out bedding for the summer, and it’s M&M themed!  Pretty much the only thing Anna doesn’t like is fruits and vegetables…but luckily, she does like corn…which is the official vegetable of all Canadensis Campers!

She is a “double” big sister to Lindsay and William.  They all had made such awesome menorahs and crafts around their home, and are a very fun family.  All the kids had watched the camp videos and knew SO much about camp, including color war team names and what shows we performed – you would have thought they were at camp in 2011!! Lindsay is in 2nd grade, and thinks she will come for Tour & More again this summer.  William is only 4 years old, but I think he’ll make a great camper one day!  They had gotten their big Chanukah gift the night before I visited…and air hockey table!  I think they are going to have a lot of fun family tournaments in the future.

In a constant effort to keep this blog fresh and interesting, I’m going to start a new series called “I Made This” Monday.  I try to do arts and crafts projects often during the year, and when I get home from work most nights, I pick up my crochet hooks or glue gun.  Since it’s getting chilly and temperatures are dropping, I thought the perfect first “I Made This” Monday post should be about cozy blankets I’ve made…

I made this t-shirt quilt three years ago.  T-shirt quilts are a great way to display all the old t-shirts you love, but don’t wear.  As you can imagine, after spending 26 summers at camps, I have tons of t-shirts on my shelves, and I just couldn’t bear to part with some of my favorites.  Here are the steps:

1.  Collect t-shirts and lay them out on the floor to arrange an order – I needed 20 shirts for this quilt.

2.  Cut out a square of fabric from the front or back of the t-shirt – my squares were 12×12.  Cara (who makes a lot of awesome t-shirt quilts out of old Canadensis shirts) has a great trick for cutting even squares…she lays down a precut piece of plexiglass on the t-shirt so that it’s easy to cut around it.

3.  Sew the t-shirt squares by column first, so you have four long strips.  Next sew those four columns together, and your blanket is almost done…

4.  Finally, I sewed on a fleece blanket lining to the back, but you can also use another sheet on the back and stuff it with batting like a quilt.

This quilt really represents different stages from my life – and it is the perfect light weight blanket to keep me cozy at camp.  There is a Hewlett High School shirt from where I grew up, shirts from a meaningful trip to Israel, shirts from my college sorority AEPhi in Arizona, shirts from when I was working at the New Orleans JCC, and most importantly…shirts from Camp Canadensis!!  I used the 2003 Color War shirt from the Gold Hippies, I was a counselor captain for the team, so I have very good memories of it!

Without a doubt, my favorite craft of all time is crocheting!! I’ve been crocheting for almost 10 years, and I’ve made lots of different projects that will be posted here weekly, but this blanket was for my best friends son, Aiden.  I’ve known this best friend for so long, that I made up a new term to describe her…”TBF” for The – Best – Friend.  She is such an amazing mother, and I hope that Aiden enjoys snuggling with this blanket, that has cables, a dark blue border, and a “A” in the middle.

Crocheting is similar to knitting, but I think it is much easier and more creative.  I don’t like to follow patterns, I just make up my own through trial and error.  I love teaching crochet to anyone that wants to learn (including Maya above) but you have to be dedicated to learning!  It’s hard to get the hang of it, but once you spend a few hours learning, you’ll have a new activity for life!Above is a photo of me teaching a group of campers how to crochet…

Below is a picture of gifts I’ve wrapped for kids & friends for Chanukah.  I used this AWESOME new tool that we bought for Arts & Crafts this summer.  We’ve had the Accucut for a while, but we recently added a 4 inch alphabet set, and it’s so easy to use!  You can cut fabric, scrapbook paper, and even aluminum cans!  What you see below is scrapbook paper, which I used a glue stick to attach.

Stay tuned to see more of my crafts in the coming weeks, and if you want to see what we are planning for the Canadensis Arts and Crafts program, check out my boards on www.pinterest.com!

I had a fun trip to Westchester last week with one of our directors, Brian! We went to visit Elizabeth (also known as Lizzie to some…) who is a current 3rd grader, and will be a Junior Girl at camp for her first summer.  I got to meet her while she came up and toured camp this summer, and I’ve already gotten to see her two additional times this year…at Canteen on the Fly and now at her home visit!  It turns out that she and I have the same favorite show on HGTV – House Hunters International – and she is in the process of doing a makeover of her room, complete with purple walls!  She has a really big open space in her bedroom, it’s big enough to practice her gymnastics moves, which is one of her favorite sports.  I saw her do two perfect roundoffs, and I know she can do a lot more in the gym!  She’s a very good writer and story teller, so her parents and big brother William should expect some awesome letters home about her camp adventures!  While I was over, we looked through the camp photo album, and I told her about the “Cornman” who comes to Canadensis a few times each summer, and roasts the most delicious fresh corn – Elizabeth and I are planning to visit the cornman together at Open House on June 3rd!  Elizabeth is very sweet, and is a good friend.  She also has tons of talents (she’s even won a hula hooping contest!) and she’s planning to pick up a few more talents before camp…including learning to play Mah Jongg…my favorite game!  There will also be a seat at my Mahj table for her, and I can’t wait for her first summer at camp!

The next stop was with Zoe, a current 2nd grader who will be a Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  You will never believe this, but Zoe LOVES broccoli and doesn’t like Justin Bieber!  She is totally a fun and crazy girl, and Brian and I enjoyed getting to spend time with her.  She is a very talented artist – her artwork was spread throughout the house!  She can copy drawings of things she’s seen – like the Minions from Dispicable Me and she also has made many paper dolls with outfits.  She showed me some of the awesome presents she wrapped for the holiday season for her family (I won’t give away the secret hiding place!) and believe it or not, she also had purple walls in her room!   Zoe loves soccer, and she is a great big sister to 3 year old Marley – I know that she’s going to be a great camp friend too.