Congratulations to my two friends who got married this weekend!  It was a beautiful wedding and a really fun night of dancing with the newlyweds.  The bride has an extremely strong connection to the camp where she went as a child, and many of the friends at the wedding were people she connected with as a child growing up at camp.   Camp even came up during their wedding ceremony!  The Rabbi was attesting to what a great couple they make, and mentioned that they do not even argue about anything, except…where to send their future children to camp!

I have no doubt that this amazing couple will work out the debate about where to send their kids in the future, but it just goes to underscore the important of summer camp!  Mazel Tov!

(The couple cutting the wedding cake)

I’ve been privately protesting the cold temperatures for a few weeks now.  I’ve been wearing lighter jackets (or none at all), and although it means I end up freezing sometimes, at least it helps me to feel like warmer temperatures on the their way.  I listened to the weather reports this morning, and by Monday it’s supposed to be 82 degrees in Philly!  Plus, camp is less than 80 days away – and I heard reports from Eric, Matt and Neil who were up at camp yesterday, and they said the lake is already thawed out.  To me, that means we can officially say GOODBYE WINTER!

In order to celebrate the passing of winter, I just wanted to post this photo of Brian that was taken at camp in February when you could walk straight across the frozen lake.  Brian is always starting fun games (or in this case, trouble!) and I caught him in the act of throwing a snowball.  Maybe I’ll get him back next year…

This past weekend was New Camper Bowling – which is a time when we bring all of the incoming campers in grades K-4th together to get to meet and make new camp friends.  It was such an excellent day, and we had nearly 100 kids come through!  Many great photos will be posted in the coming weeks, but here are a few of my favorites…

Some of the “Bunk 2” girls

Some of the Junior Boys for 2011

Last week I got to meet an AWESOME new camper who will be coming to Canadensis for the first time this summer, and will be staring as a Lower Senior Girl. Remy is currently in 7th grade at Masterman, which is one of the best magnet schools in Philadelphia. She is super involved with activities around school, she’s been elected to student council every year, and next year she is planning to run for President of the school! Before the election heats up, she is focused on the upcoming talent show, where she’ll be performing a dance to the Lady Gaga and Beyonce song “Telephone”. She’s also a total athlete who is on the track team and can run a mile in just over six minutes, and she also plays a lot of volleyball.

In her free time (it is impressive that she has any extra time!), she is an excellent big sister to her 18-month old Theresa, and she loves to bake! As you can see above, she makes decorative cakes like you would see on TV, and she’s even made a wedding cake before! While I was over, she gave me an awesome recipe for “Oreo stuffed chocolate chip” cookies, which sounds amazing, so we will have to make them with Jojo in cooking this summer!

Remy is so excited for camp, she can’t wait to try waterskiing, beach volleyball, archery, glass fusion, and many more activities. Please help me welcome Remy to the Canadensis Family!!

There has been so much stuff going on both personally and in “Canadensis world”, so I plan to blog every day this week!

It’s been a while since I’ve had a creative outlet, but luckily, a lot of my friends have been celebrating Mitzvahs lately, and I’ve had excuses to get crafty!!!! In October I will be a bridesmaid for a close Philly friend, and at her recent bridal shower, each of the guests were assigned a month of the year, and we got to buy a gift for the couple that fit the theme of the month. Luckily, I got assigned June (which is clearly my favorite month because camp starts!), so I fought the urge to get her a crazy creek camping chair, and I got her and her hubby-to-be a nice set of beach towels. I got to decorate the outside of the box, and here’s what it looked like…

I can’t wait for June!!  Also, another Philly friend has recently welcomed the arrival of her first child, and it’s an adorable boy!  She and her husband will be excellent parents, and he has already been such a sweet and calm baby boy, with super cute expressions to match.  Since Sammy is the first born, the date of his birth is extra special, because not only is it his birthday, but it’s also the day my friends became parents!  So, I put together a framed calendar page for them…and another frame with a owl in it (because that is the theme of his nursery).  I also had a neighbor that gave birth to a boy recently, so I framed a calendar page for her too, check it out below!

I’m so excited for New Camper bowling!  We have such FABULOUS new campers coming to Canadensis this summer, and on Sunday it will be the first chance for them to meet each other.  This means that summer 2011 is coming quick!

At New Camper Bowling, we will be selling some of our Canadensis Cares “Care Wear”, which helps us raise money to send more kids to camp.  We have blankets, sweatshirts, baseball hats and much more.  Check out this super cute poster that Cara made about Care Wear, and be sure to check out the Care Wear table during New Camper Bowling!

It’s time for another round of everyone’s favorite game!  (Well, that might be an overstatement…it could just be my favorite game…)  Please submit your rhyming quotes for this “Annie the Dog” photo!

“Annie the Dog, at her desk working hard…Annie the Dog, do you have a business card?”

I’m SO excited to see all of our adorable new campers next weekend!  New Camper Bowling is on Sunday, April 3rd, and we’ll be bowling the entire day with the different age groups.  Hope to see you there!

Last week I told you about some of my favorite incoming Jersey Girl campers, and today I thought I’d introduce you to some awesome incoming campers from my home state of New York!

Jaynie is a current 4th grader at Birch Elementary in Merrick, NY, and she will be a Lower Inter Girl this summer.  She is a super fun, goofy and silly girl, who would be an awesome bunkmate this summer.  As you can see from the picture above, she was actually practicing decorating her camp bunk by decorating her bedroom door!  It’s full of pictures of Justin Bieber, she had just seen his movie and is a big fan!

Jaynie is an even bigger fan of basketball, dancing and gymnastics.   Her favorite gymnastics event is the bars, her favorite subject in school is reading, her favorite color is blue, and she loves to eat mac & cheese, which we serve about every week at camp!  She’s not a big fan of vegetables (which we need in order to get energized for all the camp activities!!) and she really likes to sleep late, so I’m going to prepare her counselors during orientation to drag her out of bed in the morning so she can enjoy all the camp fun we pack into a Camp Canadensis day!  When I was over her house, we watched the new camp DVD, and she’s excited for the first day on June 25th!  Jaynie can’t wait to make new friends, try the activities on the lake, learn how to water-ski, and go on hikes.  I told her all about the overnight program where we hike to the waterfall, pitch tents, and cook dinner and breakfast, and she’s totally pumped for it! When she’s not on overnights or swinging from the gymnastic bar, she promised to write really long letters home, and I’m sure that her younger sister and brother are going to be very excited to hear about her camp adventures!

Jamie is current 3rd grader from Port Washington, who will be a Junior Girl at camp this summer.  When asked to describe herself in three words, she said “Funny, Goofy and Loud”!  I know Jamie from the Tour and More Weekend at camp last summer, and I have to agree…she says the funniest things, and she promised that she is so super loud and will never lose her voice.  That never-ending voice will really come in handy while cheering during Color War this summer!  Her big sister Lauren is going to be a Freshman Girl, and luckily that means they are both on Lower Girls Side, so it will be a bit easier for their parents to find them in our online photo system this summer!

Jamie’s favorite color is hot pink, she loves to play tennis and basketball, and she’s a total thrill-seeker.  She has gone on all the crazy rides at the amusement parks in Disney World, so she is already sure she wants to be in one of our fast groups when we take the whole camp to Dorney Park this summer!  When she grows up, she wants to become a teacher – and she really enjoys reading.  Her favorite book is “Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer“, which I had never heard of, but might be worth checking out.  Jamie gets super hyper when she eat sugar, so watch out after you go to canteen at night with her!  She also loves to eat steak which gets served at camp a few times during the summer, and she’s looking forward to Chinese Food Night at camp, which is when we serve lo-mein noodles out of Chinese takeout containers.  She is super excited for the summer, she can’t wait for Glass Fusion and hanging out with her big sister and friends!

The entire Ambos family has major Camp Canadensis spirit!  Before I left their home, Jamie and Lauren showed me their computer desktop…the wallpaper is the Canadensis Logo!  That means that every time the girls use the computer to check the camp blogs or do homework, they start thinking about the summer fun ahead in 2011!

Abby is a current 3rd grader from Briancliff Manor, NY and she’s going to be a Junior Girl at camp this summer.  I was lucky enough to meet her when she came up to take a tour of camp this summer, so I know that she’s going to be a fun, energetic and crazy (in an awesome way) camper!  She will be easily recognizable at camp because instead of wearing Yankees, Mets or Phillies gear, she’ll actually be showing her Chicago Cubs Spirit!  She loves the Cubs, Bears and Notre Dame, which is the area of the country where her parents used to live.

She is an all-around camper, the ideal Canadensis kid, who loves a little bit of everything we do at camp.  She loves sports, and plays basketball, soccer and lacrosse as extra curricular activities during the year.  She actually even played in the basketball championship, so she knows how to stay cool under pressure, which will come in handy during Color War!  She also loves Arts & Crafts, she goes to an art studio during the year, and she is very excited for Glass Fusion at camp, and she plans to make one of the pizza plates, which was a popular camp project last year. She really enjoys gymnastics too, and the balance beam is her favorite.  She is also a great swimmer, last year at Elmwood  Day Camp, she was a Blue Stingray.  And, it doesn’t stop there…you can also find Abby on stage, she loves to sing and has been in a lot of shows.  Right now she is preparing for a part in Annie, and she’s been in a long list of shows including Hairspray, Sound of Music, Wizard of OZ, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Bye Bye Birdie and Alice in Wonderland.   Even though she is super comfortable up on stage, she hasn’t been in a lake before, but she’s pumped to try banana boating and sailing on Lake Lenape!

Annie is a current 2nd grader at Village Elementary in Woodbury, NY, and she will be a Lower Junior Girl this summer!  She is going to be joining her two big siblings at Canadensis this summer – her older sister Rachel is going to be a Super Senior, and her big brother Matt will be a Lower Senior, which means that Annie is going to have Lower Camp all to herself this summer!  She is nice, funny and athletic, and her big sister says she’s aslo “crazy, artistic and lovable”.  She won’t be the only “Annie” at camp this summer…if you are a regular reader of the my blog, you’ll know that I also have a dog named Annie who comes to camp during the summer.  I brought a picture of my pup along on the home visit, and I’m excited to introduce the two of them in June!

Annie had just gotten back from a cruise when I came over, which is why she has super cute braids in her hair in the photo above.  She loved being on the beach and winning prizes in the arcades.  When she’s not on vacation, she loves to read, her favorite books are Amazing Days of Abby Hayes and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Not only does she like to read, but she actually writes books too!  She actually writes a book almost everyday, so I’m sure that is preparing her to write some awesome letters home!  She loves to play sports too, her favorite sport is soccer because she enjoys running and scoring goals!  She likes to draw pictures, loves to dance, and sing songs.  Because she has older siblings at camp, she has already learned some of the old Color War songs that we sing, so if Annie is in your bunk, she’ll be excited to teach you how to sing along!

The final New Yorker that I want to introduce you to today is Carly!  She is a current 4th grader who goes to Hewlett Elementary, and lives in Hewlett NY.  She is going to be a Lower Inter Girl this summer, and her big sister Lindsey also started camp as a Lower Inter Girl three summers ago, so she is following in really great footsteps!  Carly was a Tour and More Camper last summer, so she’s already spent a few days up at camp trying out the activities, lake and pool.  She’s very excited to go to camp this summer and make tons of friends…Lindsey has told her how close you get with your bunkmates, and it’s like making 10 new sisters!

Lindsey is going to be a Lower Senior Girl this summer, which means she’ll be going on a bunch more trips this summer and that she’ll be living on Senior Girls side.  That means that Carly will have a great place to go visit during the summer when she has free time during rest hour and shower time, and that she can visit right before the dances to have help getting her hair ready!  It also means that hopefully she’ll be getting some souvenirs when Lindsey returns home from her trips.  Carly is going to get so much out of camp this summer, she loves playing sports – especially soccer, which is what she chose for her elective last year!  She loves to swim, and is excited to have her chance to go on the Summit (huge inflatable slide) at camp this summer.  She will miss some things about home (including her cats) but she is pumped for an amazing first summer at camp!

I’m about to head down to Atlantic City, NJ to meet the rest of our amazing year-round Camp Canadensis staff team (Eric, Brian, Matt and Cara) at the annual American Camp Association Tri-State Conference. It’s my favorite time of the year, besides actual camp! Since I’m heading to Jersey, I thought I’d introduce you to two awesome Jersey Girls who are going to be coming to camp this summer, and who I recently got to spend some time with on home visits…

Jordan is a spunky 2nd grader that I got to meet during her tour at camp this summer.  She actually came during Color War, and got to see our super spirited end-of-summer tradition in action!  Jordan lives in Norwood, NJ and will be coming to camp for the first time this summer.  She will be a lower Junior girl, and she’d like to go by the nickname “DJ JJ Rock”, so I’m sure we won’t be getting her confused with anyone else!

Jordan loves to sing and act, and she can even do a few different accents.  I really enjoy her British accent, which she had to learn in order to play Verruca Salt in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”.  She is also loves playing sports, doing arts, and she is very excited to test our our zipline at camp this summer.  I think she’ll be great on the high ropes course because I saw how good she was at climbing our small boulder when she was up at camp this summer!  Jordan has been helping her Mom make a bunch of adorable Canadensis clothing items for the summer, and in the photo above she is modeling a cute tye-dyed and studded example!  Lisa (Jordan’s mom) is very talented, and you can see some additional examples of her items here: http://handmadewithheart.phanfare.com/

Another awesome Jersey girl is Julia, who is a current 3rd grader from Tenafly, NJ.  She is going to be a Junior Girl, and she remembered so much about her tour of camp this summer!  Brian and I came over a bit early while Julia was still eating dinner, but once she finished, she had tons of energy and questions about camp, and I hope we gave her all the answers she was looking for!

She loves just about everything camp offers as an activity, including gymnastics, arts and crafts, soccer, and swimming.  Julia loves to sing and dance, so hopefully she will be on the Camp Canadensis stage this summer!  I had such a fun time with her and her little sister Casey (pictured above) and I can’t wait to have some camp fun with Julia in a few months!