Tomorrow the Camp Canadensis winter office will be attending a full day seminar, so I won’t be able to stick to my usual Wednesday blogging routine!  I just wanted to say a quick “hello” to all my faithful readers (if there are any…) and tell you that I’ll be back with an awesome blog post next Wednesday right before Thanksgiving!

To hold you over until then, enjoy this photo from Canteen on the Fly last weekend!  It was INCREDIBLE to see so many new and old Canadensis families, and we are looking to part two this Saturday in Bucks County, Norristown and Cherry Hill!

Here is a photo of me, Cara and Robin rocking our ADORABLE Canteen on the Fly shirts that Cara made!!  Yes, she made them using the screen printing machine from the art room at camp – super impressive!

Often times we hear from prospective families who learned about Camp Canadensis because they have family members that have already attended camp, and that got me thinking…

I was lucky enough to grow up at an overnight camp with my sister and some of my cousins, and by going to camp together, we became more than family…we became camp friends.  We knew the same color war songs, laughed at the same camp jokes, and yes…sometimes we even shared some of our contraband candy that had been sneaked in a letter from home.  Instead of my parents only getting three phone calls home, they would strategically plan our phone calls so that they were hearing from me or my sister almost every week!  (My phone calls were never that great because whenever I’d pick up the phone I immediately had to use the bathroom, but that’s a story for another time…)

For relatives that live miles apart, attending the same sleepaway camp is also a way to bring families together.  Visiting Day in July can turn into a family reunion picnic on our beautiful Lake Lenape!  Moms, Dads, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and younger siblings all in attendance.  In 2009, I had one of the best weekends of my life when I threw a family reunion at camp, after the summer had ended.  I’m lucky that my extended family is fun bunch of people, and they were all excited for the opportunity to eat camp food, make s’mores, play sports and tie-dye!

Below is a photo of me with some of my female cousins at the Family Reunion campfire…

Just in case any of them read this and don’t like the photo, I thought I’d include this next photo too because they are all beautiful women who grew up loving their overnight camp experience…

These next few photos were taken during Visiting Day at camp in 2010, and are just some of the many wonderful familes we have at Camp Canadensis.

Right around this time last year, I moved onto the  small block in Center-City Philadelphia where I live.  My home needed a lot of renovation, but before that got started – I threw a party and had my friends over to help me demolish the place.  Guests included camp celebrities like Karen Sharir, Matt Unger (Munger) and Eric Forti.   Since the kitchen was getting completely ripped out, we had some fun spray painting the walls with Canadensis spirit!

Just in case you are wondering…my kitchen looks more like this now…

On my small little block, I have the nicest neighbors!  One of my neighbors hosts a pumpkin carving contest every Halloween…and I found out about it too late last year, so I only had time to carve an apple!  This year, I decided to take it seriously -but this was my first time carving a pumpkin! Maybe I had carved a pumpkin when I was younger – but it probably happened while I was in the single digits (meaning under age 10) and I barely remember it!

On the day of the contest, I went to Johnson’s Farm in Medford, NJ (it is a seriously adorable “pick your own farm” – it might end up being a Camp Canadensis field trip location in the future!) and I picked out a pumpkin…but I still didn’t have a design idea!  After getting it home, I started to clean it up and scoop out the insides – which resulted in a delicious snack once my roasted pumpkin seeds (with sea-salt and garlic powder) were ready!  The party was only two hours away, and I still had no idea what to carve on my pumpkin, so I just started digging in, and this is what I ended up with…

I call it my “Starry Eyed Pumpkin”.  Carving a pumpkin was much harder than I thought – but it was also so much fun!  I’m already looking forward to trying it again next year.  Being at camp, we are exposed to so many new and interesting things – it’s where I first tried water-skiing, camping, glass fusion…and the list goes on and on!  Even though my first time carving a pumpkin wasn’t at camp – it reminded me a lot of the satisfaction I get when I try something new during the summer.  Maybe we can add a carving contest to our Camp Canadensis Halloween celebration in 2011?!

My neighbors all carved awesome pumpkins as well – take a look at a few of the best!

This is a skull with Jell-O Brains!

This was the winner, and my favorite!  It’s an adorable duck…

Elmo was so cute!  When he wasn’t glowing, you could see he was covered in red glitter!

Finally, we had some spookiness on the block – someone carved Frankenstein!

It’s just my humble opinion, but the Halloween Evening Activity that we did at camp this summer was the best Halloween I’ve ever had!  I don’t think anything would top it, and even though I’m excited for the celebrations this upcoming weekend, I’ll be thinking about our time at camp.  The campers all made such creative costumes – my favorite is the Junior boys who dressed up as our mascot, the Camp Canadensis Indian Head!

The whole event was planned by our fabulous Evening Activities crew of Terri and Rachel.  The night consisted of ‘trick or treating’ around the bunks, going on a costume parade and it ended with playing the game show “Let’s Make A Deal”!  It was a great night, and definitely something we’ll be doing at camp for years to come.  Here is a picture of me with Rachel.  She is dressed at the “Princess of Canadensis” and I’m dressed as a blue M&M.  Annie (my dog) is on my lap, and she was dressed up as a duck!

Top 5 Reasons Camp Canadensis Halloween is better than “real” Halloween!

#5:  Everyone gets full sized candy bars from the canteen!

#4: The Canadensis Today Show had an “orange carpet“!

#3:  It’s warm in the summer, so you don’t have to wear a jacket over your costume!

#2: Everyone is dressed up, not only the kids!

#1:  You get to be with your camp friends!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

After 7-weeks of amazing summer fun, we all have to board buses and head home for a year full of homework, tests and snow!  Of course, there are some great things to look forward to – hugging out family, eating sushi and hopefully having reunions with our camp friends!  At the camp office, we love to hear when our campers are getting together for sleepovers and birthday parties, and we try to get in on the fun as much as we can!

We plan programs that bring out families together several times during the winter, it allows you to feel the Canadensis spirit all year long!  In November we will be doing “Canteen on the Fly” for the second time.  We’ll be visiting ice cream shops in 7 areas around the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York area.  These events are a chance for all campers and staff to join us for a scoop of ice cream – and new friends and people considering camp for the future and welcome to join the fun!  The dates are coming up next month, so look at the flier below and mark your calendar now to come and see us!  We hope to see over 200 people at the Canteen on the Fly events!

In December and January…we will be having our annual reunion for campers that attended Canadensis in the 2010 season – and we  also hope to bring groups to NBA games at the Philadelphia 76-er’s and New York Knicks.

On Sunday, March 13, 2011…we will be volunteering at the Jewish Relief Agency which was a really special event last year (see my prior blog post to learn more about JRA).  We are also looking for more volunteer opportunities in the New Jersey/New York area, so please let us know about your favorite way to give back in your area, and we might organize a Canadensis group to join you next time!

In April…we have events for our first time campers to meet each other and start building friendships.

In May…we invite the incoming Counselors-In-Training (CIT’s) to spend a weekend at camp bonding and preparing for a summer filled with highlights.

In June…everyone is welcomed to join us at camp for an Open House afternoon – and we strongly encourage all new families to make the trip.

If you can’t wait for all these great upcoming events, I suggest planning your own camp reunion!  If you need help getting started, here’s what I suggest…

1. Ask your parents for permission to have camp friends over!
2. Make a “daily schedule” before your guests arrive.  If you want it to feel like a day at Canadensis, make sure you are doing a mixture of Sports, Arts & Adventure.  I’d suggest…a basketball game of knockout, a t-shirt decorating project, and although you probably don’t have as many as camp – maybe you have enough bikes for all your friends to take a ride around your neighborhood!
3. To give your meals a “campy” feel, go for grilled food like hamburgers and hotdogs, and maybe you can even set up a small salad bar with your favorite veggies we offer at camp!  Make sure s’mores are on your menu for dessert!
4. Make sure to record what happens during your “camp reunion”!  If you make your own “Today Show” or take photos like Groundhog…send them to pam@canadensis.com and I’ll make sure they go up on our website!