Avalon boys plotting to shave Alex’s beard!

Hello, friends! Humming Bird here, with some reflection on our wonderful day! I’m sitting here in the office tonight, thinking about this lovely day with perfect weather, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! So here I go!

The Extreme Llama Care class took a field trip today to Misty Acres Alpaca Farm, where they got to see some real-life alpacas outside of camp! Check out the pictures below!!

This afternoon we had the camper-counselor soccer game! Counselors Shannon and Casey have worked with the Soccer Team class for the last three weeks, and their hard work really payed off! We had some incredible displays of athleticism during interest groups as our campers played with and against each other and the counselors, in their mixed teams! We had some hilarious commentating, a riotous cheerleading section, some tether ball, and OF COURSE we had hot dogs!! Snack Jack landed the International Snack Station temporarily in the soccer field, and everyone enjoyed their afternoon nosh! Meg was there handing out her HOMEMADE PICKLES! Freshly finished brewing, the once-cucumbers were a succulent product of Meg’s Planet! And let me tell you… they were DELICIOUS!! So sweet! So sour! So plump and ripe! Never have I tasted a more delicious pickle, and what’s more– I got to eat it while watching our campers play soccer!! But the best part of the game was that everyone had so much fun, nobody even knows who won!! We had such a good time, AND IT DIDN’T STOP THERE!!

At Evening Meeting we had a few Wheel prizes to cash in on!! Valhalla made Katie a most appetizing cocktail which she had to consume in front of the whole camp!! No one knows exactly what went into it, but a brief interview with Katie after the curséd consumption leads me to believe there was plenty of Tabasco sauce… spicy! We also had one of our New Zealand natives, Keegan, teach Camelot the Haka! The Haka is a traditional New Zealand war cry and dance. It’s extremely intimidating, and very intense. Our fierce ladies of Camelot showed off what Keegan had taught them, and then we got a demonstration from Keegan himself, along with another New Zealand-er, Sean! They were also joined by an American, Alex. Speaking of Alex… Avalon got to shave Alex’s beard!!! Let me give you some back story. Alex’s beard has been the topic of considerable speculation this summer. Not only was it super enormous, but there were also theories going around that it covered such horrors as had never been seen before! Campers, counselors, and AWACs alike trembled in their seats as the brave boys of Avalon touched the clippers to the Unknown, and shaved away at what was covering those horrors to find–––––– (super dramatic pause)–––––– just a normal face! The legendary facial hair now lives in a plastic bag. Check out pictures below!

After the Evening Meeting festivities, we enjoyed a delicious dinner (WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!!!) and then sat quietly on the soccer field to hear our options for Electives! There was Challah bread making, pizza oven cooking, lake hiking, spontaneous parading, sand blasting, sing-along dance partying, Tipi Ziplining, and– of course– there was some MAJOR Capturing of the Flag! Everyone won, everyone lost, and– duh!– everyone cheated! It was a great night, so check out the pictures below!

Now we’re all cozied up in bed, resting up for a SUPER FUN DAY TOMORROW!! “What could we possibly be doing, Humming Bird?” I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you! Tomorrow is a Trip/Lazy Day! Our older half cabins are going ROLLER SKATING!! And our younger half cabins will stay behind here at camp for ALICE IN WONDERLAND DAY with a wonderful evening program: a special HVC performance of the Shakespeare classic, A Midsummer Night’s Dream!! I just can’t wait to tell you all about it!

But for now I’m off to sneak into our beautiful recording studio to see if I can practice my humming while the campers are all tucked in!

Do, Re, Mi,

Humming Bird

Greetings and salutations on a beautiful day at HVC! Humming Bird and Cat Nap here! The clouds have parted, the sun is out, and camp is HUMMING (hehehe) with happiness!

Last night we enjoyed some incredible cabin night activities, so check out the pictures! Adding to our enjoyment was the most beautiful rainbow– schvitzbow?– ever to grace the camp with its bright colors! And what a night to do it! Peter has just informed me and Cat Nap that a camper last night said to him, “I’ve never seen a rainbow before!” Just another stunning example of new experiences that Hidden Valley can open people up to! Check out the beautiful photo that Peter took last night of the perfect scene!

Last night we had a surprise at Meeting! Who should grace us with their presence but THE CANDY DROPS!!! THEY WERE EVERYWHERE! On the roof of the Farm House, pulling up in the van behind the gazebo, ON A HORSE!! Wow, it was quite the show! The Gazeboys (guh-ZEE-boyz… like gazebo!) have a lot to live up to if they want to compete with this performance! Stay tuned to see what they do, and check out the awesome pictures of the performance below!!

Today is the camper-counselor soccer game!! Our soccer team class has been working hard all month, practicing their kicking and aiming and stuff (birds and cats don’t play soccer, so we don’t know much about this!) for this game right here! Campers and counselors will play with and against each other, and all of our interest groups will meet on the soccer field today so the whole camp can support our teams!

Tonight we have ELECTIVES!! Campers will get to do some super fun activities like making s’mores pizza, compliment attacks, a pool party, sandblasting, and more! And of course we’ll have the classic CAPTURE THE FLAG!! Stay tuned to see who wins, who loses, and who cheats!

Cat Nap and I are off to eat the cornbread from last night’s yummy yummy dinner!

Chirp, Hum, Meow,

Humming Bird and Cat Nap

Hello, hello, it’s nice to write to you all again! Humming Bird here with Cat Nap (“Meow!” – Cat Nap) and we have some lovely things to tell you on this beautiful Aloha Tuesday!

Last night we enjoyed some incredible acts at Valley Fest! We all gathered in front of the gazebo after dinner to watch what our talented campers got up so bravely to share with us! We had some beautiful singing, some Irish Dance, whipped cream catching, gymnastics, a skit, Sumo Wrestling, someone even blew up a balloon with just her nose! And the night ended with, of course, THE BLOB!! Everyone stood up and danced together– it was a beautiful moment, especially after our Wheel of Misfortune! After the rousing dance party, Peri calmed us down with some of her beautiful camp songs! It was a really lovely night, so check out the pictures of our talented campers!

This morning we had a special surprise in Meeting! Dexter joined us! Here’s a little background for those of you who don’t know. Dexter is our pig. He lives in the llama pen with the llamas, and rarely makes an appearance around camp, although he is totally free to roam around as he pleases. Most people around here accept this strange behavior to be a result of his growing crankiness as his old age progresses. However, today, Dex joined us for our Morning Meeting! Check out the pictures our paparazzi snapped of his appearance before his agent smashed the cameras.

Cat Nap and I are off to sneak some more pics of the pig while his agent is in an important meeting with Peter and Meg!

Chirp, Hum, Meow,

Humming Bird and Cat Nap

Hi Kittens! Cat Nap here to give you an update on all things Lazy Day! Camp started the day with a late wake up and a delicious breakfast! Then, while the Older Half spent their day at Lake St. George, the Younger Half stayed on camp for GROSS DAY!!!! And yes, the name really does describe the day perfectly….Campers had many activities to choose from like “condiment twister”, participating in a gross obstacle course, or seeing if they were brave enough to see what inside the “mystery box”! Campers that were not keen on getting gross also had the option to participate in “Tranquility”, which Humming Bird and I did on occasion. Instead of covering their bodies in household condiments, campers that chose tranquility spent the day in Meg’s Planet reading, making friendship bracelets, drawing, or playing frisbee!

The Older Half on the other hand, spent the day relaxing at Lake St. George! The sun was out, the lake was cool, and campers sang and played music on their ukulele’s! Some activities at the lake included swimming in the lake (“DUH” – Humming Bird), Friendship Bracelet making, Playing Frisbee, Cards (Lots of “Magic The Gathering” players!), and much more! Campers and staff arrived back to camp at around 2pm to save some time for rest period and a SUPER CABIN CLEANUP before the cabin inspectors arrived!

Check in tomorrow for an update on tonights evening program: VALLEYFEST!!!!

AND look below for some pictures from today’s Lazy Day fun!!

Have a purr-fect evening!!! 🙂

– Cat Nap

Hi Kittens! Cat Nap here with a late night post on my personal FAVORITE evening program, THE.WHEEL.OF.MISFORTUNE!!!! This month’s theme of the wheel was “The Antarctic Blob”. BUT just to give you a just brief description of this mysterious theme…imagine a group of people drilling for oil and not caring about how this would effect the precious Antarctic environment. Now, this is where “The Blob” comes in. This is no ordinary Blob, THIS Blob becomes so angry with the Oil Drillers that he EATS THEM WHOLE!

They soon realize that drilling for oil probably isn’t the best idea so they decide to leave, but they bump into a few problems along the way…..For example, The Blob has eaten their mechanic so they can’t get their car to start, and one of their workers who has the keys to the car as well….Now this is when the camper’s help is needed!

Gruesome, our favorite monster, helps Peter choose a select number of victims for each activity! Some of the activities included: Getting a hazmat suit out of a block of ice, Bobbing for fish (sweetish fish candy! don’t worry!), Trying to find shoes that fit on two of the Oil Drillers, Covering the Oil Drillers in shaving cream to “blend into the snow” to hide from the Blob, Looking for the “lost nuts and bolts” in oil (melted chocolate!), Looking for “lost keys” in a tub of “Blob Slime” using only their feet, and last but not least, sibling teeth flossing!

Some of the lucky winners (and even some “losers” sometimes!) get to stay on stage and choose between two envelopes that may or may not have prizes from counselors inside! Some prizes included cupcakes for the campers in a winning cabin, having a counselor clean an entire cabin, letting a cabin make a smoothie of any edible food for a counselor to drink of the cabin’s choice, and even having a counselor sing a cabin a song before bedtime! But thats not all a camper could potentially get 🙂 If a camper said “THE MAGIC WORD!!!!!”, one of our lovely AWACs would pie the camper in the face! You gotta love The Wheel Of Misfortune!

Now, you must be thinking to yourselves “but what happened to the Oil Drillers?” and I am happy to tell you! The Oil Drillers make it out alright (well most of them anyway), and brought our night of craziness to a close by setting a small shack on fire!!!! A controlled fire (don’t worry 🙂 )! After we put the fire out, we thought it was time for a little dancing!!! The whole camp broke out into a DANCE BLOB (get it like “dance mob” but “dance blob”..? You’re right Humming Bird would not be proud…)!!!!

After our dance party, we all began to wind down, sleepiness slowly taking over….

Thanks for reading our late night post! Have a purr-fect evening!

– Cat Nap

Good morning, tourists! Humming Bird and Cat Nap here! We’ve got lots to go through today, so let’s get started!! We’ll begin our tour of HVC’s news at the Annual Montville Two Mile Down Hill Race! We had 40 participants from camp, all of whom ran the race in a stunning display of athleticism, and some of whom even ranked in the top three for their respective age groups! Check out the photo below of our runners!!

Continuing on with the tour, if you look to your left you’ll see something quite odd. As we stand now in last night’s Evening Meeting– WHAT’S THAT ON THE ROOF??? Could it be a Yeti?? Oh no! He’s jumped off, and now he’s running off down Camp Road! What could it all mean??

And now, what’s this?? The Alive campers and counselors are protesting right through our Meeting!! Folks, this is a first! Never before on one of my tours have my tourists ever seen such interruption! This could only mean one thing…. THE WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE IS AFOOT!! Cat Nap and I cannot reveal what we know of what is to come tonight, but we can tell you this: Our sources have warned us that indeed, there is something creeping on camp. Beware, one and all.

Of course, you’re all totally safe here on my virtual tour! So let’s now continue on!

On a more “normal” note, last night’s Evening Meeting held in store for our five-year campers a distinct honor! Those campers who have been a part of our community here for five years received their five year vests! These campers have been a constant here at Hidden Valley, and the vests are a small token of our gratitude for their consistent contribution to our community, and their loyalty to this camp that means so much to so many! So thank you, fifth-year campers!

Continuing our tour– hurry up! There’s a bathroom a little further on, you can make it!– we now come to CANDY CRUSH!! Last night our youngest campers played this game of wit, determination, and pure hunger. They helped Grandma Nut take back the candies that Willy Wonka had stolen from her, in an attempt to sell them as his own! They completed activities and searched through the grassy fields– BUT BEWARE OF WONKA’S OOMPA LOOMPAS! In the end the campers were able to defeat the evil Wonka, and returned the candy to Grandma Nut! Well done, campers! Cabin Night activities also went swimmingly, so check out photos of that below!

We will end our tour of last night’s antics with the Teen Party!! The party up at Blodgett was a huge success! There was a tour– much like this one– of the Blodgett House, where the apprentices live! After welcoming our oldest campers to the house, the Apprentices led some frog catching in the pond, Whiffle Ball, Frisbee, a cozy campfire, friendship bracelet making, and of course the classic ICE CREAM SUNDAES!

Thus concludes our tour of Hidden Valley! Thanks for joining us!

Cat Nap and I are off to interview The Blob…

Chirp, Hum, Meow,

Humming Bird and Cat Nap

Top o’ the morning to y’all!! Humming Bird here with Cat Nap, and we’ve got some exciting updates for you!!

Last night Meeting was held in a peculiar spot… we sat just a few feet away from our normal Gazebo spot, in what is known as the Baby Food spot… BECAUSE LAST NIGHT WAS BABY FOOD!! What on this beautiful green earth is Baby Food, Humming Bird?? Well, let me tell you!! Baby Food is a magical feature of one Evening Program per session, during which Peter picks out 8 willing victims contestants at a time to come on up, put on a blindfold, and allow themselves to be fed– you guessed it!– baby food! Then each contestant has to guess what flavor they had just consumed! Meanwhile, campers and counselors who are not in the hotseat make their most disgusted reactions, and sing the Jeopardy theme song while our contestants try to guess! We did two rounds of campers, one round of AWACs, and a round of counselors. So check out some killer pictures of the mayhem!!

After all the baby food madness, our campers enjoyed a beautiful night of electives! There was a rolicking game of Capture the Flag, some classic baking, glass beads, even glass blowing! And of COURSE Peter gave his Forbidden Hidden Valley Tour– for 5 who know, and 5 who don’t know! There was plaster casting, a beautiful performance, candle making, splatter painting, Rugby, and a super fun pool party!! Check out photos below of the high energy evening!

Tonight we are looking forward to a fun and exciting evening of multiple programs! Our youngest cabins, Loons, LCH, Down Under, Wombles, Paquatahnee and French Quarter, will be playing Candy Crush!! Before you even ask, allow me to explain. Well, Willy Wonka has stolen Grandma Nut’s candies and is attempting to sell them as his own, and that just won’t do! So campers go around in their cabin groups and collect the candies that have been hidden around the backyard, front yard, soccer field, and rec hall field, and they also have to complete some wacky activities that counselors have set up in order to win some of them. Meanwhile, Willy Wonka’s oompa loompas are running around trying to steal the candies back! Be sure to check out pictures tomorrow of the fun evening program!

Our oldest cabins, Taj Mahal, Forbidden Planet and Valhalla, will head up the road to Blodgett House, where our Apprentices are living for the session. The Apprentices have planned a lovely evening for our oldest campers, to show them what exciting options are available to them after their time on Main Camp! We’ll have photo updates on our teens’ evening program tomorrow!

The remaining cabins will enjoy individual cabin nights, to solidify their bonds together as cabin mates! Activities tonight will be:

Fiddlers Green will have a games night and dance party in the Foothills Dance Studio!
Camelot will have a Big Circle Night in the Old Dance Studio!
Shangri-La will be doing a spa night together!
Atlantis will be playing with the slingshot that lives in Deer Meadows Field!
Chateau Fiasco is having a super top secret cabin night! Tune in tomorrow to see pictures and find out what it is!
Avalon and Gimme Shelter will be playing a game of 40-40 in Wabanaki Field!

We’ve got lots going on here at camp tonight, so tune back in tomorrow for pictures of all our fun activities!!

Cat Nap and I are off to set up for the Wheel…….
What’s that?
🙂

Chirp, Hum, Meow,

Humming Bird and Cat Nap

Greetings on the most beautiful Pajama Day EVER!! Humming Bird here with some updates for you on this laziest of lazy days! You heard a little earlier from Peter about some of the craziness going on today, so I’m just here with some more pictures of our wonderful campers!!

Right now we’re all watching a movie. What movie? Well, after a day of suspense, I can now reveal that we are watching none other than the classic, The Princess Bride!!

Tomorrow we’re looking forward to starting our second first day of classes, now that we’re all signed up and ready to go!! Look out for pictures to come in the next few days!! For now enjoy these pictures of our cabin day activities!!

I’m gonna go sneak into the Rec Hall to watch the end of the movie… “Wuv! Twue wuv!” I love it!!

Humming along,

Humming Bird