CANDY DROP!

Good evening, folks! Humming Bird here! BOY, have we had quite the day! You heard a little bit about it from Miss Melody, but here’s the scoop on what’s happened since then…

THE NEW YORK AND BOSTON BUSES ARRIVED!! There was a slight delay with the New York Older bus, but GET THIS: THEY HAD A BUS-RIDE CANDY DROP! WHAAAAAAT?? Don’t believe me? Check out photos. The Younger bus arrived around 6:00 this evening, and campers were reunited with friends, old and new! They joined us for fried chicken dinner in the dining hall, and then on to Opening Night Skits! We had a HILARIOUS performance by Moses, Lucy and Alex, who were our comically ineffective info-mercial salespeople! Check out photos of the hilarity that ensued! Our funny MC’s led us through the different class areas at camp. We heard about every class that will be offered these first two weeks of the session, for which campers will get to sign up tomorrow! Can’t wait to see what our young friends decide to take! Sometime during the show, the New York Older bus arrived, and we took a brief intermission to welcome our weary travelers into our cabins with open arms!

Now, at 10:26PM, our campers and staff alike are tucked into their bunk beds, peacefully snoozing and getting lots of rest in preparation for our day tomorrow. We’ll get camp tours, we’ll sign up for classes, we’ll take our swim evaluations, we’ll bond as cabin groups… it’ll be beautiful! Stay tuned for more updates on our beautiful, sunny orientation day! Make sure you’ve got your water bottle and sunscreen, it’ll be a sweaty one– the lake will be a welcome relief!

Until then, I’ve got to get some beauty sleep myself!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Reunited and it feels so good!!

Hello!!!! I am so happy I can barely contain my excitement!

Camp is BUZZING as we welcome campers from all over the world. The front yard is full of friendship-bracelet makin’, name tag decoratin’, friendship creatin’, and good ole game playin’! Love the energy here, and so happy we can finally have FUN again-camp is just not the same without the campers! The buses haven’t arrived yet, but we are all anxiously awaiting the moment when everyone is here and we can officially get this party (session) started!! Woop woop!!

Once all the campers have arrived, we will all eat dinner for the first time in our own cabin groups and then head to the Rec Hall for Opening Night Skits. Opening Night Skits is a fun evening program at which counselors get to share and explain what classes they are teaching for the first two weeks (and some for the rest of the session as well.) The MC’s for the show tonight have planned a super funny skit in between all of the class announcements. What a great way to start off the session!

Tomorrow is Orientation Day, which is the day campers get to sign up for the classes they heard about the night before, take their swim evaluations, walk on a tour of camp, get checked for any little hitchhiker friends in their hair at the Health Lodge (Ouch!), and model for a photograph that will be sent home to you all. Tomorrow night is also Pine Grove! More news on ALL of this tomorrow, including how the rest of the day goes!

Until next time!!

Miss Melody

Gooooood evening, folks! Humming Bird here on this eve of arrival day! It was a lovely day at HVC with beautiful blue skies as the staff and intersession campers got excited for the arrival of second session campers! Today the intersession campers took a day trip to a water park, lucky them!

Today the intersession campers took a day trip to a water park, lucky them! Upon their return to camp, they were whisked away to their cabins, where they and their new counselors got to know each other! What were their counselors up to while they were gone? Well, we had plenty of work to do here at camp! We spent our day reading up on our new campers, preparing the cabins for another round of inhabitants, and getting to know each other’s counseling styles so that we can all work as a united team once the session gets up and going! We spent a significant amount of time thinking back to about a month ago, when we had just finished our staff training, and we were anticipating the arrival of first sessioners– we recalled our past methods of bonding our cabins, structuring our “fuzzy time,” and being the best counselors we could be! Oh, and we got our AWACs! Our 9 wonderful ‘WACs have been

Oh, and we got our AWACs! Our 9 wonderful ‘WACs have been training for the last two days, and today they were finally placed in the cabins! We’ve got Eli in LCH, Henry in Avalon, Olivia in The Burrow, Eliana in Down Under, Cordelia in French Quarter, Olive in Paquatahnee, Sam in Valhalla, Lindsay in Shangri-La and Julia in Halley’s Comet!

Now, a month later, we’re back at it again! Our intersession campers helped us make cabin decorations like bunk tags, cubby tags, chore charts and shower schedules! All of these decorations followed the cabins’ themes, which are:
LCH bugs
Avalon adventures
Loon squad
Wacky Wombles
Halley’s Comet imagineers
Shangri-La Shangri-Lights
Chateau Fiasco William Chateauner (like William Shatner!)
Valhalla vending machines
Taj triangles
Wizards of Wabanaki Place
Camelot cupcakes
The Burrow explorers
Upside Down Under
Treasure Island Hawaiians
Fiddler’s Green firefighters
Atlantis elven warriors
Paquatahnee private eyes
French Quarter forest, and…
Forbidden Planet.

The cabins are up and decorated and looking brand new for our campers’ arrival tomorrow! We are all just buzzing to hear camp all a’hum with the sound of children’s laughter and delighted squeals!! I’ll be sure to update you as the campers arrive– tonight we’re expecting a bus full of our Japanese campers, who should get in around midnight! Get some rest, campers– tomorrow’s a big day!!

I’m off to get some rest myself– a bird’s gotta sleep!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

We will miss you!

Hello!!

A very sad Miss Melody here as we have just sent off the last buses and are now slowly saying goodbye to the rest of the campers as their parents arrive. It was so funny to see all of the enthusiastic campers dancing the “Funky Chicken” as their friends drove away! One of the best HVC traditions…Thank goodness there are still a few intersessioners here, what would we do without campers!?

On a happier note, last night was FABULOUS. Bravo to all of the kitchen staff and counselor “waitrons” that made the lobster banquet so special. The food was DELICIOUS (creamy chicken parmesian, buttery lobster, cheesy and warm spanakopita, and simple yet scrumptious pasta or stuffed squash for those with dietary restrictions), the company was DIVINE, and the service was A+ (am I right or what!?) The tables looked so pretty with all of the different colors of the tablecloths, the salads, the potatoes, the buns and the butter dishes…plus the smiling faces of campers. It’s great to see the campers’ reactions when they find out their counselor was really a waiter/waitress the entire time!! Plot twist!! My favorite part of the lobster banquet is at the very end when the camp goes WILD and Meg comes out in a cow suit with MILLIONS (okay, maybe not millions…) of pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. What other camp director does that? Plus, nothing feels quite as comforting than our two good ole friends Ben and Jerry…

Pine Grove was last night as well and it was a gorgeous ceremony. There was a combination of silly, sweet, heartwarming, and active songs.

Loons had us all up and pretending to be jellyfish for the jellyfish song!

Haley’s Comet had us all feelin’ the love with Elvis Presley’s, “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”

Camelot got creative and changed the words to the “Baby Shark” song and sang about their cabin!

Shangri La sang the original “Baby Shark” song which is always a fun classic!

Forbidden Planet had us all laughing when they sang Peanut Butter and Jelly Time!

Wabanaki had us all dancing to one of the camp classics, “Princess Pat”

French Quarter sang the beautiful song, “Riptide” by Vance Joy

Tom’s Dulcimer Class also sang “Riptide”-it was so beautiful we had to sing it twice!

The Burrow sang the fun “Moose Song” about a moose who liked to drink a lot of juice!! (I’m with ya moose!!)

LCH had us all praising our love of gum with the “Bazooka Bubblegum Song”

Avalon sang the fun “Mighty Duck Song”

Wombles got creative and wrote their own song…fun!

Atlantis introduced a possible new HVC classic, “The Nature Anthem,” in which we were all dancing about our love of nature and our desire to be kind to everyone. Sweet, am I right!?

HVA shared some great memories while drinking water from their water bottles to “Cheers” the great summer they all shared.

Community sang a silly song about a cat who lived life dangerously!

More acts as well were FABULOUS. It brought a tear to my eye the sheer beauty we live with at camp…There are no photos to share from this special night as Pine Grove is a sacred evening program in which we all share in the beauty of nature and technology-free community interaction. Sitting around the campfire, singing and dancing with many people we love-what more could we need?!

On another note…we have some photos from the Outreach Outdoors class from this session! They went all over Maine doing fun things like visiting an Alpaca Farm, volunteering at another farm, and helping out the Fire Department! Good times in Maine! Wicked fun!!

More updates to follow as we get ready for next session that starts THIS WEEKEND!!! YAY! I already can’t wait for the camp to be full of smiling children again!

Ta ta for now and stay as sweet as this summer!

Miss Melody

Cheers to a splendid summer!

Hello hello!! Humming Bird here with updates about what we’ve been up to here in the Valley! After a beautiful Fair Day yesterday, we enjoyed a super fun performance by our Rock Band classes! They played an amazing set, including Twist and Shout and Party in the USA! Everyone was up and dancing, and signing white books, and bringing our summer to a lovely close. Check out photos from the whole day and evening!

This morning we awoke a half hour later than usual, for PACKING DAY! The kitchen staff served us some DELICIOUS cinnamon buns, which we devoured passionately with our cabin mates!! On this warm, sunny packing day, we’ve been running about, packing our things, taking our cubbies and mattresses out of the cabins, sweeping the cabins, finding missing socks and things under our beds, putting our cubbies and mattresses back in our cabins, labeling all our bags, moving all our stuff, and generally turning everything upside down so that we can make sure everything gets back to the appropriate locations and states and countries, to be reunited with our campers after they arrive at their destinations. (WHEW!)

In order to make this happen, everyone on camp worked REALLY SUPER DUPER HARD this morning to sort through the knick-knacks and chachkies that have accumulated over the last month, and we were all rewarded with a delicious mac ‘n cheese and buffalo chicken wings lunch! Thanks, Chris and Lillian! After lunch we all enjoyed our final cabin activities. These short activities– like compliment circles, tipi zip line, hikes, and memory jars– are a nice way to close out the session, and prepare campers for their departure tomorrow.

Tonight we will gather as a camp in the dining hall, seated around our normal tables… only, this won’t be a normal dinner– not by a long shot! This dinner will be more of a banquet… a lobster banquet! Tables will be dressed with tablecloths, mussels, appetizer salad, bread, and potatoes. And rather than our usual buffet-style lineup, campers will be served their dinner by a counselor (don’t say your counselors never do anything for ya, kids!)

What ever might our counselors be serving?? Why, LOBSTER OF COURSE! (Or spanakopita, chicken parmesan, or an allergy-appropriate alternative!) Don’t worry folks, for those of our campers and staff who are allergic to shellfish, we have a separate table that takes into account all relevant allergies! Your campers will not go hungry! After the lobster, we’ll bang on our tables until Meg comes out with…. BEN AND JERRY’S!!!! I sure hope they have Americone Dream!! I love that crunchy cream!! Stay tuned for photos of our feast!!

Once we’ve all finished dinner and scooped the last of the ice cream from the pints, we’ll gather at the bottom of Tipi Hill one last time this session. On the silent walk up the hill to the pine grove, we’ll contemplate the beautiful month we’ve just spent here at camp. Some cabins or individual campers might sing a song around the fire, and we’ll all bask in each other’s company on our final night of first session in the Valley. We’ll have our candle line, in which every camper will have the opportunity to say goodbye to every other camper. This tradition provides an amazing opportunity to get some closure after a busy month. Through the tears and sadness, there is always hope for the next summer here in this special place.

We’ll have more photos and updates tomorrow for you all, as the buses and planes take off and eventually arrive. Stay tuned for more on the lobster banquet and departure day. We’ll be up bright and early at 5:00 AM tomorrow, so stick with us to hear our progress throughout the morning!

Until then, I’m going to go make sure the lobster is all set and ready to go… and maybe I’ll check on the ice cream, too… and maybe I’ll try to steal some… we shall see!

Humming Along,

Humming Bird

The Musical Class does a Musical about a Musical Class!

Hello, hello!! Humming Bird here! What a lovely day we’ve had! Let’s begin our recap with last night….

Last night was the musical, The School of Rock!! Our campers rocked out to the hardcore show, and really brought the music to life for us in the audience! Check out photos of our talented cast, backstage ninjas, and costume designers!

This morning we all gathered for Morning Meeting, and to watch the incoming campers who participated in our annual HVC Fun Run! Those campers were bussed up to the top of Camp Road early this morning so that they could run back down to us at our Meeting in the front yard! Check out pictures of our athletes! around the horse arena for the Brumby Horse Show! Our Brumby campers have worked so hard this session, waking up early, working with the horses, and practicing their riding in order to make this show happen. Their hard work paid off this morning as they galloped and cantered their way to our hearts! Check out photos of their success! Then after we clapped our last quiet golf clap, we all went on to…

After Meeting, we all walked together and gathered around the horse arena for the Brumby Horse Show! Our Brumby campers have worked so hard this session– waking up early every single day, working with the horses, and practicing their riding in order to make this show happen. Their hard work paid off this morning as they galloped and cantered their way into our hearts! Check out photos of their success! After we clapped our last quiet golf clap for our horsies and riders, we all went on to…

FAIR DAY! And what a beautiful Fair Day it was! The weather held up so nicely, and we all enjoyed some incredible booths! Here’s what your campers were up to…

Forbidden Planet made fried dough
Taj Mahal wrote Kiss-O-Grams
The AWACs and Community dispensed pretzels
Fiddler’s Green served ice cream
Shangri-La DJ’ed
Camelot did the marriage booth
Valhalla gave out drinks and kept us hydrated
Paquatahnee worked the chocolate fountain
Gimme Shelter ran a nail salon
Atlantis did pillow jousting
LCH did the poop shoot (a dunk tank)
Loons did sumo wrestling
Avalon ran the slip and slide
Wombles did face painting
Treasure Island ran the moon bounce
Down Under facilitated our name changing booth
The Burrow recorded our guesses for the jelly bean count
Wabanaki told our fortunes
French Quarter drew caricatures
Halley’s Comet ran the horse-drawn cart

It has been a really beautiful day! Stay tuned for more photos to come! Campers are currently gathered in the Rec Hall, watching the first session highlights slide show, and video class videos! Tonight after dinner (and after the jelly bean count is announced) we’ll dance our hearts out to the Rock Band class’s performance! We’re looking forward to a super duper pack up day tomorrow– stay tuned!!

I’ve got to go look for leftover fried dough… I’ve got my wings crossed!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Good afternoon, on this sunny sunny day! Humming Bird here with updates on all things camp!

Last night we all enjoyed a beautiful Sharing Night! Our MC’s, who were lost in a swamp, led us through the performances with their Minnesotan accents! We had some incredible acts, ranging everywhere from guitar and ukulele, to acappella, to K-pop dancing! We had some appearances from boating and animal care classes, and some incredible gymnastics routines! The AWACs participated, we learned about Shakespeare, and there was a performance by Rob and Moses’s “destruction in slow motion” class! It was a really, really fun night– check out photos!

Today we woke up for the FINAL TRIP LAZY DAY!! The younger half went glow bowling, while the older half stayed back at main camp and had Aloha Day! Everyone hung out in the backyard, playing frisbee and badminton, reading, signing White Books (they’re these little booklets that each camper gets, to collect signatures and memories from the summer!) We had lemonade to hydrate, and there was music coming from the gazebo, where we also had a limbo competition! To combat the heat, we also had the slip ‘n’ slide going on tipi hill! Check out photos from the lazy afternoon!

Tonight we’ll gather in the rec hall to watch the musical, The School of Rock! What an exciting show it will be! Our campers have worked so hard over the past four weeks to prepare this show, I personally can’t wait to see what they’ve achieved! I hope we get to see them “stick it to the man!!”

Until then, I’m off to scrounge more of Lilian’s tuna salad from lunch… a bird’s gotta eat!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Good morning, greater community of human beans! Humming Bird here, and what fun I have to share with you today on this LAST DAY OF CLASSES! Let’s start where we left off…

Yesterday afternoon was the camper-counselor basketball game! The campers took home the W after a long, strenuous game! All our counselors played admirably, and the win was by a mere margin of 2– 29 to 27. Good try counselors, but campers rule!

Last night we enjoyed a really beautiful performance of the Big Friendly Giant! Our talented campers put on the show of a lifetime, and really brought all the ridiculosity to life on the stage! A big thank you to our Backstage Ninjas, and our creative costume crew, for creating such an enthralling show! And of course, a huge thank you to the counselors who oversaw the whole process: Theo and Jeffrey, our directors; Michelle and Danielle, our Ninja leaders; and Kaytee, our costume aficionada! Check out photos of the show!

After the performance was over, we had a SURPRISE DANCE! We sang and boogied and wiggled around the rec hall to our hearts’ content! (Well, some of us played basketball to our hearts’ content!) The night ended with fun and frivolity, and we all got a full night’s sleep in preparation for….

THE LAST DAY OF CLASSES!! Campers are taking their final llama walks, swimming their last laps, and putting the finishing touches on their performances for tonight’s Sharing Night!! We’ll gather after dinner in the rec hall and watch the hard work our campers have done these last two weeks!

Then tomorrow we’ll have our final trip/lazy day! The younger half will go glow bowling, and the older half will stay behind for Aloha Lazy Day!! Stay tuned for more on that, I’ll bring you pictures of the festivities tomorrow!

Until then, I have to go find the perfect floral wing accessories for the lazy day!!

Humming Along,

Humming Bird

Goooooood morning, ladies and germs and everything in between! Humming Bird here with a full, cool water bottle, and updates on all things camp! This beautiful, sunny day brings along several exciting things!

But first let me update you on last night… We all watched Back to the Future together! Yesterday was a bona fide scorcher, so our usual movie spot in the rec hall was slightly too warm for us to enjoy ourselves. Oh no! What to do?! Worry not! We are lucky to have a beautiful basketball court, a projector, and some speakers! What does that add up to? OUTDOOR MOVIE NIGHT!! Check out the picture of our whole camp gathered together to enjoy Marty McFly’s adventure with Dr. Brown!

First of all, it’s the second-to-last day of classes! Because of the heat, (which is being met with hydration, sunscreen, and hats!) many of our more active classes are being relocated to the lake or the pool! We’ve also got our sprinklers going in the backyard! Worry not, folks at home, there are plenty of opportunities for our campers to cool off from the beautiful, strong Maine sun!

As it is the second-to-last day of classes, that means that camp must be coming to a close. At this time of the session, it’s common for campers to become emotionally fragile– to become less in tune with each other’s feelings, to push each other’s buttons because it might make leaving easier, to push back against their counselors’ authority because they feel extra comfortable here at camp. These are all issues that counselors have discussed and trained extensively to handle. This morning during Meeting, Peter introduced the possibility of these challenges to the campers, and reminded them that their counselors are here to help them through any and all issues and feelings that might arise over the remaining days of camp.

And speaking of the remaining days of camp… we have a LOT to look forward to! This very afternoon we will enjoy the Camper-Counselor Basketball Game! Interest Groups will take place around the basketball court, where campers can eat their snack, watch the game, and decorate their white books! What are white books??? White books are blank books that each camper receives. The white book is a blank slate, so to speak, in which campers can commemorate the beautiful month they’ve spent here by collecting notes and contact information from their friends and cabin mates! I’m sure we’ll see many clusters of campers writing and drawing and signing each other’s white books in the coming days! Stay tuned!

Looking forward, tonight is THE PLAY! The Big Friendly Giant will make his way to HVC tonight after dinner, and we’ll all enjoy the show that our campers and counselors have worked so hard to produce and prepare for us! Stay tuned for lots of photos of our talented cast and crew! And check out a preview picture of our cast rehearsing!

I’m off to go search for some grinksludgers before the show!

Humming Along,

Humming Bird

Hi there! Olive Oyl here with a Lazy Day update for the folks at home.

Today was a fun-packed day with the younger half on camp for Gross Day slash Once Upon a Time Day (for those folks who wished to stay clean) and the older half at Glow Bowling. But before we even get to all that cool stuff, let’s talk about our awesome evening of electives last night!

We had a whole range of activities, from glass beads to capture the flag to a jam session to baking cookies. We also had some revivals of HVC favorites, like nalgene destruction, which was successful thanks to a baseball bat. On the theme of destruction, there was also fire and destruction in the pottery studio where they built pieces out of clay only to blow them up. Awesome! We also had sticky bread, thanks to our German counselor Lisa, who introduced us to the German version of s’mores. And of course, Peter did his secret tour of camp, which featured the roof of the Dining Hall and the comfiest couch on camp in the PD barn, just to name a few of the stops. After dispersing all over camp we gathered back at the Rec Hall to sing a few songs before getting a good night’s sleep.

We had a nice little sleep-in this morning and awoke to a delicious breakfast egg sandwiches with croissants, tomatoes, cheese, and avocados. Yum! Our older half then got on the buses to go Glow Bowling, which is just a more awesome, glow in the dark version of bowling with the option to go barefoot or wear socks. And while our older half was off bowling, our younger half was getting gross (or not). For our Gross Day activities, we had old favorites like condiment twister, the sllip n’ SLIME, the gross obstacle course, and shaving cream hairdos. For those who wanted to stay un-gross, we had Once Upon a Time Day activities with crown and wand making, building fairy houses, and of course reading and friendship bracelets for those who wanted a laid back morning.

After all our morning activities, older half arrived back on camp in time for lunch and we all went back to our cabins for a nice long rest period and cabin clean. We got visits from our inspectors and took time to relax on this hot day. In the afternoon we cooled off by the pool for pool activities, which featured a (not gross) slip n’ slide, parachute games, games of magic, and of course, the pool! We’re now gathered for evening meeting before our dinner of Mexican food and our movie night.

There’s lot of pictures today, some from classes yesterday, electives, and today’s trip and lazy day. Be sure to check them out!

Lots of love,

Olive