Good morning, folks! Humming Bird here! Last night we had an incredible night of talent, as we sat and enjoyed Valley Fest! What’s Valley Fest? It’s an AWESOME evening program, in which our campers get to show us what they’ve got! We had singing, dancing, gymnastics, magic, counselor impersonations, contortionism, even blowing up a balloon with a nose! Craziness! Check out the photos, and thank you folks at home for sharing your talented campers with us!

Now today it’s a beautiful Aloha Tuesday! Our campers and counselors alike are dressed in their finest florals– and you know who else? The AWACs!! On a trip to Goodwill, the AWACs all acquired their very own Hawaiian shirts for the weekly holiday, and they can be seen sporting the tropical fashions all over camp today! Check out the photo!

And now, here’s an update on our Teen Programs! HVA went Kayaking in Rockport Harbor– we’ve got some beautiful photos of the trip, check it out! Today, their counselors will present a leadership workshop to the campers, during which they’ll learn more about what goes into planning an outdoor adventures trip. They’ll even get to plan their very own day trip for the group! Pretty incredible– stay tuned for more on that! The group has an upcoming trip to Quebec, and they are looking forward to some rock climbing and rafting as well! We’ll bring you all the updates on that as they come!

Alive has been up to lots of artsy fun! An exclusive interview with Alive counselors revealed that the show is coming along nicely, with scripts and parts distributed, and production well underway. I got a tip that the Artists took a trip into Belfast yesterday to scout out costumes for the show. Insiders hinted at an additional ice cream trip that may or may not have occurred… Today the group will take a trip to Colby College to tour their art museum and receive an exclusive workshop in printmaking! Lucky duckies! We’ll be sure to take pictures for all you folks at home!

Tonight on Main Camp we’re looking forward to a Vowel Dance! Everyone will dress up as something that begins with a vowel– and we’ll have lots of letter-themed games to play! Stay tuned for pictures and updates on that!

Until then, I’m off to eradicate extraneous anti-vowels in my arsenal of words.

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Goooood morning!! Humming Bird here! Last night was a BIG night on camp! So many things to tell you about! Okay, let’s get started…

French Quarter, LCH, Avalon, The Burrow and Down Under played CANDY CRUSH last night! They ran all around camp looking for Willy Wonka’s candy! But beware the Oompa Loompas who’ll steal all your hard-earned candy! Check out photos of the craziness!!

Meanwhile, the oldest four cabins, Treasure Island, Forbidden Planet, Fiddler’s Green and Taj Mahal went to Blodgett House for the Teen Party! They learned all about their options here on camp in the coming years!

Finally, the rest of our cabins had cabin night! Here’s what everyone got up to…
Loons did archery!
Wombles built shelters up at the log cabin!
Chateau Fiasco had an initiation ceremony for their new campers!
Atlantis went to the lake and made s’mores!
Paquatahnee did tie dye and T-shirt designing!
Valhalla made pottery!
Halley’s Comet made glass with two of our glass pro-staffers!
Shangri-La and Camelot got “kidnapped” by their counselors, and then all watched Mama Mia with popcorn and M&M’s!
It was an amazing night! Check out the photos!

On an entirely different note, we sacrificed a pickle today at Morning Meeting! Wait… what?! Yep, you read that correctly! Meg’s famous Pickle Sacrifice has happened! That’s the fateful day of the summer when Meg picks one of her succulent cucumbers to be brined and turned into a pickle! The big reveal of the transformation occurred at Meeting this morning! Check out the photos!

And that pickle wasn’t the only the sacrificed at Meeting this morning…. Before I get to that, here’s a brief introduction to the Wheel of Misfortune: It’s tonight. It’s brutal. It’s gonna be HUGE. We’ve had a few hints at the last few Meetings. This morning, a counselor was carted off in a wheelbarrow, tied up and screaming. Several other counselors ran behind in an attempt to save her… does she survive? Will she be in the show tonight? Who lives closest to the toilet? These are all things we will find out tonight! Stay tuned for the WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE!!! Pictures to come!

I must now fly off to the Olympic Village… I’ve heard the Bird Nation is representing well!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Gooooood morning, friends and family! How are we doing today? I, Humming Bird, am doing GREAT! Want to know why? Well, I’ll tell you! It’s because today was WAFFLE DAY! Yummy yummy! Thank you, Chris and Lillian!

Let’s talk about last night, shall we? There’s a TON to say! First of all, we gathered for Evening Meeting in a different spot for meeting… but it wasn’t the candy drop, so… why did we meet by the picnic tables? BECAUSE IT WAS BABYFOOD!!! WHAAAAAT?!?! Let me explain, folks! Every session there’s a GLORIOUS night during which Peter requests the camp’s help in taste testing baby food! We make sure it’s fresh, of course! Campers and staff are blindfolded and fed the food, and we have to guess what the flavor is! Check out photos!

After we all ate our grown-up food at dinner, we gathered on the soccer field for ELECTIVES!! There were some great elective options– improv games, charades, felting, unicorn horn making, and of course the classics, like glass beads and a pool party! It was a super fun night– stay tuned for photos!

Now allow me to take this time to explain something near and dear to all of our hearts here in the Valley… Interest Groups! What’s that? I’ll explain! It’s the magical time after fourth period, when everyone gets their snack and lounges around! We have some fun activities going on, like basketball, swimming in the pool, letter writing, friendship bracelets, and more! We’ve even had some hunts for leprechauns and Big Foot! Counselors leading Groups line up at Morning Meeting to tell us what they’ll be doing that afternoon. But don’t worry, if campers forget what’s happening by the time Interest Groups time rolls around, there’s always a board listing the activities patiently waiting at the Snack Shack! It’s a fun time– and I can’t wait for Interest Groups today!

Until then, I’m off to scrounge for more waffles!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

PJ day!!!

Good morning! Humming Bird here! Let’s talk about CLASSES! It’s the SECOND first day of classes! What’s that mean?! Well, it means that we’re starting fresh in all our classes– we picked new ones yesterday by the pool, and today we begin the new round! Stay tuned for photos of the new classes!

Last night we had a WONDERFUL time with Peter Boie! Check out photos of his magic show! And enjoy pictures of the laziest lazy day of all lazy days, PJ Day!

In the meantime, let’s talk about the teen programs! Just like on Main Camp, Alive is starting their new classes, too! Here’s what we’ve got:
First period:
Advanced music
Photography
Printmaking and screen printing

Second period:
Contemporary Dance
Theater arts: scenes and monologues
Short fiction writing

Third period:
Glass blowing molds
Philosophy of art
Broadway singing

Sounds like lots of fun!! In addition they went to see the Counting Crows two nights ago, and tonight they’re off to have an “immersive theatrical experience” called Story Box at the Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris, Maine! Ooh la la! Stay tuned for photos of the fun! Last night they played imrpov theater games and did some light painting! Check out the photos!

HVA left a few days ago for their backpacking trip on Mount Cabot, of the White Mountains in New Hampshire! They’ll be back tomorrow, and we can’t wait to see the skit they’ll prepare for us to tell us all about their adventure!! Stay tuned!!

Tonight is electives, and BOY do we have a good lineup! But you’ll just have to wait and see tomorrow– stay tuned for photos and a list of activities!

For now, I’ve gotta go change out of my pajamas… I’m still stuck in yesterday, folks!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Hello, on this SUUUUUUUPER DUPER lazy day! Humming Bird here in my pajamas to tell you all about this special two-week mark of the session!! There is plenty going on here on camp today! For some of our campers, this marks the perfect halfway point smack in the middle of the session! For others, this is the last day of their time here in the Valley this summer (whether they were 6- or 2-weekers!) For still others, this is the VERY FIRST DAY OF CAMP, as the last of our 2-weekers make their way into camp!

And what about the rest of us, who are neither coming nor going? Well, we’re all just chillin’ and havin’ fun! We’ve got some SUPER LAZY activities, as we relax by the pool! We’ve got friendship bracelet string, a slip ‘n’ slide, parachute games, and of course we have swimming! We’re also keeping busy with class sign ups for the next two weeks, and a book drive! Campers get to pick out a book and a camp T-shirt! How fun!

After our pool activities (and lunch, of course!) we’ll enjoy some special cabin activities! Here’s what your campers will be up to…
Loons and Paquatahnee will be working with this evening’s performer, Peter Boie (a magician!), and they’ll show us what they’ve come up with during evening program tonight!
Wombles is doing some destruction around camp!
Chateau Fiasco is playing with the Deer Meadows catapult!
Treasure Island is creating an Apocalypse Now 2!
Atlantis is going for a hike and a swim!
Shangri-La will lounge around the cabin with some spa day activities
Forbidden Planet gets to take a stroll in town, as they explore Belfast!
French Quarter is taking a trip down tipi zip!
Fiddler’s Green will be painting nails and hanging out as a cabin
Valhalla is doing screen printing
Camelot is having an afternoon in the Camelot Spa
Taj Mahal is going to the lake
Down Under, The Burrow, LCH and Avalon all have something in common… they are receiving an extraordinary amount of campers in each cabin, so rather than doing a cabin activity, those cabins will have a mini orientation day for their new campers! They’ll take a tour, get used to the lay of the land, and meet all the important faces of the Valley!

Let’s backtrack really quickly and talk about last night! It was a BEAUTIFUL sharing night, with a whopping 22 acts! Check out the photos– it was a SUPER special night!

Okay, fast forward approximately 24 hours after Sharing Night… TONIGHT! We’ve got PETER BOIE! He’s this SUPER cool magician who’s gonna come and work his magic on the crowd! Stay tuned for pictures of his act!

In the meantime, I’m off to splash around in the pool a bit! Enjoy the pictures of our sharing night last night– and stay tuned for photos of today’s activities, coming atcha tomorrow!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Gooooooooood morning! Humming Bird here! How’s it goin’, folks? Well, it’s going REALLY well here! Let me tell you about the past day or so…

First of all, last night was BAZZINGA! Our campers had a BLAST at our different activities! Here’s what we all did:
Camelot, Shangri-La, Valhalla and Fiddler’s Green played Quidditch
Wabanaki, Atlantis, Haley’s Comet, Treasure Island and Chateau Fiasco played Capture the Flag
The Burrow, Down Under, French Quarter, Paquatahnee, LCH, Avalon, Loons and Wombles played Counselor Hunt
And Taj Mahal and Forbidden Planet had a MASSIVE water balloon fight, after making their own forts!

Oh, and did I mention that ALL THEIR COUNSELORS SWITCHED AROUND?! That’s right, you heard me! Cabins got totally NEW counselors for the evening! It was crazy!… Crazy FUN!! Check out the photos!

After Bazzinga we gathered back in the Rec Hall as a camp to get our normal counselors back, and to talk about all the wackiness that had gone down over the course of the evening program. Unbeknownst to the campers at that point, there were counselors backstage in the Booth waiting to press play on the iPod, for a SECRET SURPRISE DANCE!!

The night was just full of surprises, because after our dance, we gathered on Deer Meadows Field for…………… FIREWORKS!! What a way to celebrate the end of the first two weeks of second session!

Speaking of which, it happens to be the last day of classes today! You know what that means… tonight must be SHARING NIGHT! Where all our classes share what they’ve been working on for the last two weeks! And then tomorrow is our SUPER LAZY DAY! Everyone stays on camp in their pajamas, as we all pick classes and laze the days away(z) by the pool! Stay tuned for updates on that!

Until then, I’m off to pick out my favorite onesie!

Humming along,

Humming Bird

Ahh!!!

Good morning, friends! Humming Bird here with updates on ALL! THINGS! CAMP!!!

Yesterday was our SECOND Trip Lazy Day of the session! The older half went to the Bangor State Fair, while the younger half stayed behind for the Almost Olympics!! Our “countries” participated in the camp version of the upcoming Olympics, doing some wild events, like medal-making, obstacle course triathlon, national anthem-writing, ring tag, slip ‘n’ slide swimming, and more! The opening and closing ceremonies were a beautiful tribute to the camp countries! It was a wonderful day!

Check out photos from the older half’s trip to the Bangor State Fair! They rode the rides, they saw the sights, they ate the eats! It was a very FAIR day! Ha! Geddit? Oh well..

It’s the seventh day of classes– OH MY GOODNESS! That means that the first two weeks of classes are almost done!! On this aloha-tastic second-to-last day of classes, we’re enjoying some slightly cooler weather on camp– a welcome break from all the heat!!

After we finish up all our classes for the day, we will gather for a night of…. BAZZINGA!!! What is that, Humming Bird?!?! Well, it’s this cRaZy night where cabins switch counselors for the evening, and then do wacky activities with their new counselors!! Stay tuned for some silly photos to come tomorrow!

Enjoy these photos from the fair! And stay tuned for more updates! I’m off to go contemplate the odds of a second candy drop.

Humming along,

Humming Bird