Gross Day crew!

Good afternoon, Olive Oyl here with some news for you on this lovely Lazy Day.

We had an awesome night last night with electives. We might have even broken our record with the number of activities offered! There was capture the flag (of course), tipi zip splatter painting, glass beads, survival lanyards, tie dye tiles in glass fusing, nature art, a post-it party, an escape room in the Yurt run by our Community campers, a kitten & bunny obstacle course, soap making, linoprinting, embroidery and patch making, a flash mob (which we got to see performed at the end of the evening in the Rec Hall), a llama trek, a dance party, mandala drawing and tea party, pom-pom making, improv games, and of course, Peter’s forbidden tour. Phew! What a night. After all the evening’s festivities, we gathered together in the Rec Hall and recounted tales of capture the flag, got to witness a flash mob, and sang a few camp songs before bed.

We woke up this morning to delicious egg sandwiches on croissants, while the older half headed off to Glow Bowling and the younger half stuck around for Gross Day. And what a day it was! There was shaving cream hairdos, a gross obstacle course, condiment twister, a gross slip n’ slide that turned not gross, duck duck splash with colored water, mentos science, and a slimy water balloon toss. After all that madness, we judged each other’s grossness, hosed off, and filled our bellies with yummy lunch. Both halves enjoyed a nice long rest period and cabin clean this afternoon before pool activities for the younger half and backyard hangout time for the older half.

We’re about to head into dinner (Mexican night, yes!!!) and then enjoy an evening of interactive music and storytelling with Antonio Roca. We can’t wait to tell you all about it tomorrow.

For now, check out all the awesome photos and stay tuned for more news tomorrow!

Sincerely,
Olive

Kitty time!

Good morning, one and all! Olive Oyl here keeping nice and warm and dry on this Thursday morning. As I like to say, a little schvitz never hurt anyone and humans are waterproof anyway.

We had an exciting afternoon yesterday with the soccer game at interest groups, featuring hot dogs and Blue Sky cola. It was a fierce match, with a tie at one point that led us into overtime. We had awesome goals by Anthony and Yuval, and ultimately the blue team came out on top. Although at HVC, we’re all winners and everyone played an awesome game. There’s more sports excitement to come with the basketball game in a few days time.

At evening meeting there were even more shenanigans with Wheel Prizes! Kev got the pleasure of getting his chest waxed alongside Jacob who walked away with silky smooth legs after a lovely wax. Leah became a human sundae…yum!! Be sure to check out all the photos in all their glory.

And last night we had an amazing night with most of camp doing Cabin Night.

Loons made Tie-Dye t-shirts

Wombles decorated t-shirt with sharpies

Avalon got to ride on Tipi Zip and did an egg drop

LCH played sardines in the Red Barn and got to ride on the Green Pig

Bermuda Triangle had an Olympics night on the soccer field

Chateau Fiasco made glass beads

The Burrow did sandblasting

Down Under had a scavenger hunt to tie-dye t-shirts

Paquatahnee watched a movie and munched on popcorn in the Foothills

French Quarter went up to Tipis, made brownies, and designed t-shrits

Gimme Shelter did glass fusing

Wabanaki got to make delicious pizza in the pizza oven

Fiddler’s Green had a spa night in the sauna at the pool

Valhalla did some yoga in the Old Dance Studio and had a photo shoot with Eden

and last but not least…

Haley’s Comet made cookies for the horses and themselves

What an incredible evening full of tons of fun!

Our older cabins, Shangri-La, Camelot, Taj Mahal, Deer Meadows, and Forbidden planet all had a teen party up at Blodgett House with Community. The Community campers showed the other teens around their space, everyone had a little bit of ice cream, hung out and listened to music.

This morning we woke up to the lovely sound of schvitz falling on our cabin roofs, which was nothing that a little hot chocolate at breakfast couldn’t fix. With warm bellies we headed over to the Rec Hall for meeting and are now going about our classes for the day (with our schvitz gear on). Tonight will be electives, with all our fabulous activities most likely taking place indoors. They’ll be art, music, dance, and general silliness. More details on all the festivities tomorrow!

In the meantime, enjoy all the photos and stay tuned!

Lots of love,
Olive

Having fun at the S Dance

Greetings, friends and fellows!

Luna Bug buzzing in for the morning report.

It’s Jake Day today! Whether you know who Jake is or not, today is the day that we stand with our cabin bright and early (rumor has it Loons got up at 7am!) to sing our cabin cheer and say our names while being recorded. Different things around camp will also be recorded, like parts of morning and evening meeting. In the middle of winter each camper will be sent a video created by the video staff so that we can relive awesome camp moments even in the middle of the school year!

Last night there were two really cool things that happened. First, we heard the last 3 acts from Valleyfest, which were done at evening meeting a day later because of timing issues.

After that, we had a spectacular S dance!  Every song played by our sensational spinner of the disks named Sand started with the letter s! Apart from (s)dancing campers also made soap, slime, did slam poetry, sudoku, space painting, ispy, and shadow puppets. There were some pretty sweet costumes as well like sign post t-shirts, sharknado, sleepy people in pajamas, sun butter, and sweet and sour sauce.

After belting out our greatest cabin cheers this morning, we headed to the dining hall  to be greeted by the sweet scent of blueberry sauce and pancakes. Pancake day just brings a smile to my face every time! The pancakes were a perfect way to send us into this exciting day. Although every day is exciting at HVC, today is particularly cool because we have the camper/counselor soccer game today during interest groups. At 5th period during Interest Groups, instead of getting our usual snack at the Snack Shack, we will instead head over to the soccer field to get hot dogs! Woo! Even if you don’t love soccer, it’s super fun that we get to mix it up with the dogs!

Tonight is cabin night for most of the cabins, and Community night for the older cabins. During Community Night, the oldest cabins walk down the road to Blodgett where our teen program Community hosts those cabins at their house for a little party, usually with ice cream or s’mores. It’s pretty awesome that Community does this for main camp, especially because they have such busy schedules! Yesterday they went to the Peace Ridge Animal Sanctuary to learn about how the farm worked, and today they’ll be working in the garden and around the house while they get ready for tonight.

Check out the photos from the S Dance, Community’s trip, and photos from our day to day classes!

Ciao for now!

Luna

They said the magic word!

Rise and shine!! Olive Oyl here with lots of news for you post-lazy day and heading into another full day of classes!

First things first, the Wheel of Misfortune happened and it was awesome. With our Stranger Things theme, we went looking for Barb and completed a series of challenges, like Eat the Waffle, Put the Baby Doll Back Together, Spell Your Name with Chewed Bubblegum, Fishing for Ping Pong Balls with our Feet, and many more, you know, normal camp games. We had to stay safe from the Demigorgans, who were dressed in all black and live in the Upside Down. We also had a giant ouija board, which helped us find our other missing friends, Gus who went absent from the bike gang. And of course, there was Officer Office who went missing from her office.

And of course, there were all the fabulous prizes that losing campers received upon completing challenges (don’t worry, everyone got a prize). Lucy is dying her hair, Danica is baking cookies, Leah is becoming a human sundae, Sam is giving a tractor ride to breakfast, Aya is kissing a llama at camp meeting, Samara is killing all the spiders in a cabin, Ace will sing Moana at goodnights, and Jordan will eat a sandwich made out of a cabin’s choosing. Amazing! We can’t wait to redeem all these prizes at rest period and meeting over the next few days.

We’re back into the swing of things on this beautiful sunny day with classes and the “S” dance this evening. So many ideas for costumes– snakes, space, sneakers, sunshine, the starry sky, squids, sushi, the list goes on and on…plus there will be tons of fun activities all revolving around the fabulous letter S. We can’t wait!

Tomorrow is Jake Day, where we’ll take cabin photos and do our cheers before breakfast, all of which will be featured on our camp DVD come wintertime.

Quick HVA update! They climbed Mt. Katahdin successfully and came back to camp for a brief rest, airing out of tents, and Lillian’s yummy food. Now they’re back off and will have photos for us to share shortly!

Well, that’s all for now my friends. Be sure to check out all the awesome Wheel, Brumby, HVA, and more Valleyfest pics below!

Catch ya later,

Olive

Nothing but talent at this camp!

Extra! Extra! Here’s a late night news report to cap off a fantastically jam-packed lazy day, brought to you by me, Luna Bug:

Any good day starts with a good breakfast, and today was no exception! We had delicious pumpkin bread and banana bread before we hopped on the buses to take almost the whole camp in to Belfast to see a movie! The movie was a surprise until the moments leading up to the start….it was….Despicable Me 3! Plenty of campers and counselors donned minion gear accidentally but it worked perfectly. The debate on the buses back was which film in the series was the best- 1, 2, 3 or the minion movie. Jury’s still out.

While all that was going on there were two totally different mornings happening both on camp and away from camp! Haley’s Comet took a sweet trip to Seahorse Stables which is about a 20 minute drive from camp. Photos will be up tomorrow about the Haley’s Comet trip so stay tuned!

Camelot stayed back for Run the Camp Day which was apparently awesome. They did all the taboo camper things normally reserved for Program Directors and counselors! For instance they had tea from the counselor tea and coffee area, used the radios all morning, had buggy rides, and even jumped in the pool…with their street clothes on?! The photos below are must see- especially the ones where the kids are lifeguarding for the adults!

By lunchtime the whole camp was back together, and afterwards everyone had rest period, cabin clean, and then pool activities. As always, pool activities proved to be a joyously lazy afternoon.

Dinner was pizza, salad, and watermelon. Mmm my mouth is watering just thinkign about the pizza- blue cheese and bacon, tortellini and pesto, and just plain ol’ pepperoni were some of our options! And you know what? Perhaps contrary to popular opinion I enjoyed the watermelon just as much as I would have cake! Something about sweet, cool watermelon after a hard day of doing nothing is quite satisfying.

After dinner camp gathered in the backyard for Valleyfest, which is the camper talent show! We had over 30 acts perform ranging from singing to dancing to magic, and everything in between! There were group acts and solo acts, acapella renditions and 3 piece bands, and there was real magic and fake magic, however you wish to interpret that.

Whew! What a day!

Oh, And don’t worry, guys- Olive Oyl and I haven’t forgotten about last night’s Wheel of Misfoftune. We simply were so overcome by the freaky demigorgons that we aren’t ready to talk about it until tomorrow!

So make sure you look at all the photos from today, and check back in tomorrow for photos from the Wheel.

Over and out on this late night special,

Luna

Granny and Willy Wonka at Candy Crush!

What a beautiful day we’re having today! Luna Bug here buzzing in for the early report on this clear and blue morning.

Yesterday we had a delightful night doing a bunch of different things all around camp. The Burrow, Down Under, French Quarter, Paquatahnee, Loons, Wombles, Avalon, and LCH all took part in Candy Crush while the older half did individual Cabin Nights. For Candy Crush each cabin was tasked with collecting candy, or brightly colored plastic balls, hidden around camp. However, Oompa Loompas were out and about ready to take some of the candy and Challengers were there to give out candy to worthy cabins! If a cabin was tagged by an Oompa Loompa or a Challenger then the cabin had to complete a special task like saying the alphabet backwards or naming 5 countries starting with the letter L. If the cabin was successful than they would either get to keep or get more candy!

Here’s what everyone got up to for cabin night:

Bermuda Triangle and Chateau Fiasco played a big inter-cabin game of Manhunt.

 Forbidden Planet played Capture the Flag

Deer Meadows made dinner in their house…I hear steaks were involved

Fiddler’s Green made mosaic projects

Gimme Shelter did Tipi Zip line and painted a mural while riding down it

Wabanaki had a game night

Camelot and Shangri-La watched Bend It Like Beckham in a joint movie night

Valhalla made slime and then hung out in the sauna

Taj Mahal made smoothies

Haley’s Comet had a musical singalong

Check out the photos below from most of the cabin nights.

After a whirlwind of a night we all headed back to our cabins. We needed to rest up because today is….BAGEL SUNDAY! Aah yes folks, today is the day of fluffy goodness and creamy cheesiness. Whether you prefer the lox spread or the garlic spread, sesame or poppy seed, tomato or onion, Bagel Sunday is a glorious day that brings smiles to our faces. Armed with carby goodness, HVC is off to our 3rd day of classes.

This just in! We have an update on our teen program Community and what they’ve been up to. The crew, led by Celie, Billy, Mel D., and Courtney F., just got back from Acadia where they completed around 6 hours of trail maintenance work on top of simply getting to camp out in the park. There are photos below, and overall, it seemed like a really cool and interesting opportunity.

So, here we are, heading into this normal calm day….but, this day will only stay this way for a few more hours. Why’s that? Well, tonight is the WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE *cue evil laughter and thunder schvitz* !!!!   We’ll all gather in the rec hall for a night of gross games and creepy stories. The theme for the wheel is Stranger Things, and Olive and I are excited beyond belief for it!

Check back in tomorrow for photos from tonight!

Forever buzzing,

Luna

Talia got the big spoon!

Top o’ the morning, friends! Olive Oyl here with some news for you on this sugary sweet morning…Yes, that’s right, folks. Today is the day. The day of donuts and cheetos and fluff and chocolate sauce. JUNK FOOD DAY!! We all walked into breakfast shocked and amazed by the array of pop tarts, donuts, sugary cereals (and fruit and granola and toast and all of our usual standards, of course). What a way to start the day!!

And before all of this morning’s madness, we had a wild night at evening meeting with baby food tasting and little preview of the Wheel of Misfortune. Campers, AWACs, and counselors alike all volunteered to sample flavors such as prunes, chicken and rice dinner, and vegetable beef pilaf. Mmm! And of course, the lucky chosen few got not just a spoonful but a whole bucket. We can’t for more wacky games like this at the Wheel coming up tomorrow. Stay tuned…

After all that silliness, we went in for an nice lasagna dinner and ended the night with the always fantastic electives. There were so many options! In the art world, we made glass beads, glass pendants, paper sculpting, leather pouch making, pinhole cameras, friendship bracelets, sharpie shirt tie-dye, and shrinky dinks. In our world of outdoors, we played capture the flag, PK crew, soccer, Tipi Zip, some nightime orbiting at the planet, ultimate frisbee, tennis, and backcountry cooking. There was also pop culture chat n’ chill, cookie baking, llama grooming, sardines, Irish football, and a creek walk. Wow! What an evening. Be sure to take a peek at all the awesome photos.

Tonight’s evening program will be Candy Crush for the younger half– a game involving collecting “candy” balls across camp to save them for Willy Wonka. Our older half will be doing cabin night, with a variety of activities happening all over camp in our cabin groups. More details on that to come tomorrow!

Lots of love,

Olive

Marin looking lovingly Victoria

Good morning!

Luna Bug here, ready to seize another beautiful day at HVC.

After the Laziest Lazy Day, today we’re back in the rhythm of a regular class day at camp. Excitingly, everyone at camp, both our new two-weekers and campers who have been here since the start of the session, are all starting our new round of classes today. Whether it’s soap making, promos, or skateboarding it’s all getting going today!

Last night we ended the lazy day with a movie night. The older half watched Hidden Figures and the younger half watched Akeelah and the Bee. Everybody loved the films, and it was especially exciting because this movie night marked the beginning of HVC’s new Movies That Matter campaign. Camp bought a bunch of movies to keep in our DVD library that showcase female leads, people of color, and other stories that highlight minority experiences and stories. It was a great night!

Heading into the second half of camp we have some exciting news about Brumby, our horse program. The 10 campers in the Brumby program got their horse assignments! Each camper will be responsible for taking care of these horses for the rest of the session. Here’s the assignments:

Max – Gypsy

Tara – Zeb

Jasmine – Zion

Marin – Victoria

Ashlynn – Highly

Arielle – Doc

Izzy – Beauty

Rebecca – Star

Luxe – Mabel

Lola – Henri

Woohoo! We love PJ Day!

Good afternoon, lovely people! Olive Oyl reporting for duty with your mid-day news.

We had an amazing morning at pool activities– it was the perfect weather, with lots of sun, a nice breeze, and perfect swimming temperature. We had fun on the slip n’ slide, making friendship bracelets, jammin’ on our ukes, and playing magic. We welcomed new campers and got them adjusted, signed up for our next set of classes, and new folks did swim evals and head checks with the nurses. We then enjoyed a delicious lunch before heading off to our cabins for rest period.

After recharging a little bit, we all participated in cabin day activities. Here’s what we did:

Loons made robot costumes and s’mores

Wombles decorated t-shirts

Avalon played manhunt

LCH went on a tour and a creek walk

Bermuda Triangle did linoprinting & flag and lawn games

Chateau Fiasco did a nail polish party and screenprinting

Deer Meadows did a paint and water balloon battle

Forbidden Planet went on an adventure on Tipi Hill

The Burrow did tie-dye

Down Under made skirts in the Upper Carriage House

French Quarter made a rainbow cake

Paquatahnee did the Tipi Zip line

Gimme Shelter tie-dyed t-shrits

Wabanaki did arts and crafts

Fiddler’s Green continued to work on a cabin mosaic and played backyard games

Valhalla had fun in the pottery studio

Camelot made cabin t-shirts and had a candy drop and dance party

Shangri-La made banana boats over the fire and played volleyball

Taj made printed patches in the Buckhorn

Haley’s Comet did a pony spa day

Woah that’s a lot! So many cool and different things all over camp. At the moment, we’re all gathering in the Rec Hall to watch what all the video classes have been working on these past two weeks. We’ll also get the chance to watch the highlights video from the first half of our session that our video staff has been working so hard on. Can’t wait!

After the video we’ll gather for evening meeting and a (surely) delicious Mexican feast for dinner. This evening we’ll be watching a movie (two choices for older half and younger half) for a nice, relaxing night.

Well, that’s all I got. Looking forward to starting new classes tomorrow and filling you in on all the excitement!

Au revoir,

Olive

Happy Valhalla girls

Hello Everyone,

 A brief message from us (Meg and Peter) before we turn you over to our regular correspondents…

 This evening’s Sharing Night marked the conclusion of the first half of the July session at camp and proved to be a splendid occasion.  Dance performances, improv, guitar, singing and ukulele and brief presentations from classes as varied as American Sign Language, Outdoor Survival 101 and How to Be a Pop Star… All of these performances showed our campers at their most brave, creative and expressive.

 Prior to the show, we spoke with the group about another accomplishment of this camp community…  The success in bringing together a group of 350+ staff and campers who have worked hard in activities, supported one another in cabin life and taken joy in the many common experiences we all share day to day. We have a lot to be proud of!

 Now we turn to the next days ahead as we welcome a few more campers and choose classes for the next two weeks. These activities include the usual HVC offerings as well as some new options such as Advanced Ropes (wherein children will learn to belay one another), Stomp!, Still Life Painting 2017, and Zombie 101 (who knows!?)

 All of this gets started on The Laziest Lazy Day of Them All and here’s Olive Oyl to walk you through what today has in store.

 Many thanks once again for your support of our amazing camper group,

Peter & Meg

“Love” in ASL

Good morning, one and all! Olive here to give you a rundown of today’s excitement and recap of last night’s amazing acts.

 Before yesterday evening’s performances, we got to hear from the rock band classes at lunch. We all gathered around the gazebo and got to see an incredible group of campers rock out to Another Brick in the Wall, Seven Nation Army, and Last Night. It was the perfect way to get us celebrating the end of classes and excited about more to come for the evening ahead.

 Last night was a whirlwind of music, dance, comedy, silliness and seriousness. It was so awesome to see all the hard work that everyone’s put in the past two weeks and all that we’ve learned and accomplished in our classes. The night was run by our fabulous MC’s, Andy and Clara, who were our “Dads” for the evening, telling corny jokes and puns galore.

 Right now we’re finishing up breakfast and about to start morning meeting, after which we’ll head down to the pool for an extra special pool activities. While we’re down at the pool we’ll also be doing class sign ups, getting our yearly HVC t-shirt, and grabbing a book from the book drive. And for our new campers arriving today, we’ll also be taking a dip in the pool for a swim eval and getting our heads checked and chatting with the nurses. This afternoon we’ll get to spend some time with our cabins for a cabin day activity– how fun! More details on what every cabin is up to later.

 I’m off to lounge by the pool…be sure to check out all the awesome sharing night photos and stay tuned for more news later today!

 So long,

Olive