Riding lessons with Ash!

Good morning! It’s Mama Iguana here. I have lots to update everyone on from last night and all the fun activities going on around camp the past couple days!

Last night, Willie Claflin put on an exciting show for all of camp. He told some great stories, along with his friends Maynard the Moose and Grof the Frog! The Rec Hall was full of giggles as Willie cracked jokes left and right. He even put on a recorder performance at the end with his backup singers, three squeaking mice! Enjoy those photos below.

Today is the 7th day of classes! Campers are finishing up art projects, perfecting dances, and preparing for a wonderful sharing night in a couple days!

Tonight’s evening program is the play! Campers and the play directors have been busy preparing for a big night ahead! The play is the first night of many performances coming up the next couple days. Tomorrow is sharing night and in two nights we have the musical! One of the amazing things about the end of camp is seeing all the hard work campers have put in over the past four weeks to put on such splendid performances.

Speaking of 4 week programs, the other day we had the soccer game! Campers on the soccer team and counselors combined to make teams and put on an intense game of soccer during interest groups! Hot dogs were served by Snack Sailor Sam and lots of campers sat around the soccer field to cheer on their friends! In the end, there was a 2-2 tie! The basketball game is today during interest groups! Snack will be served by the basketball courts and the basketball team will be playing our lovely staff. Let the games begin! Along with a wonderful basketball game, white books will also be given out to campers. These are blank notebooks for campers to write each other’s addresses, notes, and memories before everyone heads back home.

We also have been having some exciting wheel prizes happening during meeting. At the Wheel of Misfortune, cabins were awarded prizes from different counselors. A couple days ago, Down Under got to wax Fletcher’s chest, Leah S. had to drink a gross smoothie made by Paquatahnee, and today, Cora was dressed by a cabin in some funky clothes.

Make sure to check out photos from the past couple days: junk food day, the soccer game, Willie Claflin, The Apprentice Program, and some great class-in-action photos!

Have a great day everyone!

Mama Iguana

Yay Gross Day!

Happy lazy day from Mama Iguana! Today has been full of gross, slimy spaghetti and lots of strikes and spares! I can’t wait to tell you all about this exciting day but first, let’s talk about last night!

To finish off Junk Food Day, the kitchen staff served us fantastic shrimp jambalaya. After dinner, we had ice cream sundaes for dessert! Each cabin sat in groups outside the dining hall and were called in one by one, the quietest group going first. Everyone had their choice of all the toppings you could think of: caramel sauce, rainbow sprinkles, whipped cream, and of course a cherry to top it all off!

After our special treat, we all headed to the soccer field for our last night of electives this session! There were the classic electives like capture the flag, glass beads, and PK’s secret tour, along with some new exciting activities like sports center where campers analyzed all the crazy news going on in the sports world, collage making, and bread on a stick (made with cinnamon sugar and a nice, warm campfire)! Once everyone finished up their electives, we all gathered in the Rec Hall to reunite with our cabins and sing “The Farthest Field”.

Today, the older half woke up and had breakfast before heading to go Glow Bowling! I heard there were lots of strikes and spares in the alley today. Go older half!

The younger half stayed on camp, got to sleep in a little bit, and enjoy Gross Day! And let me tell you, it was one gross day. There was a mystery box full of who knows what (I think pickles, spaghetti, and maybe some mayonnaise?), condiment twister, a shaving cream hair salon, slip ‘n slide with chocolate sauce, a gross, gross, gross obstacle course, and make your own slime! Make sure you check out the photos below to see how gross campers got. If campers chose to stay clean, there were friendship bracelet activities and card games going on by Meg’s Planet. Once the activities were over, the “clean” campers voted on who was the grossest of them all. In the end, there was a three way tie! Counselors then had a “carwash” and washed off all of the campers who got dirty before heading back to their cabins for quick showers.

Campers are now all gathered by the pool for pool activities! Older half came back to camp just in time for lunch and rest period. Cabins were busy cleaning for our cabin inspectors either this morning or in the afternoon and everyone is getting hungry for Mexican food tonight! Our evening program is a guest performer, Willie Claflin! I can’t wait to tell you all about his performance tomorrow.

Well, that’s all for now. Enjoy photos from electives, Gross Day, and Glow Bowling!!! ,

Bye bye,

Mama Iguana

Paquatahnee enjoying their homemade Oreos!

Good morning, sunshines! It’s me, Cara B., with all the latest from Cabin Night last night!

After a delicious traditional Korean dinner cooked with help from Kae Kim, host to our Korean campers each summer, we headed off with our cabin groups for Cabin Night! Cabin Night is a super special evening program where everyone does a different activity with their cabin group. Here’s what everyone got up to:

Wombles did an art project with Polymer clay

Avalon did build and destroy at the end of the world

Gimme Shelter swam at the lake

Loons did a glass fusing project

Down Under made their own chapstick and did facials

Paquatahnee made homemade Oreos

The Burrow made s’mores

Shangri-La spent the whole evening at Tipis, doing Tipi zip and then camping out

Chateau Fiasco hiked and camped at the glade

Treasure Island had a movie night

LCH swam at the lake and made s’mores

French 1/4 made fondue over the fire and made slime

Fiddler’s Green made edible cookie dough and played ropes games

Valhalla had fun with glow paint and made s’mores

Camelot made glass beads

Atlantis destroyed a Nalgene water bottle

Wabanaki did tie-dye and played games

Taj Mahal had a game show night

Forbidden Planet made pizza at the pizza oven

Haley’s Comet did a trail ride

Whew! Doesn’t that all sound amazing? After a good night’s sleep, we woke up to the unmistakable smell of donuts, sugary cereals, and Pop-tarts. This sweet aroma could only mean one thing…JUNK FOOD DAY!! The dining hall was full of cheers are we loaded our plates with treats. At morning meeting, we discussed Junk Food Day breakfast recipes including stuffing donuts with cereal and spreading donut frosting onto Pop-tarts. Peter I. demonstrated the “correct” way to eat a Boston cream donut, by scooping the cream out with a spoon, filling the inside with Golden Grams, soaking the entire concoction in milk, and eating it all in one bite. We were all truly astonished- who knows what we’ll come up with at lunch once hot dogs, Cheetos, Oreos, and marshmallow fluff are in the mix!

With our sugar rush at a peak high, we headed off for the sixth day of classes. The session has truly flown by! Soon we will enjoy performances of the play, the musical, and sharing night of course! Mama Iguana and I can hardly wait. Tonight is Electives, so stay tuned to hear all about it tomorrow. For now, enjoy photos from Cabin Night and Junk Food Day.

Signing off!

Cara B. Ner

Blowing bubbles at the under the sea dance!

Hey there! Mama Iguana here to tell you all about the Under the Sea dance and the exciting day we’ve had so far!

Last night, camp went over to the Rec Hall area for an Under the Sea dance! People were dressed up in swim suits, shark t-shirts, and some even put sunscreen on their nose! Counselors were running many fun activities: sharks and minnows, mermaid face paint, a shark name change, and so much more! People were dancing, hanging out with their friends, and participating in the activities. The night ended with a special treat: everyone got to watch all the videos made from the first two weeks of camp. There was lots of laughter and cheers celebrating all the hard work campers and video staff have put in to make such successful short films!

Today, we woke up and all got ready in the dark! Last night, the program directors announced that today would be dress in the dark day, meaning that campers showed up to breakfast in the wackiest outfits! Check out a few photos below to see what all the hype is about. As we arrived at breakfast, strawberry sauce and syrup was in the air for waffles!!! Between the crazy outfits and wonderful breakfast, I knew that today would be a great day! Campers in Taj and Forbidden even switched things up by swapping their morning meeting announcements of thought de jour and spirit animal!

Speaking of the excitement of today, it is also the first day of the second set of minis! Some classes are considered minis, meaning they are only four days long. Therefore, since it is the fifth day of classes, the new minis have started! Second and third period today, many campers will be going to new classes! How awesome is that?!

Alright, I gotta blast. Tonight is cabin night, so stay tuned to hear all about it from Cara tomorrow. For now, check out photos from the dance, classes and a dress in the dark day!

Peace out!!!

Mama Iguana

Chillin’ at Lake St. George!

Greetings, bloggers! Cara B. here with all the latest at HVC.

Last night after hearing the results from cabin inspections and a special weather guy forecast provided by Shangri-La (their wheel prize was to be weather guy for the day!) we enjoyed a yummy pizza dinner eaten outside picnic-style and headed back to the gazebo for ValleyFest! ValleyFest is our camper talent show, and boy, do we have some talented campers! There was lots of singing, some dancing, some card tricks, a spit take or two, some songs played on unique instruments, breaking wooden boards with punches and kicks, and even a gymnastics routine! All of our campers and staff were wonderful audience members, giving huge cheers after each act. We have so many talented campers that some ValleyFest acts will be performing later in the session, so stay tuned for those!

We woke up to an egg bar breakfast today on the fourth day of our second set of classes! The fourth day of classes means that it is the last day of our first set of minis. Mini classes are offered during the second half of the session. They are classes that are offered for just four days instead of eight, so that campers can have the opportunity to try out even more classes! During morning meeting, the Birthday Bee and her special helper announced that there were seven birthdays today! They brought out extra birthday organs and we were sure to sing extra loud. Right now, everyone is out and about enjoying the warmth and sun on this beautiful day.

Tonight is the under the sea dance! I can’t wait to see everyone’s costumes and hear all about the awesome activities from Mama Iguana tomorrow. For now, enjoy photos from the younger half’s trip to Lake St. George yesterday and ValleyFest!

Over and out!

Cara B. Ner

Pick me, Gruesome!

Hey there everyone! Cara B. here with a super exciting update about the Wheel of Misfortune!

Last night we spun the wheel! The Wheel of Misfortune is a super special evening program that many campers and staff look forward to all session. The night began with different acts performed outside the Rec Hall. There was a woodsman in overalls throwing water balloons off the Rec Hall roof, two folks camping out on top of the pottery studio eating a roast chicken, a mysterious woman on the roof of the Hilton bathroom, and some interns from some corporation called “Jigsaw Laboratories.” The two guys in charge of the lab led gathered everyone together and led us into the Rec Hall once it was time for the show to begin. The story quickly unfolded- four friends planning to spend the weekend at a strange cabin in the woods were in for a strange vacation. Campers were selected by Gruesome, our resident camp-creature, to participate in whacky and gross games led by Peter and the lab dudes, who we learned were controlling everything that was happening to the friends in the cabin! We also learned that different items in the cabin, like a diary and a wrench, triggered different cruel fates for the friends. In order to make the friends stay inside, campers created a storm in a game involving ice blocks. In order to get the friends to go outside, campers created stink bombs out of different stinky items. There was also an egg roulette game, where campers smashed eggs on their heads to see whether they were raw or boiled, a game involving sorting different beans in bowls of cottage cheese, cleaning condiments off of t-shirts, sibling flossing, and more! In the end, the remaining friends who survived figured out the charade, and got the lab’s interns to turn against their bosses- vengeance was served! After each game and plenty of whipped cream pies to the face, campers were awarded prizes for their cabins offered by our staff. Mama Iguana and I will be sure to let you know all about them as they are given out over the next couple of weeks.

Good thing today is a lazy day- we all needed a rest after all of that excitement last night! We woke up late and enjoyed breakfast burritos outside in the sunshine. The younger half headed off to Lake St. George for a day of swimming, playing on the playground, friendship bracelet making, guitar strumming, and frisbee throwing! Meanwhile on camp, after a big cabin clean, the older half headed to the backyard for a sci-fi and fantasy themed lazy day! There was Jedi marker-fencing and “space disk” frisbee for Star Wars, fantasy “Middle Earth” map making from Lord of the Rings, water ballon “archery” for the Hunger Games, origami dragon making from Game of Thrones, dinosaur egg rock painting for Jurassic Park, and finally, for Harry Potter, wand making, house sorting, and a huge game of Quidditch. Everyone had a blast!

After lunch and an extra long rest period, the older half will head down to the pool to hang out and cool off. The younger half will be returning from the lake soon for a big cabin clean and an extra long rest period. Tonight is Valleyfest, our camper talent show! Mama Iguana and I glanced at the list of performers and we have a ton of campers participating- how awesome! I can’t wait to see what everyone will be doing, stay tuned to each all about it tomorrow. For now, enjoy photos from the wheel of misfortune, sci-fi/fantasy day, and the five year vests!

Climbing away,

Cara B. Ner

Our lovely Oompa Loompas!

Greetings all! This is Mama Iguana here to tell you all about our fun evening programs from last night! Camp split up into three different age groups and attending one of the three evening programs: Candy Crush, Field Games, and Teen Night.

But first, let me tell you about a special surprise we had at evening meeting! Every year, all of the campers and staff that have been here for five years receive a vest from HVC. This is a very special tradition that camp has, since all of these people hold some of Hidden Valley’s values close to their heart: positivity, inclusivity, and acceptance. Check out the photo of everyone lined up in their vests!

A group of friends also interrupted meeting to go looking for some cabin in the woods? There were two evil people who seemed to be planning something against those poor friends. Hmmm… I wonder what this could be about. (Wheel of Misfortune tonight?)

Alright, on to our evening programs! Let’s start with Candy Crush. The cabins in candy crush were The Burrow, Down Under, Paquatahnee, French Quarter, Wombles, and Avalon. Candy Crush started off with Grandma Nut asking for campers help to find her missing candy stolen by Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas. Willy Wonka made a deal with Grandma Nut that if the campers collect more candy than the Oompa Loompas, Willy would give all the candy back. Cabins went searching for candy and did challenges to get more candy. By the end, the campers won! Willy Wonka backed down and Grandma Nut got all of the candy. Yippee!!!

The middle half cabins (Gimme Shelter, Loons, Chateau Fiasco, Atlantis, Valhalla, LCH, and Shangri La) played field games! Cabins rotated in teams playing games like Bozo Buckets, an Egg and Spoon Race, a Sack Race, and so much more! It was an active, fun night for all of those cabins! At the end of the night, cabins participated in a huge rock paper scissors challenge!

For the oldest cabins (Camelot, Forbidden Planet, Treasure Island, and Taj Mahal), cabins went up to Blodgett, the house where the Apprentices stay at, down camp road, to learn all about the possible teen programs they could do once they are too old to be in a cabin. I’m pretty sure they even got ice cream sundaes!

Wabanaki and Haley’s comet had their own cabin nights. Wabanaki did a glass fusing project with one of our pro staff, Kristy, and Haley’s Comet hung out with the horses and made banana boats!

Today is the third day of classes! The sun is out and the suspense is on for the Wheel of Misfortune tonight! Soon, the Rec Hall will be all closed up as staff prepares for tonight. I am SO excited to see what staff have planned. I think it’s going to be a spooky, fun night!

Enjoy photos from last night and stay tuned for updates on the wheel!

Bye bye!

Mama Iguana

Happy Candy Drop!!!

Hello hello hello! Cara B. here with an update from Electives!

But first, more on the candy drop. Yesterday, our meeting was interrupted by a low flying plane. This could only mean one thing- CANDY DROP!! We raced to the soccer field to collect candy for our cabins. After waving goodbye to our amazing droppers, Sandia and Jess, we returned to the backyard with backpacks and pillow cases full of sweet treats. Peter invited previous droppers go up in front of camp meeting to talk about their experience. Believe it or not, the soccer field looks super small from way up there, especially compared to the big llama painted on the roof of the red barn and the “H” dock down at the lake. We read out some mysterious notes that were taped to some of the candy, which included shout-outs to cabins with AWACs in them (hmm…) and one that remarked that the candy drop is today- no kidding!

We finished our meeting and headed into the dining hall for a spaghetti dinner. Afterwards, we returned to the soccer field for Electives! I like to think of Electives as a choose-your-own-adventure evening program- interest groups style! Counselors line up on the soccer field to announce what activity they would be running that evening. Campers are then split into three groups, and the quietest group gets to run walk calmly to the activity of their choice. There were lots of the classics, like Peter’s forbidden tour, baking cookies, glass beads, and a lake swim, along with some special activities like fantasy map making, henna tattoos, water bottle destruction, and freestyle rapping! There was also a huge game of capture the flag of course, in which everyone knew the rules and didn’t know the rules, remembered them but forgot them, won, lost, didn’t know, and didn’t care- a successful game! We gathered together in the Rec Hall to end the evening with recaps from different activities and to sing “The Farthest Field” led by Meg. It was a beautiful way to end the evening!

Today is Jake Day, the day where we film our cabin cheers, camp meeting, and other exciting things going on around camp to put in the camp yearbook video that is sent out to families each winter. Some cabins got an earlier start this morning in order to film their cabin cheer. Good thing we had a delicious breakfast of strawberries, scrambled eggs, and coffee cake to fuel us up! We conducted our morning meeting as usual, filming laundry, birthdays, thought de jour, interest groups, and the spirit animal of the day.

Right now, everyone is settling into their second round of classes. Tonight is a three in one evening program- the youngest cabins will be doing Candy Crush, the middle cabins will be doing field activities, and the oldest cabins will head down to Blodgett house to hear about teen programs! Mama Iguana will tell you all about it tomorrow. For now, enjoy photos from the candy drop, classes, and Electives!

Peace out, cub scouts!

Cara B. Ner

CANDY DROP!

ATTENTION BLOGGERS: THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!

It’s Cara B. reporting live (well, almost live) from the event we’ve all been waiting for- THE CANDY DROP!! Today during evening meeting, as we were patiently awaiting the judges votes for today’s winner of Iron Chef, a hum was heard from high in the sky. It wasn’t a bird, but a plane- the candy drop plane, to be exact! We ran to the soccer field with pillow cases in hand to receive candy from our awesome droppers, Sandia and Jess! Be sure to check back tomorrow for more candy drop details and to hear all about electives tonight.

Buh-bye!

Cara B. Ner

Kim and Reggie!

Top of the morning! It’s Mama Iguana here to tell you about the rest of pajama day and the start of the first day of classes!!

Once cabins had a nice relaxing rest period, each cabin did a different cabin activity. The activities were very similar to cabin night but they happened during the day instead! Here is a list of what every cabin did. Make sure to check out the photos from the activities, as well!

Wombles did an egg drop.

Avalon built a rocket.

Gimme Shelter played water games.

Loons went to the lake.

Atlantis attended a Kim and Reggie Workshop.

Chateau Fiasco played Telestrations in the air conditioned office.

Treasure Island had a story telling collaboration.

Forbidden Planet went to the lake.

Down Under baked cookies.

Paquatahnee did an egg drop.

The Burrow made t-shirts.

Shangri La played sprinkler games.

LCH had a spa day.

French Quarter finished their cabin poster.

Fiddlers Green did henna and painted nails.

Valhalla attended Kim and Reggie’s workshop.

Camelot went on a creek hike.

Wabanaki played water games.

Taj Mahal did some yoga.

Haley’s Comet made dreamcatchers.

Last night, after some yummy Mexican food, everyone sat in their usual spots for camp meeting by the gazebo to see Kim and Reggie! Kim and Reggie are a great duo that sings some of camp’s favorite songs. From “Wade In The Water” to “If I Had a Hammer”, everyone was out of their crazy creeks and dancing the night away. They even sang us one of the classics, “Trampin'”, this morning during meeting! Kim and Reggie will be back second session but man, I will really miss them while they’re gone.

Today is the start of a new round of classes! We woke up this morning to lots of schvitz but everyone made it safely into the dining hall for breakfast. Egg bar fueled all the campers as they are off attending all their new classes. I can’t wait to hear all about everyone’s days!

Well, that’s my update! Cara B. and I will keep in touch about the upcoming activities: electives tonight and who knows, maybe the candy drop?!? It’s about time. Check out photos below from pool activities, cabin day activities, and Kim and Reggie!

Peace out, river trout!

Mama Iguana