Greetings, friends, on a beautiful day here at HVC! Humming here with Cat Nap beside me, looking up fuzzy cat toys. Ugh, cats, amiright? We have plenty to tell you all, but first! A note from our fearless leader, Peter, about our day yesterday!!

Peter here…..  I’ll turn this dispatch over to our regular correspondents in a minute but first a look at our first rainy day here in a while…

As usual, the day was not entirely filled with schvitz (your campers will tell you that “It never rains at HVC; it’s only a heavy schvitz.)  The moisture came through at about 4 pm (it’s all gone now) and after snack, most campers gravitated to the huge old Red Barn here.  I wandered though before our pre-dinner directors’ meeting and watched an awesome ping pong match, then went upstairs where Rowan and three other Shangri-la campers were playing cards with some fake money they’d made. “I’m dealing blackjack,” she said….  Then over to where a group of campers was playing dots, another group deeply involved in a “magic” card game, and a few campers sitting by themselves reading their books.  Back downstairs to a group singing by the piano, two packed foozball tables and a crew who had gathered around Gabe (stained glass teacher) and his two sons ages 3 and 5 as they cascaded long rows of dominoes.  Pretty soon a bunch of campers joined in the construction/destruction. I checked in on Brad (woodshop and metal work teacher) with a new group of disciples playing cribbage with him.  Finally, I wandered into the library area of the barn where three staff had their guitars out by the fireplace.  Other campers were sitting nearby playing apples to apples, reading books, etc.

Meanwhile, in other parts of camp, rehearsals proceeded for “Grease” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as well as the Alive Show.  Some campers remained in their 4th period art classes, working on projects. A couple of hearty souls played a drenching game of basketball. And farther afield, our Adventure group crossed the border in to Canada.

After dinner the campers were off to a rainy (schvitzy?) dance which you’ll hear about soon, and now on Wednesday the skies are clearing and we are ready to begin another day. Yesterday’s time in and around the Red Barn reaffirmed our sense that this group has made the place its own and that campers are both deeply INTERdependent and successfully INdependent as well.  Camp’s rich, comfortable, connected community life means so much to your children, and to all of the adults here who enjoy our time with this group.

And now, more news…

Thanks, Peter! Now back to some more news! As peter mentioned, last night we enjoyed the Rainbow Dance– which, our campers reminded us, was really a “Schvitzbow Dance!” We had some super colorful costumes, which were made still more colorful by our fabulous face painting booth that we had in the Rec Hall! The schvitz really didn’t bring us down last night! We had “Under the Rainbow Limbo,” some card games, face painting, I Spy, and of course we had dancing!! It was lots of indoor fun, so check out the colorful pictures below!!

I’d also like to take a minute to honor some special people who received their five year vests last night at Evening Meeting! Check out photos below of the bestowed honor!

After our dance, we settled down to hear our bedtime, and SURPRISE!!! WE GOT THE BEAUTIFUL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT DRESS IN THE DARK DAY!!! “What on Earth is Dress in the Dark Day, Humming Bird??” Well, I will tell you! Dress in the Dark Day is the glorious day when we get to wear our most mis-matched clothing! Technically we’re supposed to pick our clothes at random, but I think I might actually spend more time on my outfit on this day than on any other day at camp! Crazy! Cat Nap, do you agree? “Yes.”

Anyway, after enjoying a wildly not-matching Dress in the Dark Day, TONIGHT IS CABIN NIGHT!!! Our counselors have some stellar cabin night activities planned, such as:

LCH will be doing an egg drop from the treehouse!
Avalon will make s’mores and cabin t-shirts!

Gimme Shelter will be plaster casting their counselor, Keegan’s, face!

Wombles is going to screen print t-shirts!

Loons will be playing water balloon games and making s’mores!

Atlantis will be taking a trip into Belfast!

Chateau Fiasco will take a tractor ride and enjoy a mini Pinegrove!

Down Under will be doing a Dinosaur Egg Roll on Tipi Hill!

Forbidden Planet will play Storm the Castle Paint War!
Taj will be making s’mores tacos!

Paquatahnee will do Tipi Zipline splatter paint!

French Quarter is going to the lake!

Fiddlers Green will making cabin t-shirts and s’mores!

Shangri-La is going to make a pot out of clay for their cabin!

Valhalla will make pizza in the pizza oven, and play coalition-building games!

Camelot will be decorating cupcakes and making pet rocks!

As you can see, we’ve got some excellent cabin night activities, and we can’t wait to show you all the pictures tomorrow, so be sure to tune back in!!

Cat Nap and I are off to see how Dexter dressed up for Dress in the Dark Day!!

Chirp, Hum, Meow,

Humming Bird and Cat Nap