What?! The Last Session! Already!?

Session 5 Girls - Gotta Luv Em

After a crazy (and rainy) session 4 Color War (which White team won by-the-way), the session 4 girls left in a flurry of smiles and chatter. Now it is time - at last - for the last ... but absolutely NOT the least .... SESSION 5!!!!!!!! They are ready to finish off the summer with bang!

Session 4 Color War Rages!

Practicing in the deep end!

Who knew team building could be so ha-ha-hard!

Nature Sculptures

Color War Session 4 2011 Team White

After a day of creating nature sculptures and conquering our fears in the “Deep End” on Thursday, we capped off the week with a trip to the local beach, team building, and Session 4 Color War. As we speak the girls are coming up with their color war choreographed songs and the competition is intense! Who will win? Blue or White? Stay tuned!

A Day In The Woods

Starting our adventure!

Yesterday we went swimming. I love to swim! We learned how to help someone that is drowning. My second favorite part of yesterday was when we caught frogs. I caught two frogs. I named them JC and TC. I dropped TC, but I brought JC back to the camp nature center. I also caught a dragon fly! But I let it go.

For dinner we had garlic bread, pasta, and salad. All of the food here is SO GOOD! I love it here. I can’t wait to come back again. I hope I will be back next year.

Feeding the alpacas.

-Ava

This is TayTay. My favorite things yesterday were eating s’mores at the campfire, doing the swim lesson, and going on the field trip to the Alpaca farm and hiking.

During swim lessons we learned the dead man float with Ry. That was really fun!

During our field trip we went hiking in the woods and caught frogs! We got to take some frogs back to camp and made a habitat for them in the nature center. Everyone was so happy to have a pet frog at camp! Some of us shared our frogs with other people who couldn’t catch one. We all named our frogs.

The one that got away ...

Looking at frogs!

At night we watched the movie “Up” as a treat and we were laughing a lot.

-Nateja'

Even Storms Can’t Stop The Fun!

Yesterday, it stormed on and off all day so the girls spent some time inside. They made Jello paintings, played “Scrupples”, watched and learned from Olympic swimming videos, made a special indoor snack called Railroad Tracks, read, and made solar prints. We did manage to get outside for one swim lesson and to do team building. All in all, the girls barely noticed the weather and the nice cool evening lent itself to a sound sleep for everyone at camp.

Zzzzzzzzzz ----

Craft Time!

Watching olympic swimmers ... so that's how they do that!

Exploring our nature center.

Jello Painting!





Starting With Our First Full Day…

Yesterday, we did Arts and Crafts as one of our Pick and Stays. We made collages about ourselves. I really like mine and so did the staffJ. Campfire snack was tasty. We had a dessert called Brown Bears. Brown Bears are croissants covered in brown sugar. They were delicious. And last, but not least, my favorite part of today (so far) was playing basketball. It was fun and I, as well as some of my other camp mates, earned stars for showing the WEHGC characteristics/values. So …. Ya ….  You could say I’m having an awesome time!

-Elisa

Getting a little competitive.

My first Pick and Stay activity was fishing which didn’t turn out great because no fish came. Next was swimming which made me shiver when I got out of the lake, so I just wanted to stay there because the lake was warm. Eventually, everyone had to get out. Then we had rest hour. Volleyball was next and we all got really competitive. Later on we went to campfire where we had Brown Bears and sang “One Tin Soldier”. Then we had showers (finally!) and went to bed after we played a cabin game. Even though I miss my family, I am still having a great time!

-Nisha

Observing nature!

Volleyball

Today we played a three on three basketball game. That was my favorite thing that we have done so far. We also painted our nails at rest hour. I painted mine with sparkle nail polish! I am having a lot of fun!

-Katie

A nice warm fire.

Girls Camp is just ... silly:)

An Awesome First Day

Yesterday we went swimming and took the deep end test. I (Elisa) was surprised by how well I did, as well as some of my camp mates. We had s’mores at campfire snack – they tasted AMAZING! (But we only got to have one … bummerL) I liked playing night at the museum last night before we went to bed (even though I lost and had to get in bed), but it was a great end to an EPIC day!

-Elisa

Yesterday was a fun and exciting day. Some of my favorite things that we did were picking bunks, stating our “Day Highs”, and dinner. Picking bunks was fun because we got to pick on our own and we weren’t assigned. Stating our “Day High” is something that we do at the end of the day to reveal what our favorite part of the day was. We have to dance at the same time we say it so it’s really funny! Last, but not least, was dinner. It was DELICIOUS! We had calzones, salad, and potatoes – yummy!

-Sade

Learning how to swim.

"Look! I can fly!"

"Teach me how to Dougie TeyTey"

Jumping Into Session 4!

Hi Everyone!

Session 4 is ...CRAZY FUN!

The girls of session 4 hit the ground running and I finally got everyone to stop for a group picture! Whew! Here we go ...

High School Heading Out!

Week 3 was AMAZING! HS week rocks! Session 4 - we are comin' to get you:)

Happy Founder's Birthday!

Hi!

Walking the dogs as part of Community Service Day:)

It's Kristiana (hi mom:)). Yesterday was community service day and the founder's birthday. We displayed community service by going to the local animal shelter to walk the dogs and help socialize them. If they are more social and less shy, they have a better chance of being adopted into a nice home with a loving family. I personally am a bit scared of dogs, but my heart was stolen by a little pug named Buddy. Buddy had been dropped off just before we got there by a man who lost his job and could no longer afford to keep him. This made me realize that not all dogs are strays who are mean and aggressive, rather, they are creatures that just want a little love and a safe place to be.

Just meeting each other ...

After giving back to the community by volunteering at the animal shelter, we did something to benefit the camp. We made a new path on the camp property and deemed it "Hells Path". I don't know if the name will stick. We had to do a lot of raking and cutting and moving of wood, but we did it and then went for a refreshing swim!

A ghost story and some young "protectors"?;)

At the end of the day we did two fun things: First, we had a surprise birthday party for the founder. Then we had a ghost story! Bill Margolin (Snoopy), the boys camp director, came to our camp with three of his younger campers (middle school boys - don't worry) to tell us the ghost story of "Pickle Finger". He then proceeded to take us to "Pickle Finger's" house. IT WAS SO SCARY. Let's just say there were a lot of tears and a lot of screaming ... and not all from our young visitors:/

Sincerely,
Kristiana

A Mad World! Say Hi to the City!

Olivia here to tell you about all the fun and crazy things we did yesterday on our trip day!

A taste of college ...

About an hour from camp, we visited the University of Southern Maine (USM) where we got a glimpse of college life and even had college students as our tour guides! They actually have two campuses, one in Gorham (the one we went to) and one in Portland. We checked out the classrooms, the library, the Freshmen dorms, their cafeteria (looks like a huge food court!), their sport complexes and a few other building here and there. It was nice to get the opportunity to be there, but it reminded me of how much high school life stinks compared to the luxuries we'll be receiving once we enter college. 

After touring we picked up Lola, a WEHGC counselor, from the train station. She's been adding some fun and crazy to our group! Then we headed off for Portland, about a half hour from USM. Thank goodness for AC otherwise we all probably would have melted in the heat.


We left our mark in Portland!

  Lots of sightseeing went on as we got lost a bit (though Rae and Gayle deny it!), but we finally arrived at the waterfront city of Portland! We toured around and occasionally checked out a store if we liked it. We reached a popcorn store that sells the craziest flavors including Watermelon, Wasabi Soy, Key Lime Pie, Salt and Vinegar, and even Root Beer. Rae bought us a mix of Southwest Cheddar and Buffalo Wing and another bag of Toffee and Mainely Maple to take home for snack. A few blocks later, we all reached a really awesome store called Mad World. The owner was so nice that she let us try on clothes, even though we weren't buying anything. Everyone was a model, dressing up in the one-of-a-kind-store (literally, they only make/sell one of anything). We ended the day off by purchasing of some interesting truffles (some tasted good, like my Coconut one, but some people had some not-so-awesome flavors) and a cup of ice cream each! Yum.

Aren't we fab!

The day wasn't over yet though! After dinner and doing some chores that we didn’t have time to do earlier, we had....drum roll please...A DUTCH AUCTION! We had 3 minutes to shove as many things from our cabin as we could into a regular trash bag and take it out to the porch. Rae was the self proclaimed unfair and super bias judge. We split into teams and each got a counselor to help us out. Rae called out a object, person or whatever and we had 30 seconds to dress ourselves up and present ourselves to her. My team lost, but like I said...Rae wasn't exactly fair. -cough cough.

Next item ... olympians?

Time to eat!

-Olivia

What Did We Do Yesterday?

Today we went to Portland and visited USM, but I will let the girls write about that tomorrow. Instead, I will tell you about yesterday ....

Step 1: Build the raft-

Step 2: Race the raft-

Step 3: DON'T drown the animal:(

Yesterday we started "Nature" day by having a raft making competition and relay. The goal was for each team to build a raft out of random items that would keep a stuffed animal dry, and then race. It was quite exciting, though not much of a race since one team's raft fell apart in the water:(.

Hiking

Well hello Mr. Toad

Quick smile ... before the bugs eat us alive!

We also did wood burning, went hiking, had a nature scavenger hunt, and swam at the local beach. The girls decided that nature day was "cool" ... except for the bugs.

The Post Team Building Giggles …

Campfire skits

After a full day of impressive team building the girls were given the ultimate cooperation task: to create and perform a humorous skit displaying the camp characteristics of DRIVE and TEAM PLAYER. The skits were performed around the campfire and had everyone in stitches (especially during the counselor imitations;)).

Impromptu dinner performance - you go girls!

Before bed we had our evening snack (Britteny, the cook, made home-made soft pretzels … yum) and we tried to play “Oodles” (a board game of sorts), but no one was particularly successful ... so we just joked and laughed and had tea until it was time for bed.

Being crafty:)

Today’s theme is Nature and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to be outside!

… until tomorrow!

Team Work

Campfire in process ...



Last night we learned how to build a campfire. There were four different types of campfires we could build, and three types of fire wood we could use for campfire building. We built a teepee campfire and we found marshmallow roasting sticks so we could make s’mores. The s’mores were DELICIOUS!

Perfect!

Team work at its best!

The themes of today were “Drive” and “Team Player”. We did a circle sit where we had to all sit on each others’ laps at the same time while staying in a circle. It took a few attempts, but we finally got it. We then did the trolleys. We had to use good communication skills to get from point A to point B. The more communication we had, the more successful we were. Then we did the pyramid. We had to figure out how to build a pyramid with our bodies, from bottom to top, without getting hurt. Success was infinite! We are a great team!

Today, after working on team building, we did trust lifting. We had to learn how to lift a person as a team without any difficulties and safely. We learned how to hold the head, hips, and legs and then we lifted them from the ground, to our waist, then our shoulders, and higher. We came together even more as a team and family.

Don't try this at home!:)

More tomorrow …

Carmelita

Session 3 ... Lovin' It!

Session 3 - High School Week

We are here and the girls love their new digs! We are in for a fun week so stay posted!

Heading Back to Boston!

Session 2 is over and session 3 is on deck! See you soon!

Had a Great Experience Along the Way ….

Yesterday we went outside to do a team building activity. The activity was called “Trolleys”. We had to get the entire team across a certain area using only wooden planks and ropes. It was extremely hard because we weren’t cooperating as a team.

Almost falling ... as a team

Listening to Rae for team building

We did it!

We also played volley ball. That was awesome because we were able to work as a team and have fun. No one got frustrated at one another.

There are many beautiful nature things around camp. The dragonflies are especially pretty. However, Dawnn told us that the dragon flies don’t live for very long and that made us all sad.

Bye-Bye-

-AneytraJ:)

Our Wednesday

On Wednesday we went to the Sebago Lake State Park and had a very good hike around the beach. There was a lot of trees (dead and alive), moss rugs, and crawly and flying bugs:/ (Everyone was freaking out). It was a pretty place to go and the weather was warm. We also had a delicious picnic on the beach. Afterward we went and took a tour of Saint Joseph’s University. We learned about the college and college life. The tour had many of us thinking of our futures. The campus had everything (including their own beach) even though it was a small college.

The Picnic

The Visit

When we got back it started to rain and heat finally let up. We were SO excited that while it was raining most of us ran outside to dance and play “boot camp” in the rain. It was hilarious! Dawnn and Lola put on music to accompany our impressive dance moves.

"I'm singin' in the rain ..."

Since it was storming we couldn’t do campfire, so Rae gave us a treat and let us have a movie night. We had two movies going: A Series of Unfortunate Events and Alvin and the Chipmunks. We all brought our blankets out and had a big slumber party until it was time to go to bed. Everyone slept hard last night. (Sorry ... we have no pictures of movie night - we were all too comfy to get the camera - lol)

This morning was PJ Day and we did the “Zombie Walk” for our breakfast fashion show. SOOOOO COMFY!

This is the girls camp … and now we’re signing out!

-Jackie, Lucy, and Valerie