Monday; June 21, 2008

Some brave souls who slept in tents woke this morning to a horse nibbling on their tents.

Most of the rest of us began the day with breakfast, including tasty bagels or toast to order (thanks Melissa!). Don’s toast was indeed the most special: multi-grain bread, crunchy peanut butter, and vanilla yogurt.

Asa and Max lead us all in morning devotions to help start the day off right.

3…2…1…BLAST OFF! The vans started making their first pick-up runs of the day around 8:20 a.m. and before we knew it, campers were arriving! Many were sleepy at first, especially Daniel, and some of the camp staff were a little sleepy too. Most everyone woke up and games were played while we waited for the rest of the campers to arrive.

Raggedy Butterfly showed up with her bunnies. Noah was the first rabbit to make an appearance and all the kids got a chance to pet him. Once the campers were all delivered, everyone piled into the church for the first opening session so Chrystie could review all the guidelines and codes of conduct for the week. And then they were off….

The first group in the Book Nook was a sweet but very crazy and large group of girls with Melissa and Jenny, who eventually named themselves the Honey Bees. Bella wanted their name to be the pink cupcakes, but lost out on that one. The next group were Steve and Will’s very stoic young men, followed by a whole bunch more girls with Sam and Emma, and a mixed group with Don and Cal.

Sharing the space with the technology station proved to be a challenge when it came to storytime and what seemed like 50 fans. The kids at the technology station were playing a really fun recycling game with some really fun noises that were best heard at full volume, or so they thought. I know that I can out-shout just about anyone (except maybe Rebecca), so reading to the kids wasn’t too much of a problem for me, but seemed to drown out Kati W. Not that you could have told by watching Kati – she plowed right on through all that noise determined to read her entire book! ‘Atta girl, Kati!

All the kids loved picking out books, even some of the *gasp* boys! Stevie was so excited to find Harry Potter books, but was disappointed that they were only supposed to take home 3 on the first day. So I promised I would hold the next three for him until the following day. I had a great, although slightly overwhelming time, with all of the groups as they rotated through prompted by Don’s chicken call (5 feet away, please). The kids also loved taking pictures with our cameras.

Derrick brought Sammi to camp so she could have some fun because she was unable to attend the leadership camp the week previous.

She had a great time telling anyone who would listen, and some who would not, about her 10 Transformers and all her different video games. Sammi also had a blast sneaking up on me, grabbing my waist, and scaring the living daylights out of me!

Lunch was organized chaos as always, with Kati W. almost having a minor meltdown when she realized all the PB&J sandwiches were gone. But once again, Chrystie saved the day and gave Kati her sandwich. The night before, Don was helping to clean up and prepare for the next day by making lemonade. But sometime after adding the powder and water, his adult ADD kicked in and he put the pitcher in the fridge…which left Rebecca hacking with a plastic mixing spoon through a solidified version of pink lemonade drink mix at lunch. His lemonade making privileges were quickly revoked and he was properly ashamed.

Then like a great tide going out, all the campers were gone for the day, though our ears still rang from all their laughter and yelling. Jay had thoroughly enjoyed the day so much that he decided to get dehydrated. The appropriate amount of fussing was had and the moms of the camp got him watered, cooled, and napped.

At our post-camp meeting the vultures, er, I mean, teenagers descended on the leftover Skittles and M&Ms. Afternoon assignments were handed out, including the re-grouping of all the campers into 5 groups (kudos to Melissa and Sam). I spent the better part of 2 hours making approximately 9 dozen cookies for Tuesday’s lunch. Back away from the cookies.

Dinner was a pleasant affair of tasty spaghetti. Cal was so excited about the brownies and ice cream for dessert that in his frenzy, he bit clear through his plastic spoon. Thus ended the first day of camp.

Other highlights: getting a kiss from Morning Star and Cody’s smile.