Hello there readers!

Welcome to Session 5! It has been a pretty rainy day here at Camp Timbercrest. We made it through most of check-in without a downpour, but then the thunderstorms came rumbling in. So, we moved our swim tests to tomorrow, no big deal! Sometimes mud & puddles make camping more fun!

We’ve got quite a good number of campers this week, 16 Brownies are living in Jackman’s Lodge, My Favorite Pony as well as Puppets, Plays & Dolls! We have The Great Cupcake Challenge, Clay Magic, and The Golden Match Club in Hawthorne Grove. Sprucewood is made up of girls in Bridles & Bits (our horse group), Oh The Wonders of Water, and Timbercrest Hunger Games. This week, our CITs are still staying together in a unit but they are separated during the day while they work with their assigned units with the counselor they are shadowing.

Hopefully our campfire goes on without a hitch tonight, but it may be inside due to rain. See you tomorrow!

Good morning!

Welcome to our last Timbercrest blog for Session 4! Our campers are currently packing up their belongings and preparing for the rest of the day. We will have Friday Follies at 11 a.m., where campers and staff who have been working at drama all week will perform. Sometimes we have some improv between both campers and staff…things can get pretty silly!

I mentioned that Strawberry Hill was doing a slip & slide yesterday (with tarps, water, and soap) and it quickly became an all-camp event! I’m sure I will be getting photos from that event! It was amazing! You’d be surprised how fast you can slide on tarps with soap all over your clothes. I went down three times!

Today after lunch, we will be having a Marshmallow Carnival where campers will compete in traditional carnival games, but will win marshmallows instead of tickets or prizes. At the end, they get to eat the marshmallows!

Last night’s closing campfire was very emotional; there were a lot of tears and a lot of sadness, but that shows how camp can truly change a girl’s life in such a short time. Bonding with their co-campers as well as their staff members can happen very quickly, and will be there for longer than one expects. I have been friends with one of my co-campers for 26 years and counting…you never know!

Have a great weekend, and we hope that your camper talks your ear off on the way home! 🙂

Hello to all reading our trusty blog!

I’ve decided to start blogging in the morning, so you have an idea of what we will be doing all day, and then the next day I will also recap along with that day’s schedule. Sound good? Good. 🙂

Today’s schedule has a lot in store for all campers! Our horse girls in Straw Hill will be at the barn in the morning while the rest of the unit works on badges, participates in archery, and then our version of “slip & slide,” which equals a tarp, water, and hand soap. It cleans while the kids have fun! 🙂 The barn girls will join the others near the end of the slip & slide activity. In the afternoon they will participate in all-camp swim and go boating.

Our CITs will be working with our volunteer Pickles (who has been at Timbercrest forever and she knows EVERYTHING) on learning some of the Timbercrest history and traditions that the staff learned at the beginning of the summer. During this time, they will make doughboys (biscuit dough made on a stick over a fire, then filled with all kinds of things–jelly, peanut butter, chocolate, etc.). They will check out the water toy (one of the camp’s favorite activities), do some archery, and visit the trading post today.

Sprucewood will be playing “paint Twister” (where the dots on the Twister board happen to have washable paint on them) this morning, as well as doing archery. In the afternoon while the horse girls are at the barn, the other girls will play Gaga and other games after all-camp swim.

Tonight we will all say goodbye to our campers at our closing campfire. It can be a tear-jerker, as our 2 week campers go home tomorrow. The 2 week session makes for some serious bonding between campers, as well as with the staff. But, we are forever “sisters” when we finish our time at camp…so the memory of that campfire will hold fast for a very long time.

Hi there Timbercrest blog readers!

This day has absolutely lovely…perfect weather…lots of fun…our weekly Buffalo Swim…just a magical day here at Camp Timbercrest!

As I write this, all of our units have finished up their weekly cookout! Even our core campers join in this weekly ritual, helped by their staff mentor. S’mores, pie iron pizzas, alfredo foil dinners, spider dogs, beans and doughboys for dessert are just some of the yummy food that was made!

All of our units were in the water today, Sunset (our CIT unit) is getting some more training in tonight after boating, working in drama; our horse girls got up on horses today to practice for their horse show on Friday, and both our core campers and Strawberry Hill got some arts & crafts time in. Straw Hill also camped out overnight! How awesome is that? Sprucewood got the chance to get on our water toy and work through some of our Be A Friend First program. What a busy day!

Remember to take a gander at this session’s Flickr album for photos. We will continue to update that album for the rest of the week!

Hey there readers!

Tuesday was quite the eventful day! Our Core Campers left in the afternoon after lunch, but they got to play games in the morning and got a bunch of badge requirements done! Our CITs enjoyed time on our water toy, and were the first to use our new pulley system to keep the slide wet…basically a rope and an old laundry detergent bottle! Hey, whatever works when it’s hot! The CITs also slept down by the spillway, which is near the creek that runs through camp. I heard them last night from my cabin–I think their laughing carried through camp because it was so clear last night!

Strawberry Hill 2-weekers played Gaga, archery, visited the trading post, and did drama with Lennon our drama counselor while the Tree Climbers took a trip to Holiday Valley’s Sky High Adventure Park as part of their program, where they got to ride the Sky Mountain Coaster as well as the climbing elements! All of Straw Hill ended their day with 4-Square on the basketball court. The horse girls spent a lot of time at the horse barn, I was able to catch them at the end of their time and they were having a blast!

Sprucewood had horse time, an early time on the water toy, and even built fairy houses! They went on a splash hike after all-camp swim and of course cleaned up their unit.

I believe the best part of the day was when it was dark. Timbercrest offers unbelievable star gazing opportunities, and last night was no exception. The sky was clear, the stars were bright and sparkling. Gorgeous! If you get to see the stars and it’s clear tonight, make sure you check it out!

We started our Monday with a very loud thunderstorm which had ended by the time it was time for breakfast…so campers got to enjoy an awesome morning.

Strawberry Hill and Sprucewood horseback riders worked at the horse barn in the morning and afternoon, as well as working on nature and our Be a Friend First program (which the CITs led). In the afternoon they all got on the water toy, as the thunderstorm that came during lunch let up by 3 p.m. The CITs did drama games and arts & crafts and worked with the core campers on their badges in the afternoon. At night the CITs had a “dessert night” and loved every minute of it!

Sprucewood also did archery, played Gaga, and visited the trading post. They had planned to campout at the totem pole but decided to give our highest unit, Hawthorne, a try! Hawthorne is quite a hike from main camp, but just up the hill from Sprucewood. Most girls feel like they’re in another world up there!

That thunderstorm during lunch came pretty quickly, but there is something magical about watching it come across our lake. A good number of the staff decided to dance in the rain on the porch to the delight of everyone in the dining hall…I’m sure they will be willing to entertain again as the weather goes up and down this week. See you tomorrow!

Welcome to Session 4, blog readers!

We had some session 4 campers come in today both for Oh, The Wonders of Water as well as Tree Climbers. Our core campers came for a week of Brownie Badge Bonanza so they will come away with loads of badge requirements by the time they leave tomorrow!

Our 2-weekers took an awesome hike around camp, including a packed lunch, and came back to their units once check-in was done. The horse girls spent some time at the barn, while the other girls recovered from their long hike! Our incoming campers went on a tour, had their swim tests, dinner, and got ready for campfire.

Opening campfire was moved closer to the lodge because of the rain threat, but they trooped through with silly skits put on by our staff, and one of the core camper groups put on a skit of their own. There is nothing like a campfire when we’re at camp!