England Day 54: Bring it on King's Camp! BLITZ OFF!!!

Thursday, aka BLITZ OFF DAY!!! The kids were so excited and couldn't wait for the blitz off later that day. We did a lot of practicing in the morning which went really well. The kids did an awesome job and were so loud! We know that they will do an awesome job at the blitz off.

After the amazing practice, we went to our club. I ran cooking club again since Alix was on a field trip. We made something called Safari Sunrise. We made toasted tortilla shells with cinnamon and sugar and then put them in the oven for a bit. When they were all crispy, we took them out and put a scoop of ice cream on top. They were amazing. I love them! :) Glad I got to run cooking club this week.

When clubs were over, we went to lunch and then break. I looked up a few things for programming for next week and read a book for a while before heading back. I got to hang out in room 3 for a while and played a couple fun games with the kids before heading to the gym for BLITZ OFF!!!! We walked in and had a seat on our side of the curtain and started chanting CAMP A! When the curtain was pulled, both camps stood on either side of the gym chanting each camp's name. Then we started singing songs back and forth andthe kids were loud and did all the movements so well. I was so proud of them. The King's Camp did an amazing job as well and were just as loud, but I think our kids were much more involved.

After the singing, we pulled some of our kids while Carlie recognized the King's Camp counselors. The kids came with me and Brittany and grabbed plates of whipped cream and stood in front of the King's Camp counselors. We told them it was a tradition for Camp A that we got pied every Friday so we wanted to welcome them in. They were so understanding and did it for the kids, although they complained the rest of the day because they had to be sticky and smelled of rotten milk. I did feel bad because it smelled gross. lol. But it was all in good fun and they could laugh about it later. When the creaming was over, we had a dance party and did a lot of fun dances with each camp.

After all the fun, we went back to our camps and finished off the rest of the day. I was in open rec of the rest of the day so I hung out in there and played a few games with kids. We then were taken home at the end of the day and had a short meeting. We then made our posters for next week and had some heart to hearts in the hallway. It was a nice night. :)

When the posters were completed, we watched Pocahontas and then headed off to bed. It was definitely a fun and crazy day and one of the most memorable.

Cheerio.

England Day 53: Reminiscing of old times

Wednesday was another day like any other. We got to work and performed blitz. We talked to the kids about the blitz off again to make sure they were still pumped. They definitely are. They want to show King's Camp all they've got. We practiced the interlude again and made sure the kids knew the songs.

After blitz we headed to our clubs. I had to work by myself because Alix was working King's Camp but it went really well. We made Earth Dirt Cake. Pudding. Oreos. Whipped Cream. It was amazing! The kids definitely loved it too. It reminded me of when I was in elementary school when I would bring them every year for my birthday. All the kids loved them and I loved making them. So much fun. :)

When cooking club was over, we had lunch and then our break. We went to the BX on our break to get a few things. While we were there, we saw a guy painting with oil paintings. I think those paintings are so amazing and I really want to learn how to do them.

When we got back from the BX, I got to do my favorite rotating activity, color relief. It's where you draw on paper with a white crayon and then paint over it with water colors. It looks really cool and the kids had a lot of fun with it. At first they were concerned because they couldn't see their drawings but I told them the pictures would show up when they painted over them. They liked it a lot.

After rotating activities, we had free time and then closing. We pumped them up again about blitz off and then headed home. It was another relaxing night at home. Worked on some homework, watched movies and then headed to bed. Great day overall. :)

Cheerio.

England Day 52: The Interlude has made it to England!

Tuesday was definitely a fun day at camp. At blitz, we announced to Camp A that the King's Camp had challenged us to a blitz off and that we were going to be practicing the songs that they had been singing all week. Piece of cake. :) During blitz, we sang the songs that we would be singing and then did the interlude dance! That's right. We brought the interlude to England! The kids loved it and we said we were going to teach them the dance to show to the King's Camp kids. Camp A was super pumped about it.

After blitz, we headed to our clubs. We had a fun activity planned for the kids and they loved it. We had them make art out of vegetables and fruit. They loved that I told them to play with their food. They made some really great pictures and I was really impressed with their artwork.

We then had lunch and break before heading into our afternoon of rotating activities. I got to be in charge of teaching the interlude! Perfect for me since I went to the school where it originated. I told all the kids the back story of it and how a few guys from the dorm I lived in made it up and now the whole school does it at every sports event. It's so much fun. And the kids here really loved it. Glad we got to teach them something new.

During freetime, I got to hang out with S again. I told her she is the little sister I never had. She's always copying me, hitting me, poking me, and such. It drives me crazy but I can't help laughing about it sometimes. She's such a booger. We then went to closing and talked more about the blitz off. The kids are so excited for it so I hope we win! :)

After closing, we went to the commissary to get our food for the next week and then headed home. It was a nice relaxing evening at home. I got to work on a few more blogs and tried to get caught up. We also watched a few movies and then I was off to bed.

Cheerio.

England Day 51: I know another camp did not just come up on our turf. Oh heck no!!! :)

This week at camp our theme was Wacky Wild West Shenanigans. I'm not sure who comes up with the themes but they have the craziest names! :) Also this week at camp, ANOTHER camp is taking over the gym and outside areas for their camp, King's Fitness Camp. It's a week long program for kids outside of the youth program that want to have fun with fitness for a week. It would be a great camp if it weren't up on our turf. lol. Just Kidding! They are actually a really great camp and seem to run their camp really well. I think they would be a lot of fun to hang out with and learn from.

We went outside to do blitz for the morning and then headed to our clubs. I got to run cooking club with Alix this week. We went over the expectations for cooking club and also made Fruit Smoothies.The kids really enjoyed them and we had a lot of fun making them. When cooking club was over, we had lunch and went on break.

When we got back from break, I worked a rotating activity where the kids got to make sheriff badges. The kids really enjoyed making them and wrote their names on them and everything. It was super cute. It would have been nice if the kids listened when I asked them to clean up and when I give instructions to the kids. That doesn't really happen that often. lol.

During free time, I got to hang out with a new friend, S. She is so funny sometimes and I feel like she just copies me or pokes me because she wants to drive me up a wall. She is a super sweet girl though. I hope to get to know her more. I spent some of the time outside playing and watching the kids before getting them ready for closing. We had a great closing before heading home.

When we got home, we had our Monday meeting and then did major cleaning. We also decided to set up another trap since we couldn't catch the mouse. It worked well because we caught the mouse about ten minutes later. :) So glad. It made our day! After catching the moue, I started working on my blogs since, if you couldn't tell, I'm very far behind. But hopefully I will get caught up this week. :)

Cheerio.

England Day 50: The mice just keep coming

When we woke up Sunday morning, the girl was already gone and Paul was still passed out. We tried to be really quiet as we got our stuff together and got ready for the morning. While we were packing, Paul woke up and was surprised that we were already up. And he was surprised that he didn't hear us when we came in the night before. We felt like we were being so loud but apparently he was so tired from the day before that he was passed out the whole night. After our chat with Paul, we went down to have breakfast and then checked out of the hostel.

We did a little shopping before going to church. The service was definitely nice and the people were so friendly. We headed to the train station afterwards and then found out that our train was cancelled. It wasn't too bed because we were planning on taking the train one station over so we just took a taxi instead. We got dropped off a Conway Castle, which we had seen Friday night and it looked so gorgeous that we wanted to stop and see it. It looked like a legit castle. It was so cool.

After the castle, we headed to the train station to catch our train home. Of course, the train was late so we would be late catching our next one but lucky for us, that one was late as well. We had a bit of a wait after those two trains but we made it home around 830 which was really nice. We usually get back around 1030 so it was nice having extra time to unpack and then relax before going to bed. I was able to unpack and call my family and relax. While I was hanging out in the day room, I heard the girls in the kitchen scream. The mouse was back. They decided to get a broom and a bucket to try and catch it or kill it, not really sure, because while all of them were in the kitchen, I stayed in the day room. Didn't feel the need to go in there. lol. They, unfortunately, did not catch it. Darn mouse was too quick.

After the excitement in the kitchen, I was ready for bed. Another week of camp and a big week since King's Camp would be joining us.

Cheerio.

England Day 49: Hiking in Wales

Pictures from Wales HERE!!! :)

Saturday in Wales was simply beautiful. We woke up to a lovely sun shining day and went down for our continental breakfast. We then got packed some snacks and put on sunscreen and headed out to the Great Orme. We took a tram up to the top of the Great Orme where we got off and hiked around. We met a really nice older couple that told us a lot of the history of the Orme and chatted with us about why we were there. They were the nicest people. :)

After our chat, we headed out for our hike on the Orme. It was beautiful up there. Words can not even describe it. IT was so much fun walking up there and just relaxing. It actually felt like we were on vacation. We stopped on the edge and had a snack and took some cool shots. We then continued our hike and then took the tram back down the bottom. It was such a nice morning/afternoon.

When we were done with the hiking, we went to the pier and got some ice cream. We then walked up and down the pier and did a little shopping. While we walked along the pier and saw this placed called fab fish. It's a place where you get a pedicure from little tiny fish. It was the weirdest thing ever. The fish are tiny and they suck off all the dead skin on your feet. So we decided to do it. lol. It felt so weird on our feet, especially since a few of us our ticklish. I was freaking out for the first 5 minutes and then it was fine. It actually worked too! My feet were really soft.

After the Fab Feet, we went to beach to sit and relax and take in more scenery. We took some pictures on the beach and then headed back to our hostel to shower and change before going out for dinner. When we got back to the hostel, we noticed that one of the empty beds now had stuff on them but the person wasn't around. So one of our roommates was here but not around. While we were getting ready, another person came in that would be sharing the room. It was an older gentlemen named Paul. We were concerned at first being in a room with a guy but he was very kind and apparently goes to hostels all the time cause he's always traveling. So we finished getting ready and then headed out for dinner.

We went to this place called Weatherspoon. It was a beautiful restaurant that used to be an old theater. It was really gorgeous. And the food was cheap and really good. It was the perfect place to go for dinner. After dinner we decided to walk around town and stopped at a pub to relax and hang out. We sat around and talked for a while and had some heart to hearts before heading out again and going back to the beach. We decided to walk along the beach and in the water. It was a nice evening. We also took a lot of random jumping shots along the beach. It forever to get the pictures but it was funny trying to take them. lol.

After the jumping around, we went back to Weatherspoon to chill and get dessert. We meet some random guys that were interested in talking to us because they liked our accents. It was definitely interesting. And one of the guys told us that he loved the shows Sex in the City and Glee. Definitely funny. :)

When we were getting tired, we headed back to the hostel and quietly got ready for bed. Our two new roommates were already there and passed out so we went to the bathrooms to change and brush our teeth before crawling into bed. It was definitely a great day in Wales.

Cheerio.

England Day 48: God's Waiting Room (aka Llandudno)

Friday was a fast past, crazy day. We finished our last day of cheer club and added some half pyramids and perfected the routine. It went so well. I can't wait for them to perform again at Camp A Presents. They've been working so hard so I know they will do amazing! When cheer was over, we had lunch and then break. I always have a nice relaxing lunch and break and it makes the day go by faster with a little break in the middle of the day.

After lunch we had rotating activities and free time. During free time, I got to leave early and get the cheer club ready to present. Shekka and I helped the kids paint their faces and practice one last time. We had Camp A Presents early because we needed to catch a train in Ely so when everyone came out and got settled, we had our performance. The kids did great! I was so proud of their awesome performance. They worked so hard and it paid off.

When the performance was over, we had cream the counselor. I got creamed by two sisters that were in cheer club this week. I was like, really!? lol. They were so funny though so I didn't mind. After we got creamed, we were heading inside to wash up when the fire alarm went off. So we had to stand outside with whipped cream on our face while we waited for the alarm to be set off. Great timing for the fire alarm. lol. When it was over, we headed inside and got washed up and changed to get int he car to catch the train in Ely.

We hopped in the car and drove to the Ely station. It was a fast drive and we were on the train in no time. The train rides were only 4 hours so it wasn't too long. On one of the trains, we met a guy when we couldn't find any seats. We got to talking to him and told him we were going to Llandudno for the weeked. And he said, "Oh. You mean God's Waiting Room?" Apparently Llandudno has a huge hospice and is also the place where people go to retire. Oops. Oh well. We knew there were lots of places to hike and it had beautiful nature so we didn't care.

When we got of the train in Llandudno, we walked to our hostel to drop off our stuff and then headed out to get some food. Apparently nothing is open past 10 on a Friday night. in retirement towns. Who knew? lol. We walked into twon center and found a pub and as soon as I walked in, my glasses fogged up. Along with being really hot, it was really loud and full of older people drinking, singing karaoke, and dancing with each other. The song that was playing was La Baum Ba and that was stuck in our heads the rest of the night. Since the pub didn't serve food past ten, we left to find another place. Maryanne hadn't eaten in a while and was super hungry and getting very cranky so we had to find somewhere to eat.

We found a late night fish and chips place that had other food as well. We all got a little something since we were kinda hungry. Brittany order a side of mushy peas and the guy asked, "That's it?" It was the funniest thing ever. The couple that was standing in there was laughing along with the guy behind in the counter. Apparently mushy peas is supposed to be order with other things but Brittany just wanted to try them since we'd heard about them before. They weren't anything big, just mushed up peas. Makes sense right? lol.

We grabbed our food and decided to walk along the promenade while eating our food. It was gorgeous. So many lights and beautiful hotels. Definitely a nice night to stroll along the beach area. When we were done eating and walking, we headed back to our hostel and went to bed.We had a long day of hiking the next day so we wanted to be well rested.

Cheerio.