Check out the adorable photo above…it’s from the Tour & More in the summer 2011.  That was the first time Kylie got to spend a night at camp, and she cannot wait to join us for the full summer in 2013!  Kylie is now a current 3rd grader, and will be a Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She lives in Plymouth Meeting, PA and here’s what you need to know about this awesome new camper…

• She has tons of energy, she was doing cartwheels and splits in the house, but she doesn’t even do gymnastics as an after school activity!
• She does a TON of dancing after school, it’s her favorite thing to do!  She goes to dance class three days a week, and she is on a dance competition team.
• She’s pumped for the inter-camp dance competitions this summer.  We are planning to host one at our camp, and travel to another camp as well!
• She hopes to be on the blue team during Color War…maybe she knows the blue team has won for the past two years?
• For her electives, she will probably choose to do gymnastics, dance and glass fusion…the last will be a mystery!
• She’s going to stay in the dance elective for the entire summer and change the other two.  I’ll see her in the programming office each week and help her swap her schedule!
• Kylie also takes piano lessons and goes to Hebrew School, she’s busy almost every night!
• She’s working on riding her bike before camp, she’ll be ready to hit our trails by June!
• Her favorite food is chocolate!  She likes chocolate covered everything!!  She got to try cooking when she was at camp two years ago, and can’t wait to go back!
• Just like me, she doesn’t like to fly…we talked about how it’s scary, but worth it when you get to sit on the beach in Florida!
• She loves Justin Bieber!
• She got to decorate her room (except the paint color…it’s blue but she’d like it to be aqua!), and she hung up all these cool vinyl stickers.  I can’t wait to see what she does with her camp bunk.
• At Kylie’s house they have “Salad Sunday” where the whole family gets to create their own salad from a big selection of veggies. She’s going to help teach her bunk mates how to eat and enjoy lots of salad bar items!
• She wants to have really nice counselors this summer, and we can guarantee that!

My next stop was across the street…Kylie & Ashton live on the same block!!  Ashton is a current 2nd grader, and will be a Lower Junior Boy at camp this summer.  He got a chance to spend the night at camp and do a ton of activities last summer when he came up for the Tour & More weekend (see the photo above).  He lives in Plymouth Meeting, PA and here’s what you need to know about this great new camper…

• He loves the game  Tchoukball!  Have you ever heard of it??  It’s something he learned to play at school, and it’s a really awesome.  It’s sort of like handball, and you can learn more about it here – maybe we’ll play at camp?!

• He takes a trip to the Outer Banks with his family every year.  He loves to hang out on the beach, dig huge holes and then wait for it to be filled up by the ocean, like a swimming pool.
• He loves to play sports, and he’s very athletic.
• He also likes cheering for the Philadelphia sports teams, so expect to see a smile on his face when the Phillies winning scores are announced at morning line-up this summer!
• One of his favorite sports he learned at day camp was archery.  He even has his own bow now, and knows how to safely use it (ie, not in his driveway!).  He can’t wait to do archery at camp, and will probably choose it as an elective.
• Ashton has an indoor Ping Pong table in the house, he is the ping pong champ of his family!
• He’d done a few campouts before, a few years ago a tradition was started in his backyard.  He camped out, made s’mores with his dad and had lots of friends come over.  Now they do it every year and call it “Occupy Ashton”.
• Truth be told, he’s not excited for MTV night (our bunk vs bunk music video evening activity) because he doesn’t like to sing and dance…but it’s so popular at camp, maybe he’ll like it?!
• He definitely plans to sign up for basketball elective, and spend time on the court during free play.
• He’s always been on the gold team for Color War at his day camp, so he wants to be on the blue team this year!
• He sometimes goes by the name “Ash”, and he does really well in school.

I also got to hang out with Ashton’s older brother Max, who is a current 5th grader and will be an Upper Inter Boy this summer.  It will be his third year at camp, and he’s been seeing a lot of his bunk this year, including recently at a sleepover party.  He specifically wore a Camp Canadensis shirt for his visit…he loves camp!  He also goes by the nickname “Witty”, and he told me we need to plan a good overnight in 2013 for the Upper Inter Boys, unfortunately they’ve had bad weather two years in a row!

Over in Livingston, NJ, I got to spend some time with Amanda, a current 2nd grader who will be a Lower Junior Girl at camp.  She also did the Tour & More Weekend at camp last year (photo above), and .  Here’s what you need to know about this fun new addition to camp…

• Her favorite TV shows are Dance Moms and Cupcake Wars – she can’t wait to have her room redone so she can get a TV in there!
• She goes to dance classes once a week.  If she has enough time, she would like to be on the competition team like her big sister.
• She is super busy with soccer!  She loves that sport, and she had even played a game outside the day before I came over (it had been realllly cold!)!
• I went over to visit on a snowy day in March, and she told me about the storm when they lost power and the whole family slept downstairs in the basement – she said it was sorta fun to camp out down there together!
• Her favorite ice cream flavor is coconut.  She had it once when she went to Mexico on a family vacation.  She hopes they will have it at the Casino Movie theater – it’s a trip that every Canadensis camper goes on, and they have sooooo many ice cream flavors to choose from!
• Her second favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip (they’ll definitely have that!).
• Her soccer team name is the “Lady Leopards”.
• She gets to sleep in a Blue and Gold room every night at home!  The ceiling is painted like the sky, and it helps her fall asleep.
• She’s excited for the overnight camping trip!
• Amanda has never gone on a upside down roller coaster before, but she can’t wait to try it at Dorney Park!
• She got to do cooking as her elective during Tour & More last summer.  This year, she is going to choose gymnastics and maybe tennis as electives.
• She told me she didn’t like vegetables at all…but it turns out she does like carrots and broccoli…and that’s a really good start!
• For Halloween this year, she dressed up as a lady from “Monster High”.  Because of the Sandy Storm, they didn’t get to go house to house, but they went car to car and called in “trunk or treating” – very creative!
• She had a couple of requests for the summer: she wanted to make sure her counselors would all be girls (yes!), that they all be nice (yes!) and she hopes she can have a middle bed so she can have friends on each side.
• Amanda is both is a little sister and a big sister – baby Sloan (not pictured) and her like to do gymnastics together.

Her older sister Ashley is currently in 5th grade and will be an Upper Inter Girl this summer.  It will be her second season at camp and we can’t wait to have her back!  She has been really busy at school…I could barely tear her away from her homework!  She told me a little bit about her dance classes, and about the camp friends she’s been seeing at sleepovers.

February and March were full of trips, but now that it’s April I’m getting to spend some quality time back home in Philly – I love Philly in the Spring!!  I’ve been training the Broad Street 10-mile run on May 5th, it’s the largest 10-mile run in the country, more than 40,000 runners!!  I’ll be wearing a Camp Canadensis shirt, so maybe I’ll find some camp alumni along the way.  The picture below was taken a few weeks ago in Rittenhouse Square, one of the best parks in Philly.  Annie (the dog) and I loved hanging out with camp friends!

2012 Staff Members: Rachel Waxman (Evening Activities), Mel Taube (Photography) and Sam Ginsburg (Operations/Annie’s favorite baby sitter)

One of the highlights of the camp “off season” each year is the American Camp Association Tri-State Conference in nearby Atlantic City.  There are so many wonderful aspects to this large gathering of camp professionals.  We get to attend courses that help make each summer better and better – plus we find great resources in the exhibit hall!  Here are some photos from Tri-State 2013…

Jim Cain is my favorite presenter and Author, Eric won his new book of games by spinning a wheel!

How fun is this lycra tube??  A fun idea for small group games from Jim Cain!

For the first time this year, they offered an early morning 5K run on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.  It was good training for my 10-mile run!  Dave came to cheer me on despite the early start time and freezing temps!

We start planning out the gear and shirts we are going to order for camp each year…we love working with Kenn at Mr Dees Tees, and seeing the new shirt colors and designs!

A trip to London to hire International Staff took me a lot further from home, but it was a wonderful trip!  We travel with Camp America, and we are one of nearly 40 camps that participate in a “job fair”.  In one day, we have the chance to meet nearly 800 staff members – my mission is to find the best ones, and I’m so excited for you to meet them this summer!

Shane Dell and Bethany Freer are returning UK Staff Members, they were amazing help at the job fair, and we can’t wait to have them back at camp in 2013!!Former Group Leader, Lauren Berry is from Australia, but has been living in London for the past two years…it was SO wonderful seeing some of London with her!Even though this was my 5th trip to London, I’ll never get tired of taking “cheesy” London pictures with my friend Julie.

I’m so excited to introduce you to our first camper from Paradise Valley, Arizona!!  Jaden is currently in 4th grade, and she cannot wait for her first year as a Lower Inter Girl this summer! In the picture above we are hanging in her backyard in the middle of March on a sunny AZ day – she gets to wear shorts and tanks all year long!  Here are some important things you need to know about her:

• She loves being up on stage and is a great actress!  She has been in pretty much every show twice, including Suessical the Musical, and Alice in Wonderland.   Even though its hard work, loves it!
• She was in the newspaper when she was 4 years old playing the role of Dinah, the cat in Alice in Wonderland.  She’s also been in Grease, Willy Wonka and more!
• She’s really brave, there is a high dive at her school, and the first time she did it she wasn’t afraid at all!  She’s going to love our zipline this summer.  She also likes roller coasters.
• She’s got blue eyes, which you might get to see under her sunglasses!
• She once won a gaga medal on a cruise.
• Jaden really ikes tennis – and is excited to play at camp!
• She gave me a tour of her house, including her awesome new room makeover!
• She goes to a really good school, and she gets around three hours of home work every night!  She loves the “specials” classes, like art, music and technology.  She learning how to use iMovie – and she is creating a documentary about sea level rise.
• She says she used to be the teachers pet, now she’s known as more of a class clown.
• Blue and gold are also the colors of her school, she has lots of great things she plans to bring to camp for spirit and dress up!
• Everyone should watch out, Jaden knows how to do tae kwon do to protect herself.
• For electives, she is excited to try Canadensis Today & Glass Fusion.
• She loves to go horseback riding, on a horse named Candy.
• Jaden has a candy addiction (to the sweets, not the horse) and she even had some on display in her room – I’m impressed she’s not tempted by it all the time!
• We have a lot of her favorite candies in the canteen, including milky way, sour straws and gummy bears.
• She loves to be clean and organized, she is going to help her bunk win Honor Bunk every week!
• She loves mushrooms, but is not a huge fan of pizza.
• She has two awesome dogs named Joey and Whitney – (Whitney is named after Whitney Houston)
• She loves monkeys
• Jaden is a big sister, she has a younger brother Dylan (currently in Kindergarten)

While in Arizona, I also got to meet with one of the new staff members that will be joining our Health Center team this year!  Karen is so warm, and welcoming.  She is a Grandmother to 11 Grandkids, and there is one more on the way! She has so many hobbies: she spent a lot of last summer fishing with her brother, she is taking a quilting course, and she would like to learn how to crochet.   She also loves to travel, she’s see pretty much every corner of the country!  She’s been to Alaska (which reminded her of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she grew up), but her favorite state she’s ever visited is Oregon.  We can’t wait to have her join us in Pennsylvania for a great summer at camp!

While on the U of A Campus, I met with some of my AEPhi sisters who were applying to work at Canadensis, and we actually did the interviews at my old sorority house.  Above is a picture of me in college from the sorority composite!

My parents live in Arizona, so we were able to celebrate Passover together, in the desert…haha.  On the left is my sister who came in from Texas, it was great family fun!Even Annie got to come to Arizona, she’s my favorite hiking buddy!  It such a wonderful state, but it’s awfully hot there during the summer…I’m glad that at least 10 AZ residents are leaving the 120 degree heat behind, and will be joining us for a wonderful summer at Camp Canadensis!

Allow me to introduce you to some awesome new Canadensis campers!  First up is Alexa, a current 3rd grader that will be a Junior Girl this summer.  She lives in Gladwyne, PA and also goes by the nickname Lexi.  Here are some important things you need to know about this fun new camper…

• She has an adorable rescue puppy named Penny, because she is the color of a penny.
• She attends The Shipley School, and has the best teacher in the school, Mrs. Riley.
• Alexa loves Justin Bieber, and had more than 10 pictures of him in her room.  I left the house smelling like Justin Bieber perfume!
• She has a super fun bedroom now, but if she’s at camp for the full summer she gets to move into a new bigger room with her own bathroom!  Imagine the awesome camp friend sleepover parties she can throw!
• She is a big sister to Brooke, they are two years apart.  Brooke will be doing the Tour & More Weekend this summer!
• The best part about being a big sister is getting to stay up later!  Alexa is also an early riser.
• Alexa thinks she’s going to want to be in the camp show, and she suggested that we do Wicked.
• She will want to dance every day of the summer, and also will choose gymnastics as an elective.
• Currently, she takes dance classes three days a week and on Saturday she dances for four hours!  She’s definitely going to want to be on our inter-camp dance team.
• The name of her year round competition dance team is the “mini-pops”.   She dances with a lot of other Canadensis Girls at Liberty Me, including Kylie, Marissa, Skye, Brooke, Madison and Jenna.
• Shabbat is a big deal at her house, and a lot of fun!  They invite friends to celebrate each week.
• When Color War breaks,  she hopes she’ll be on the blue team!  Her mom was a blue team color war captain and did some cheers for us in the dining room!
• Her favorite color is purple and her favorite candy is “dots”.
• Her family went on an RV vacation to Niagara Falls, and along the way they jumped into a freezing cold gorge of water – so cool!!
• She has a super neat and clean room, her parents agreed that she is very organized.
• She had so many great questions about camp – how do phone calls home work, how do we celebrate stuffed animal birthday parties, and what kind of stuff do staff have to jump in the lake for?
• She’s already planned out what she wants to wear at crazy night (one of our wild evening activities!)
• She’s planning to try everything by the end of the summer!

• She has cut her hair three times for “Locks of Love”, a charity that provides hairpieces for disadvantaged children – so impressive!
• She loves piggies, and had too many in her room to count!  She taught me a fun song that shows you how a draw pigs really easily by making little circles and bigger circles…you can learn the song here.
• She has a snow globe collection, and has more than 20!
• Each week she takes more than seven hours of dance classes.  She can’t decide if hip-hop or modern dance is her favorite.  She knows Alexa (above) from dance, and does competition as well.
• Brooke is a great eater likes trying all different kinds of things.  Her dad is from my hometown (Hewlett, LI!) and her Grandparents still live there, so we have some of the same favorite restaurants, like Matteos.
• She’s got some awesome baking skills.  As you can see in the photo above, Brooke made an amazing cookie cake, that she decorated all by herself!!  It was SO awesome, and delicious!  We gobbled it up in the winter office the next day…thanks!!
• She is a really good big sister to her brother Aidan, but he’s impossible to share a bed with because he takes up the whole bed!
• She likes to ride her bike, even though she never has enough time.
• Brooke showed me tons of art project she’s made, like glass fusion trivets, ceramic projects, popsicle sticks bowls, hand soaps, and scented candles that smelled like hot chocolate!  She has an aunt who works at Make Meaning in NYC, and she gets to try tons of fun projects there.  If you are ever looking for something to do in NY, check it out!
• Brooke has an amazing memory.  She remembers so much about the Tour & More weekend, she already knows the locations of where everything is in camp!
• She is going to a Maroon5 concert before coming up to camp, and she is going to do a camping trip with her dad to get ready for the COALS overnight at camp this summer.
• Some of her electives choices will definitely be glass fusion and dance.  The 3rd elective will be a wildcard… maybe something at the lake?
• She might want to audition for the camp show – she has been in Glee and Grease in the past.
• Her mom is one of her dance teachers, and her dad is her soccer coach…some of the many activities she is involved with!  Her parents met at Ohio State University, and she has them winning in our Canadensis March Madness NCAA Bracket Challenge, and she’s been high up on the leader board the whole time!

Brooke wore a special Canadensis shirt for my home visit!

Jes is going to be returning to camp for her 2nd summer, she will be in the Lower Inter Girls division.  She lives in Maryland, and recently celebrated her 10th birthday.  She had a “color war” themed party, and the two teams were purple and pink!  In the photo above you can see Jes in the purple shirt in one of the competitions, she had to eat a donut off a dangling rope as fast as possible, just like the carnival game we play at camp.  Looks like tons of fun!

Let me tell you, I’m lucky to have 200 amazing coworkers each summer at camp, but our tiny team that works all winter is pretty fabulous too!  As the two full time office females, Cara Corradetti and I wind up getting into all sorts of fun together.  She’s unbelievable, and exactly the kind of camp friend you want to have…every day she’ll make you laugh, encourage you to join in a sing along, teach you a new craft project and tell you about some fabulous game/product/website you had no idea existed.  She’s up for anything (like decorating the Matt & Melissa engagement bus ride with tablecloths and balloons) and she’ll help you with whatever is on your plate.  She is an amazing Head Counselor and the CIT Program has really grown under her leadership.  She is also a fantastic trip leader who takes our kids out of camp for around 12 days each summer, and you’ve probably grown to love her as co-host on the Canadensis Today Show.  I’m so lucky to work with her all year, and I thought I’d share just a few of our recent adventures…

We do LOVE Bingo!!  Our first Bingo outing was in Canadensis during post camp 2012 with Sam Ginsburg and Robin Forti, and we were instantly hooked.  There were awesome prizes (like a whole watermelon!) and Cara won the biggest cash prize of the night.  Since then, we’ve been actively seeking out Bingo playing opportunities – we’ve played with Robin at Temple Beth Or where one of our camp moms, Stacey Frezel, organized a huge Bingo fundraiser!    We’ve also played in Philadelphia at an 80’s themed Bingo night where Lower Girls Head Counselor Melissa Torban joined us in crazy costumes as well…Robin was a big winner that night!

We want to bring our love of BINGO to camp this summer…we’ve learned a lot of exciting ways to play, fun games and contests to go along with the number calling.

The pictures above are a BIG REVEAL!  Cara and I recently spent a day painting plaques that represent the amazing theatrical productions that the Canadensis campers put on each summer.  We’ve gone back in time to create plaques for some recent years, and they will be hanging in the Rec Hall this summer – each year new plaques will be added and it will be a fantastic reminder of the hard work our actors, actresses, tech crew and staff put in!

Cara has introduced me to many new crafts, including paper embossing and stationery – but our most adventurous crafting by far was the glass blowing class we recently took!  We were instructed by Julia Eckenrode (our returning glass fusion director at camp) and it was an incredible experience!  It was amazing to watch Julia work, and we very quickly got our turn to learn how to make paper weights, cups, flowers and bowls…unbelievable!

I’ve been on the road for camp a lot lately, but before I left I got to meet some awesome new campers that I can’t wait to introduce you to!  First up from Blue Bell, PA is Lily, a current 4th grader who will be a new Lower Inter Girl this summer.  She cannot wait for her first summer at Canadensis, it’s a family tradition!  Her father went to Canadensis for many years, and her cousins Alex & Valerie are currently campers too!  Here’s what you need to know about Lily:

• She loves animals and would want to get a dog.  She currently has a fish, but if she could pick any animal in the world she would get a teacup pig (never heard of it before, but they are super cute!!)
• The best thing about living in her neighborhood is getting to hang out with all of her friends, and they have tennis courts which is one of her favorite sports.
• She plays basketball at school, even if it’s just her with the “guys” because she really enjoys it!  She’s also on a softball team.
• She has been horseback riding in Arizona on a family vacation, and wants to take lessons at camp this year.
• She goes hiking as a family, and she’s going to love going on the overnight the summer!  She collects snow globes and has them from some of her vacation spots.
• She showed me some of the arts and crafts in her room – she had a whole drawer full (that was very organized).  She’s made clay coasters, bracelets with beads, and things she’s created on the ceramics wheel.
• She’s likes paddle boarding, so I told her about the Macarena game that girls bunk 3 taught me to play on the boards last year, so fun!  She wants to also try waterskiing this summer!
• She can’t wait to go zip lining and try the summit on the lake.  Her cousin Valerie told her that she is going to absolutely love cooking!  She’ll probably choose glass fusion for an elective, and maybe quads too!
• Her favorite subject in school is math…really!
• She knew the blue team won cw were last year… it must have been a lucky guess!?
• She came to camp on Fourth of July for her tour last summer, and she got to have the cornman – YUM!  She also spent time looking for her father in pictures in the dining hall.
• Lily thinks she is going to sign up for a medium group at Dorney park – which means lots of rides, but nothing upside down!
• She’s started planning how she’ll decorate her camp walls.  I won’t give it all away, but it involves posters of Luke Bryan (country singer) and Taylor Lautner’s abs!
• Lily is pretty much ALWAYS in a good mood – she has a daybed so it’s not even possible to wake up on the wrong side of the bed!

Finally, you should also know that Lily has an “unnatural sibling” at camp!  This is a game we play at morning line-up at Canadensis, where you look similar to someone who is NOT a relative.  It’s hard to tell with the sunglasses on, but former camper & counselor Sammi Goldberg and Lily look A LOT alike!! 

I also spent some time in Lafayette Hill with Alexa, a current 3rd grader who will be an Upper Junior Girl this summer!  She greeted me at the door wearing an “I <3 Canadensis” – so she has a TON and excitement for the upcoming summer!  Here’s what you need to know about Alexa:

• She is a very good student!  She knows how to speak a little bit of Chinese, Spanish, and is learning Hebrew.  She also knows how to count and French!
• Alexa loves Justin Bieber…really loves him!  When we up in her room, I counted 10 Justin’s in her room but I’m sure there are a lot more!
• She likes a lot of different kinds of music.  She has gone to a lot of concerts, including Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber and Jingle Ball.  And a Madonna concert too!
• She’s actually named after a Billy Joel song…”The Downeaster Alexa” – and even his daughter is named Alexa.
• Alexa loves to read…she can’t get enough of it, there were tons of books in her room!
• Her favorite sports are kickball and gaga – she will get to play a bunch at camp!
• Alexa goes to gymnastics and really loves it!
• She currently takes hip-hop dance and wants to also take lyrical next year.
• She’s a big dancer…we even played “just dance” video game during my visit.
• She is an older sister to two brothers Ari and Max.
• I was there the day before her birthday – and she showed me the cupcakes that she decorated herself that her classmates got to enjoy!
• At her birthday party, they did airbrushing (see below) and learned how to play the cup games that we do in the dining hall!
• She likes to vacation both in Colorado to go skiing and down the shore at the beach.
• She is definitely going to be signing up zip line and glass fusion electives this summer.  She also can’t wait for cooking.
• She had a lot of ceramics projects that she has painted in her room.
• She likes carrots and cucumbers but maybe we can introduce her to some new vegetables too?
• Her mom went to summer camp and had so much.  She’s still really close with a lot of camp friends, and Alexa can’t wait to have that at Canadensis!

At Alexa’s birthday party, showing some Canadensis spirit!  Marissa, Kylie & Alexa will all be Junior Girls!

Here are some other photos I’ve recently received from Canadensis Campers…if you are meeting camp friends, send photos to pam@canadensis.com!

Some girls from last years Bunk 7!  Abby, Maddy, Samantha and Alexandra!

A brother/sister meet up!  The Amanda’s will be new Junior girls, and their brothers Jordan & Jeremy will be Upper Inters.

It’s the winter, and that means travel season for all of us who work full time at camp!  I wanted to tell you about some of my recent journeys, and I hope you’ve been following along through the facebook group, twitter and instagram as Eric & Matt went to Eastern Europe, Brian & Cara went to Michigan, Ohio and Western PA, and Eric went to New Zealand and Australia!

My first trip was to Maryland for a camp fair.  We offer bus transportation from Bethesda to camp, so we went down to spread the word!

Jason “JCal” Calabretta is a Senior at Geroge Washington University in D.C., so I got to spend a bunch of time with him.  He came to both days of the fair, and showed me around D.C. at night.  JCal is an amazing volunteer, he worked so hard at the fairs!

The highlight of the weekend was getting to see our existing Canadensis families in Maryland!  Pictured above from left to right:

Lauren, Freshman Girl, 2nd summer at camp.

Emily, Freshman Girl, 2nd summer at camp.

Dani, Junior Counselor, 10th summer at camp.

Haley, Upper Inter Girl, 4th summer at camp.

Ben, Super Senior Boy,2nd summer at camp.

Marshall, Lower Inter Boy, 4th summer at camp.

Jes, Lower Inter Girl, 2nd summer at camp.

We sort of turned it into a Maryland Canteen on the Fly, and decorated t-shirts!

On the second day of the fair, Pete Skurman came to volunteer as well…he was a huge help, especially when he used his Spanish skills to speak with an interested family – muy impresionante!Volunteer all day, and get some t-shirts!  Here are some “new” vintage shirts I found for Pete & JCal as a thank you for spending their weekend with me!

The next big trip for work was to Paris for more camper recruitment! We attended 3 camper fairs at bilingual schools.  Having a small number of French campers at Canadensis each year has added an exciting dynamic to our program.

Liam has been at camp for the past two summers, and it was so great to see him and his mom!  He is currently in 7th grade, and his Bar Mitzvah is only a few weeks away.  School is incredibly busy for him, but he’s still finding ways to have fun!

Dave came on the trip and was a huge help navigating a foreign country, and talking to interested parents where there were 5+ families waiting to get information about all the activities we have at Canadensis!  When we weren’t at the fairs, we walked a lot – we trekked over 20 miles exploring Paris, and it was great to see the city on foot!

Later today I’m off to Arizona for staff recruitment…can’t wait to see our 2012 staff members, and find awesome new people to join us in 2013!  My travel isn’t even halfway done, so stay tuned!

I recently got to spend some time in Rye Brook, Westchester, NY.  I was visiting with Zoe, a current 3rd grader that will be an Upper Junior Girl this summer.  She’s really sweet, and although she’s been at camp for the past two visiting days – I really first got to know her during the Tour & More Weekend last summer, check out her photo above.  Here are some things you need to know about Zoe:

• She is a good writer will write many more letters home than her brother – her parents agree!
• Zoe’s favorite color is red (maybe she’ll be on the red team for Revolutionary War Day on July4th?) and for Color War she wants to be on the blue team…because it’s harder to find gold shirts!
• She plays soccer every season – winter, spring, fall, and of course she’ll be playing at camp this summer!  She just started playing in a new indoor winter soccer league.
• She has a seashell collection in her room.
• She had lots of books in her room, including a collection of  “summer camp” books.
• If she could redecorate her room, she would paint animals all over her walls.  Her favorite animal is a monkey, but right now the only pet she has are the fish that have a tank in her room.
• She’s a good cook, and her specialty is cupcakes!  She once was trying to decorate cupcakes like a soccer ball, but it turned into a smiley face 🙂
• Zoe is excited for the lake activities at camp!  She has been on the water trampoline and water mat in the lake, and is excited to do more activities.
• She is a snow skier, she’s gone skiing in a lot of places, including Colorado.
• She loves 1D (the band One Direction, in case you didn’t know the lingo…)
• She plays the guitar (awesome!)
• She plans on choosing glass fusion for some electives this summer!

Her older brother Zachary is a current 5th grader, who will be an Upper Inter Boy this summer.  Zachary started at Canadensis with the Tour & More Program in 2010, but I won’t post a picture since it’s not “Throwback Thursday”!  This will be his third summer at camp, and he’s been enjoying spending time with the Bunk 9 guys, especially at the camp reunion.  He had great stories about last summer, including a few about his CIT Jordan “JMitch” Mitchell – it’s always great to hear the impact that our oldest campers have on Lower Camp.  During the winter, Zach has been playing basketball and soccer.  He also really loves roller hockey at camp and can’t wait for CHL (Canadensis Hockey League) this year.

Always love to spend time with returning siblings too!  In Short Hills, NJ, I caught up with Sam, a current 7th grader who will be a Lower Senior this summer – first time on Senior Side!  Lots of new things are in store for Sam, (and all the Lower Seniors) at camp this year.  He is in the process of preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, he’s listening to the parsha once a week on his iPhone (my how times have changed, I used to have to pause and rewind it on my walkman!).  Sam has also been seeing lots of camp friends this year has also started taking tennis lessons because he liked it so much at camp!  He’s a busy guy, doing lots of homework – and he’s looking forward to baseball league this Spring.  He saw the custom iPhone case I made (see below) and said he’d want to make one with the Geico Gecko!

Lexi is a current 5th grader, and will be an Upper Inter this summer.  I can’t believe it’s already going to be her 3rd summer at camp!  She loved soccer at camp this summer so she started playing in the fall and really enjoyed it – she was excited to hear that “the Smasher” was returning and thought that my upcoming trip to London to hire staff was really cool.  Lexi had a great time at the reunion, all of last years Bunk 9 decided to work together and won more than 2000 tickets in the arcade!  They decided to get a bunk prize, so they all got rubber ducky’s – hers is orange, so cute!  She’s been busy taking dance lesson, and spent winter break in Los Angeles visiting her family out there. One of her favorite memories from last summer was the “HCM”…Hot Chocolate Mission…I can’t give you too many details, but let’s just say it sounded awesome!!!

Here’s a picture of my current cell phone case…it’s just a clear case, but I used the Silhouette tool to cut out some paper with my name.  I put it between my phone and the clear case, and it looks awesome – plus I can easily change it daily based on my mood!  This is just one of the different types of projects we can make in the new Stationery elective this summer!

It always awesome spending time with new campers!!  Annabelle is a current 3rd grader, who will be a new Upper Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She lives in Philadelphia, and without a doubt they are the Canadensis family that lives closest to me, so I just walked over to visit!  Here’s what you need to know about Annabelle:

• She has an awesome bedroom, with an antique doll house that once was her moms!
• She’s an artist, in the photo above she’s holding a cool stuffed animal with a roll out tongue that she made at Handworks Studio.
• She’s already climbed up two of our rock wall paths on visiting day, can’t wait to see her master all of them this summer!  (she even had a broken pinky at the time!)
• Annabelle once camped out in her backyard, and can’t wait for the overnight!
• She loves Grease, and thinks we should do it as the camp show – I’ll definitely suggest it!
• She has dressed up and performed as Katy Perry in a talent show.
• She can’t wait for Glass Fusion, and might also big the ceramics wheel as an elective.  She has her own ceramic wheel at home, so she’ll be ready to try our big ones this summer!
• She likes our surfboards, and is excited to do more activities on the lake.
• She wants to be on the Gold Team (in part, because she has blonde hair).
• Even though archery was hard for her at day camp last summer, she’s still excited to do it at Canadensis!
• Her guinea pig is named “Sarah” and her dog is named “Jordan”.
• She is a Yankee’s fan (in Philly!) – just like me!
• She loves crafting so much that she was on her way to A.C. Moore after I left!

Annabelle’s big brother is a returning camper.  Eli is a current 5th grader who will be an Upper Inter Boy this summer.  Since I visited on Martin Luther King Day, he was having a sleepover with one of his bunkmates.  Lucas is also a 5th grade, Upper Inter Boy, who is excited to return to Canadensis for his second summer.

Next up was a trip to Penn Valley, where I visited with Lindsay, a current 3rd grader that will be an Upper Junior Girl.  Lindsay is SO ready for camp, she’s watched Today Shows, seen tons of pictures, and even spent two nights at camp!  She has done Tour & More for the past two summers, and above is her picture from 2012.  Here are some things you need to know about Lindsay:

• She loves the banana boat and rock wall already – has already tried both!
• She loves basketball, soccer, gaga, gymnastics and dance.
• She is also very artistic, she showed me an awesome pillowcase she made at handwork studio – it was blue & gold and embroidered with “Canadensis” – amazing!
• I was also impressed with the beads she wove together to spell out her name, and the bracelets she made.
• She loves to be on stage, was just recently John Valjean in Les Miserables.
• She is reading all of the Harry Potter books, for the second time!
• Lindsay loves riding her bike at home, and makes her bed (most of the time!)
• She can’t wait for all the activities at camp – we are going to have to make sure she gets enough sleep!
• She’s a big snow skier (can’t wait to see her on waterskis!) and she has a whole scrapbook of all the vacations she’s been on.
• She wants to be on the blue team so she can use the color hairspray, and was wondering if she’ll be on the same team with her big sister.  (FYI, only CIT’s are guaranteed to be on the same team as their sibling – but if siblings end up on opposite teams, they can share blue & gold items, and celebrate whoever wins!)
• She’s already planning what kind of water gun she wants to use for the HUGE after visiting day water fight!
• She is outgoing, fun, and ready to try anything!
• Lindsay is going to be missed a lot at home…especially because she has great eyes, and her parents loved that she could pick out her older sister in every single picture on the website, no matter how small!

Which brings me to Anna, a current 4th grader that will be a Lower Inter Girl, and this will be her second year at camp!

It was so good to see her, and talk about last summer!  She said her favorite place in camp was the rock climbing wall… or the summit – she couldn’t decide, but said both were even better than cooking!  She’s been busy doing a lot of reading, including a set of books sent to her as a gift from Jen Romberg, her group leader and counselor last summer.  It was such a kind and unexpected surprise, and Anna’s been loving the Lemony Snicket series!  Anna was in the camp show Annie last year, and she suggested The Music Man for 2013…great idea!

Younger brother William has started kindergarten, and he was building legos during my visit.  He very quickly put together a model car without any help!  We all posed for this fun and silly photo above.  Lindsay loaned me a clown nose, while she used a balloon as a mustache!  Anna has an awesome blonde curly wig, and all the “props” in the photo are great examples of some of the fun and silly things that are good to pack for camp!  Always think about how things can serve double purposes at camp, the wig is great for dress up evening activities, and will come in handy for gold team during color war!

Check out some of Anna’s camp memories from 2012!  She has a box full of letters and awards from camp (she received the Fabric Arts award!), and she used stickers to spell the names of all her Bunk 4 camp friends.  The poster on the right is some of her favorite pictures from last year – awesome!!

I’ve got two new campers to introduce you to!  Jade is a current 3rd grader who will be a Junior Girl – and she lives in Closter, NJ.  She greeted me at the door when I arrived, along with her super cute dog named Rocky.  She loved trying all the activities at day camp, and we’ve got way more for her to try this summer!  Some of her favorites are arts & crafts, swimming, basketball and soccer.  Jade also rides go-karts and at camp they called her the “speed devil”!  She feels comfortable being in shows and up on stage, she’s been “Auntie Em” in the Wizard of Oz, and she’s also been in Aladdin.  On my visit, she told me about the upcoming talent show she is planning to be in!

At the talent show, she will definitely be wearing purple – it’s her favorite color!  We toured her beautiful purple bedroom and she showed me her collection of  stuffed animals (some that her sister brought back from the Dorney Park trip!), books and pillows – including an ice cream sandwich pillow (which looked delicious!).  Jade has made a lot of craft projects for herself and family members.  She also loves fashion, and getting her toes painted – so her bunkmates should prepare for lots of manicure parties!

This summer, she wants to learn how to ride a bike and I’ve heard she’s a good chef who will be making some great food in cooking!  She will also help her bunk be the cleanest and win honor bunk awards – according to her parents, she is the neatest of all the siblings!

Her older sister Adina will be a Lower Senior at camp, and it’s her 5th summer at Canadensis (5 year jacket time!!).  Although she’s moving over to Senior side this summer, she’s going to be looking out for Jade all the time!  While I was over, she was wearing her bunkmate Rachel’s Bat Mitzvah sweatshirt, and she’s been seeing a lot of her friends this year.  She’s having a great time, and I loved seeing all the camp photos up in her room!

Isak will be an Upper Senior this summer, and it will also be his 5th year at camp!  This picture shows him in his garage workshop where he gets to do woodworking all year!  I was really impressed with the signs he’s made, and we were just steps away from his dirt bike that he also likes to work on.  He loves dirtbiking so much that it was actually his Bar Mitzvah theme!  Isak definitely stays busy – he’s even putting together videos for his school like JCal does with the today show during the summer!

My next stop was in Tenafly, NJ with Sydney, a current 3rd grader who will be a Junior Girl this summer!  She can’t wait for her first summer at Camp Canadensis!  Her favorite activities are soccer, gymnastics, basketball and softball (in that order!) – and she does most of them as after school activities.  She likes being on a team, and right now she’s on the Tenafly Tigers.  However, she also loves arts and crafts, swimming and adventure – she’s the definition of a well-rounded Canadensis girl!

She had just spent winter break skiing in Colorado, and on one of her first tries waterskiing last summer she was able to stand up.  She will no doubt be skiing circles around the lake this year, and she’s excited about the summit and other water toys too.  Sydney describes herself as a “crazy girl” who loves zip lining, rock climbing, water slides and upside down roller coasters!  Her room was still decorated with streamers from her December birthday, and while we talked I enjoyed seeing the art projects she’d made in her room, especially the bracelets.  Sydney’s favorite color is blue, and she likes “One Direction“, so maybe those preferences will be reflected in her bedding & posters this summer?  We’ll have to wait a few more months to find out…

She might be missing her adorable puppies Sammy and Pixie while she’s away at camp, but she’ll bring pictures of them up – and will be writing tons of letters home.  Remember everyone…more letters usually means more visiting day candy!  Sydney is totally ready for an awesome summer at camp…checkout what she wore to sleep the night after my visit!

While I was in the Garden State, I also visited my friend Abbie who works at BeeBee Designs in Livingston, NJ.  They sell a lot of camp essentials (and the super fun camp stuff) at their store, and I wanted to check it out!  They had tons of games and clothing, and apparently they’ll have 5 times more in store when the official camp season kicks off on February 11th!  My favorite item in the store was the Canadensis airbrushed sweatpants they had on display…check it out!

And finally…we LOVE when Canadensis campers meet up…and we love seeing the photos!  This picture was taken at a recent Bat Mitzvah, and shows Jordyn (4th grade, Lower Inter), Sabrina (7th grade, Lower Senior) and Rachel (7th grade, Lower Senior).  Looks like a fun night!

(BTW…the Bat Mitzvah sweatshirt Adina is wearing above is from this Rachel!)