Right now I’m on my way to Long Island for our last Canteen on the Fly for 2011 – I can’t wait to see some of our NY families, and I’m really excited for the Senior Summit which is happening right afterwards!  I just wanted to share two amazing photos for Frame Worthy Friday- we have an amazing staff at Canadensis – and they put the campers above everything else, and here are just two photos that prove it!

So when you become my age (I feel so old saying that) Halloween just isn’t that much fun anymore. It’s definitely cool to see all of the kids in costumes, make roasted pumpkin seeds, hand out candy, but come on…if you don’t get to go trick or treating and eat all of the candy that you get that how much fun is it really? So for years, I haven’t been the true grinch of Halloween (I happily give out candy), but I haven’t been so “into it”. Then we started Halloween at camp and that got me more into the spirit (in July though), but this year I got to spend Halloween with my niece up in Boston!

Emily Forti (now 1 year 8 months old) was dressed as Dora the Explorer. To try to get her to wear the Dora backpack was quite a challenge, but nonetheless she resembled cute Dora. We set out (with Robin in tow) around 5PM for a night of trick or treating. We even got Emily to say trick treat and she held a pumpkin pail in which she collected all of the candy. Now of course she couldn’t pick which kind of candy she liked from houses, so I had the unfortunate job of having to decide if she should take the Reese’s, Snickers Bar, Kit Kat or PENCIL. Of course, the pencil never got chosen! The ultimate is when you go to a house that gives out the FULL SIZE BARS! Anyway, we stayed out for about an hour and a half and of course snacks were enjoyed by all during the process. It really was a fun time!

Emily as Dora the Explorer

I rarely take the time to talk about my family on this blog, but I figured it was appropriate to give my niece a shout out!

One camp related thing, how cool is this Indian Head Pumpkin?! Special shout out and thanks to the Mindy and Rachael Rosenthal for sending this in. Great job ladies.

Awesome Indian Head Pumpkin

Next blog post, all about camp and some of the new and exciting projects we have planned for this winter! Enjoy the warm up coming over the next week or so!

I delayed my “Frame Worthy Friday” blog until today because I knew I wanted to post some photos from Canadensis Halloween during the summer!  We don’t really need excuses to dress up at camp – between the 4th of July, Crazy Night, Miss Canadensis, the Camp Shows and Color War, it’s actually rare to go a whole day without seeing someone in costume!

We pull out all the stops for the Canadensis Halloween Celebration – which includes trick or treating, games, costume contests, parades, “haunted houses”, golf cart “hay rides” and so much more!  Below are some of my favorite pictures from last year – I hope you have a very Happy Halloween!!!

I dressed up as grapes – Eric was an apple, and Brian was a banana.  We all wore capes, and were “Fruit on the Fly” – which is an awesome time each day when the camp comes together and enjoys a fruit snack.  Here I am with Super Seniors: Sam as Kermit the Frog, and Carly as a Canadensis Hockey Player.

Girls Bunk 8

Cowboy Roy and Mets Player Josh

Boys Bunk 8

Ben dressed as Mario, and Ethan as a magician

Girls Bunk 5

With Julia dressed as a Pajama Girl – did I mention that I’m wearing this 50 pound costume on one of the hottest days of the summer??

It’s that time of year again! Time for the Winter Office MONSTER MASH.

I loved it! Who watched Once Upon a Time on Sunday?!?!?!

(Originally written in September 2011)

Dear Campers and Staff from Summer 2011,

Wow! What an awesome summer it was. I am sitting at my desk up at camp, 8:30PM on a Monday night in September, it is freezing outside (well in the 40’s), and camp is LONELY. Trust me, I love every minute being at camp, but it’s just not the same as when 700 people are running around!

In just 49 days, so many memories were formed for both campers, staff, and campers/staff together. I remember back to our week-long staff orientation with our annual Welcome Circle, The Amazing Race, the staff pool party, and much more. Then all of our campers arrived and I vividly remember the buses pulling up to the pavilion for lice checks and trying to “hold back” the staff from running up to our campers, past the skin diamond, with big hugs for all!

And how many times did the Junior boys try to hit me with a water balloon this summer all the way up to the CIT boys trying to get me into their baby pool! I can’t forget the 2 days I got to bond with the Freshman boys out of camp in Cooperstown, NY. Luckily, nobody got left behind at the West Point Military Academy and how about all of the boys trying to drive those go-karts and hitting the staff “accidentally”! On girls side, the senior girls invited me to play in games of BBK (which surprisingly I scored a homerun!) to hanging with girls camp during the all-camp swims on super hot days, I enjoyed getting to know all of our new campers and seeing our returners!

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Canadensis Today Show and all of the fun we had producing it. From picking a different menu reader each day to our wonderful C-Reporters, to the birthday patrol, campers were involved more than ever in what has become such a hit for our families and alumni back at home. Special thanks to all the staff who allowed us to come and interrupt your 1st period group and film on location, especially to Kate Mullen when we interrupted the dress rehearsal for Aladdin!

Don’t forget that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes and there is one group of people that often do get forgotten about. Our support staff, consisting of 26 hard-working European college students are an essential part of camp life. After all, who would wash all of our clothes, feed us, keep us safe and secure, and pickup all of our trash! So, a special thanks goes to our fine group of young men and women for all they do (except when they decided to “steal” the Color War box!)

And to all of the campers and staff who helped shape Summer 2011 into what it was, thank you. Don’t forget that camp lives on throughout the winter and I personally can’t wait to see everyone at our Canteen on the Fly’s, our Winter Reunion, charity events, sporting events, home visits, and all of our other fun get togethers! Keep in touch and let us know what you are all up to! Most importantly, we’ll see you right back here for Summer 2012!

Last Monday, if you would have called in to WHYY (NPR Radio here in Philly) that’s what you would have heard! Camp Canadensis volunteers answered the phones and helped raise over $3,000 for the radio station. Our name was mentioned on the radio a bunch of times and you could hear Pam and Phoebe cheering/screaming/clapping in the background each time they mentioned Canadensis. Special thanks to the Starkmans and Calabrettas who called in while we were manning the phones. I should also mention we were fed really well from a donation by a local restaurant, Bistro St. Tropez and it was DELICIOUS. Who could ever pass up free food??!!

The highlight of the end of the week was of course our annual CANTEEN ON THE FLY EVENTS! We held 5 over the weekend and if I had to guess, I would say we had over 200 people in attendance. Campers running around, coloring in the Indian Head, hanging out with their friends, and of course eating ice cream! And how about our “groupies” who followed us to BOTH Philly area locations on Sunday. We love seeing that! It was also great seeing many of our campers wearing their TACS (dogtags) proudly around their neck.

Pictures of the entire event as well as a special Canadensis Today will be posted soon, so check back!

Robin and I answering the phones!

You should definitely get in your car, and come meet me at a Canteen on the Fly this weekend!  We’ll be eating ice cream and giving out camp t-shirts…which sounds like the most perfect day ever!  Check out the locations below:

And now, for your visual enjoyment…some pictures for my weekly “Frame Worthy Friday”:

We are so excited for this weekends CANTEEN ON THE FLY events. We hope that many of our campers, staff, alumni and future campers will join us for some free ice cream. All those that attend will receive a T-Shirt as well. The dates and locations are as follows…