In the winter office, we seem to have a new “tradition” where during lunch we go around the office and discuss our BIG weekend plans. Unfortunately, it’s rare that any of us have such thrilling and exciting weekend plans. But…starting in 2 weeks, Matt and I will easily answer that question with an excited response of “WE WILL BE WORKING UP AT CAMP!!”. We both move up to camp in <2 weeks and are thrilled to be back in our 5-month home (we are there from late April through late September). So, this weekend is supposed to be nice and warm…what are your weekend plans?

Tomorrow, I will be spending some time prepping the house for our new arrival next month (Baby Girl Forti) and then spend the rest of the day seeing family. On Sunday, I will be participating in the MS Walk in Freehold, NJ on a team with one of my friends. Looking forward to spending some time with her and my friends, before it’s time to pack up and head to camp. And Sunday night, I will be having dinner with Dr. Menkowitz and his wife, Sue! Dr. Menkowitz has been a camp Doctor for a bazillion years at camp and is still continuing in the tradition for the 2 weeks following visiting day. So, an exciting weekend and hopefully I will enjoy some time outdoors.

This past week, I had a belated Passover seder (more like dinner) with Robin’s side of the family and that included campers Allie and Lily Ernst! My family is a little jealous of the Ernst girls because by them being at camp, they will get to see Baby Girl Forti more than anyone else in mine or Robin’s family!! They are really excited for camp and as you can see, Lily bought a special furry, soft, and cuddly sweatshirt with a Canadensis patch on it- AWESOME! They were both down in FL spending time with their grandparents (Robin’s Aunt and Uncle) and doing trapeze and other cool activities. While they were down there, Allie got an awesome airbrushed shirt made of the Indian head, which is certainly not something that’s easy to replicate.

Here is a photo of the 4 of us:

Dinner with Allie & Lily Ernst. What do you think of Robin's belly? She looks great and feels great. Due date of May 26, still on track:)

Yesterday, Brian, Pam, and I met to work on the Programming Schedule for this coming summer. It’s a really fun few days of meetings where we design, from scratch, the Canadensis Daily Program for this coming summer. By redesigning it each year, we get to take the input we get all year long (camper surveys, Senior summits, home visits, emails, phone calls, etc.) and incorporate as much of it as possible into the schedule. I say as much as possible because sorry campers, we can’t schedule each of you for cooking EVERY DAY of the summer!

Well, time to finish up work for the day and head out to enjoy the beautiful weekend. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Max getting ready for a fun day at camp!

Max Hecht

University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Business Administration. From Plainview, NY.

Years at Camp:10

Position this Summer: Group Leader

Previous Positions: Junior Counselor, General Bunk Counselor

Favorite Camp Memory: CIT summer amazing race.

Advice for first year staff: Treat the kids with respect. You give respect, you’ll get it back in return.

One thing you’re going to do this summer that you’ve never done before: Mah Jongg.

Advice for a first time camper: Don’t take a second for granted. These seven weeks will fly by. Cherish every moment of it.

In just 75 days, the Camp Canadensis Arts & Crafts Complex will be alive and buzzing with camper creativity, but Cara and I just couldn’t wait, so we did some crafting during lunch in the winter office today.  Cara taught me how to do her new obsession…embossing!  It’s a way of taking paper crafting to a whole new level, and you can easily make some professional looking stuff with a few supplies.

1.  A Watermark Stamp Pad (the black pad above)

2.  A Heat Gun (the pink item above)

3.  Embossing powder in the color of your choice

4.  Assorted rubber stamps

5.  Card stock paper is preffered, but you can use any paper you have on hand!

Embossing paper through this method allows you to take a stamp image you like, and by applying heat, you can actually raise it off the paper and have a 3D look.  Many cards, stationery and invitations use this technique.  Here’s what you have to do…

1.  Push the stamp into the watermark pad, and then press it onto your paper in the location you want to emboss.

2.  When you remove the stamp, you will have a wet mark.  Generously cover the area with embossing powder, and then shake it off onto scrap paper so you can collect what is unused (this is a similar process to using glitter).

3.  With the help of a parent, use the heat gun and watch as the embossing power melts together and rises off the page.  It’s like magic, and very addicting!My friend Caroline loves stationery, so I made my first project for her.  You can see that some of the letters I stamped up top were a bit messy, but using the clear embossing powder made them rise off the page.  I think the flowers at the bottom came out great, but I’m most proud of the gold flower I embossed at the bottom left!Once the envelope was sealed, I did one more embossing over the flap.  It’s a bouquet of flowers embossed with white powder.  This was such a fun activity, we will definitely be teaching it during camp…possibly at an iCan Night when our Senior Campers get to choose their evening activity.

In addition to crafting with Cara, I’ve also been doing some urban gardening.  I live in the city of Philadelphia, and I have a front yard that is about the size of a car, but in the past few weeks I’ve been loading it up with plants!  I have never gardened or taken care of plant before, but this has become a new passion of mine over the last few months (mostly because of this amazing garden store called Terrain at Styers that is owned by Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters).   I’ve got a big project I’m going to share with you next week, but right now I wanted to show you some of the veggies I’ve been growing…I’ve been growing two different kinds of lettuce…mesclun and buttercrunch.  I planted them as tiny seedlings a few weeks ago, and they have already grown into the huge plants you see above!  These lettuces are considered “pick and come again” which means I can pluck off enough leaves for a salad, and in a few weeks the plant will grow back again.So, all I have to do it take my bowl outside, and for the buttercrunch, I pluck the outer leaves off.  For the mesclun, I just chop all but the bottom two inches down.  Everything needs to be washed really well, but it’s worth it!  This salad is so fresh and delicious, it’s totally different than when you pick it up at a grocery store!The first time I served it, I added shaved onions, parmesan cheese and cannelloni beans.  It was so good that Dave and I almost finished the whole thing before I remembered to take a photo!  I snapped the picture above just before our final bites.   I’ve named my crops “Levi Lettuce” and I’m looking forward to a lot more salads from the yard before I head up to camp in May!Although I didn’t grow the salad you see above, it was my contribution to the amazing Seder Dave’s family put together this weekend.  As you can see, it was large enough to feed the whole group, and it was a combination of tomatoes, asparagus, avocado, red onions, quinoa and feta cheese.  If you are looking for a good Kosher for Passover recipe, I recommend whipping up this filling salad!  Hope everyone who observes Passover is having a great holiday!

Hi Everyone and sorry for the prolonged absence from blogging. I know it’s been a while, but things have been busy busy in both the camp world and my personal life.

In the past few months, I traveled to Australia, had back surgery, have been up to camp numerous times, and oh yea one other thing…Robin is due in May and we are busy planning for our newest addition!

So, to start with…camp is looking amazing. I think I mentioned it before, but with the warmer than usual winter, which of course is bad for most businesses in the Poconos, we lucked out. Our maintenance team at camp has been able to accomplish so much more than usual. Numerous cabin renovations have been completed, the brand-new Fitness Center is just about completed (just need to lay the cool rubbery type floor), additional renovations to the front of the Rec Hall, fences are almost completed at the baseball fields (landscaping begins next), the tennis courts are being prepped for major upgrades, and most exciting…beginning today, the water is being turned on!

Back in the winter office, we are full steam ahead. We attended the annual camp directors conference in Atlantic City. We got new ideas for fun and exciting projects, things to buy, and bonded with other camp professionals who all feel the same passion we do towards camp. We even had a surprise visit from Becky J at the convention center. Neil and I were sitting in a workshop session and in walked in Becky J! So random, but fun and exciting of course. Becky is excited to be a GL this summer at Canadensis and we of course can’t wait to see her up at camp.

Two weeks ago, we enjoyed NEW CAMPER BOWLING, where we got to meet many of our first time campers in the JR/LI divisions. It was a fun day and all of the campers this summer seem so excited to be at camp…well of course they are! Each group seemed to hit it off really well and parents were already making plans for upcoming play dates over the next few months before camp. Actually, not really all that many months left now..Open House is less than 2 months away! Wow.

In my personal life, Robin is doing great. Baby Girl Forti (as Robin has named her) is growing well and weighs over 4 pounds now! Robin and I have been busy shopping for everything- from furniture to onesies and having a blast doing so. I haven’t sent over the onesies to be embroidered just yet with the Canadensis logo, but that’s on my list of things to do soon! Robin says hello to everyone and she can’t wait to be up at camp this summer with our daughter.

Switching gears…Happy Passover to everyone who celebrates! Pam, Dave, Robin, and I spent our 2nd day of Passover in New York City, where we saw JERSEY BOYS on Broadway! I love going to see shows and the last few years haven’t had a chance to see that many. However, in December I saw Billy Elliot which was terrific and yesterday got to see another great show! Of course, there is a camp connection (like everything in life) in that the role of Frankie Valli is currently being played by the Uncle of one of our campers! Skye Kades, a new JR girl this summer, was able to work her magic and helped us get amazing tickets to see her Uncle, Jarrod Spector, perform in the lead role. The music was terrific and Jarrod’s voice was simply amazing. An extremely talented guy! After the performance, Jarrod invited us through the stage door and up to the stage, where we saw a bit of the magic behind the scenes. It was awesome to see and Jarrod was so nice. Pam and I invited him up to camp this summer, so hopefully he will stop by and maybe he will perform in Canadensis Idol? Hey, you never know! Thanks again to the Kades Family for making it possible.

Pam, Robin, and me with Jarrod Spector, the lead actor (Frankie Valli) in Jersey Boys on Broadway!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed or is enjoying their spring break from school. I will be moving up to camp over the next several weeks (well more like commuting back and forth when needed). I look forward to seeing as many of you at Open House…and then the rest of you all on OPENING DAY 2012!!

I had a great time today with Lily, a current 2nd grader that is coming to Canadensis for the first time this summer as a Lower Junior Girl! She lives in Maple Glen, PA and I got to meet her for the first time last summer when she came up and did the Tour & More Weekend.  I’m so excited for her to spend the full summer at camp…her father grew up at Canadensis – and now it’s her turn!

Lily has an older brother, and a younger sister.  She loves to “play teacher” and sometimes her sister Madison will be the student.  Little sister Madison also inspired a school report this year, when she had to pick a President to learn about, she chose the 4th President (James Madison) to write her report about.  Lily is a great student, who used to say gym was her favorite subject, but these days she is really loving math.  She was recently learning about math probabilities, which came in handy while playing the Mega Millions Lotto last week…she understood the probability of winning was really small!

She also loves to dance!  She goes to Hip Hop Dance class every week, and she’s working on a routine to the Britney Spears & Madonna song “Me Against The Music“.  Her dance recital is on the same day as Open House (up at camp on June 3rd) but luckily she is going to be able to do both!  She is going to perform on stage, and then rush up to camp in time to enjoy meeting new camp friends, and eating some Corman!  Some of her other favorite after school activities include gymnastics, and playing field hockey.

We talked about what to pack for camp, and she will definitely be packing some books!  She recently read a celebrity biography about Selena Gomez.  We looked through the camp photo album, and she is totally pumped to try all the activities – especially the arts.  She was also excited to hear about the Canadensis Outdoors program that will take her on an overnight, and the cooking program that she didn’t even know we had!  Lily will definitely have a ton of fun at camp this summer, and maybe she’ll even learn some good recipes that can accompany the Italian Wedding soup that her mom makes and is her favorite!

I wanted to share one other thing with you on this beautiful Thursday evening…  The word art above was created by two new Canadensis Campers, Anna & Sophie.  They are both in 3rd grade and will be Junior Girls this summer, and if you read back through my older blog posts, you’ll get to read more about each of them.  They were super sweet to write me an email during a recent sleepover – it had TONS of smiley faces in it, and it said how much they can’t wait for their first summer at camp to start!  They attached the awesome word art that you see above.  It absolutely made my day, and I wanted to share it with all of you!

I love all the words that they picked to describe Canadensis, and it makes me want camp to come even quicker.  Only 80 days left to go!

Carli in the middle of a CIT 2009 hug by the lake!

Carli Sukonik (CJ)

Lehigh University studying Graphic Design; from Penn Valley, PA

Years at Camp: This will be my 9th summer

Position this Summer: General Counselor, with some lacrosse on the side 

Previous Positions: JC!!

Favorite Camp Memory: A memory that has stuck with me to this day was from my first summer at camp in 2003. I was 10 years old and went camping for my first time. Although nervous at first, I ended up really enjoying all the activities that were planned for my friends and me. The first activity I loved was the trust walk. All of us walked in a single file line with our eyes closed and our hand on the shoulder of the girl in front of us to help guide the way. The leader of the walk (who fortunately had their eyes open  ) guided us to an opening in the woods where we could see the stars perfectly and hear the water of a nearby waterfall rolling in a short distance away. I remember the next morning was even more exciting because we got to make blueberry pancakes with blueberries that we picked fresh off the bush on our morning walk. What a great way to start off an amazing camp experience at Canadensis!

Advice for first year staff: Being around kids on such a regular basis can be overwhelming at times, but you have to remember how special they make your summer, along with how special you make theirs. Make sure you develop great relationships with the campers; you are their role model and it is the best feeling in the world knowing how much respect a camper has for you and the impact you can make on their life.

One thing you’re going to do this summer that you’ve never done before: Even after being at camp for half of my life, and participating in and enjoying nearly every activity, I have still never tried to ride a Honda. For those of you who do not know, we refer to the small, motorized dirt bikes as Hondas at Canadensis. I definitely want to try them this summer!

Advice for a first time camper: Whenever you get homesick, simply take a step back and look at what you are surrounded by. Not only is there a beautiful camp around you that offers every activity under the sun, but there is also a close-knit family that is there to help you whenever you need. Believe me, I know it is a lot easier said than done, but try to appreciate how lucky you are to be a part of the incredible Canadensis family.

I have a few crafty friends, but Sara takes the cake!  She is constantly inspiring me with her crochet creations, and she knows her way around an art supply store, as you will see in this blog entry!  She recently threw a birthday party for her amazing son Sammy (you might remember from a prior blog when he met Double Dare host Marc Summers!!), and I asked permission to show photos of how everything turned out.  She gets full credit for all the things you are about to see!

The theme was “Sam I Am”, based on the Dr. Seuss book (get it…her son’s name is Sam!).  Before you arrived, you already knew you were in store for a fun afternoon!

The day was all about celebrating Sam, and his first year!  Photos were on display in frames and on the walls (using a “clothes line” with tiny clothes pins).  Sara took a photo in the same place every month since Sam was born, so you could see how he changed month by month!

The color scheme of Orange and Green carried through every detail, even the food!

1. Sara’s husband Shawn displaying an awesome array of orange & green veggies

2. Orange and green cupcakes (with cupcake toppers that feature Sam’s face on the “Sam I Am” character)

3. A delicious and healthy rainbow fruit tray

4. Adorable “Green Eggs & Ham” made by using pretzel sticks, white chocolate and a green M&M…these were so perfect, and totally kosher!

Finally, every great party has great entertainment!

1. Guests could have their voices heard and cast a vote on which parent Sam looks most like!  I think he looks more like Sara, but you’ve seen both parents in this blog…what do you think?

2. There was also a “Sam I Am” book where guests could sign in and add a poem.  Sara is great with rhymes (this has come in handy when I’ve been a bridesmaid with her!).  Below is the sign that invited people to write something…guests got really into it!

But without a doubt, the best entertainment is an adorable kid, and Sammy’s got that covered!  He is also the happiest kid I know…so when you add a giant cupcake in the mix, you are going to get some memorable photos!

Thank you to Sara for letting me post these photos, and I hope they inspired some party planning ideas for you at home!

Captain Caila applies gold face-paint to one of her campers...

Caila Cohen

Melville, NY

Years at Camp: This will be my 9th summer

Position this Summer: General Counselor

Previous Positions: CIT (Color War Captain of Gold Arcade in 2011)

Favorite Camp Memory: My favorite camp memory would have to be when the CITs and I went out in a huge rainstorm and just danced. It was still warm out but since the rain was heavy we got soaked in less than a minute. We just went around the senior girls tennis courts, laughing and running. Then, we all went inside and dried off and had a great BUNKO day. This was amazing and was something we never had a chance to do until this past summer.

Advice for first year staff: Though I have never been a counselor before, I have learned from my camper experiences that it really means a lot to the kids when the staff member is there for them, for both support and for a good time. Yes, a counselor has a job to make sure that the kids follow the rules and have a safe camp experience, but it is also very important to make sure that the campers’ summers are the best and have endless opportunities to have fun and create memories.

One thing you’re going to do this summer that you’ve never done before: This summer, I am going to go on the triple dare which I have not been on in quite a few years. I’m sure that I will have a chance to go on with my campers or even my friends too.

Advice for a first time camper: My advice for a first time camper is to live every moment to its fullest. Camp is a privilege and though it seems like 7 weeks are a long time, it goes by in rapid speed. The memories you create, the experiences you have, and the friendships you make are like no other and they should be treasured.