Please join me in welcoming Samara to the Camp Canadensis family! I got to spend some time with her family over winter break, right after she returned from a fun trip to Mexico! Samara is a current 3rd grader, and will be a Junior Girl – she lives in Princeton, NJ, which is one of my favorite towns to visit if I get a free weekend!
Samara stays busy every day of the week, between ballet and hip hop class, Hebrew School and piano lessons – she can’t find time for all the other activities she enjoys, including soccer! She gave me a tour of her house, and her room was covered with many art projects she has created. She had mosaic art and hand loomed tapestries above her bed, a cute paper mache penguin she made in Kindergarten and a mask she had made in Mexico. She loves crafting, and she is specifically excited about getting to tie-dye at camp! She’s also looking forward to the lake activities, waterskiing – and she’s considering auditioning for the show, or signing up for horseback riding lessons.
She’s a big sister to brother Griffin, who is currently in Kindergarten, and might join us for the Tour & More overnight weekend either this summer, or another summer soon. Griffin also has a super cool room with a rope ladder that goes up to the ceiling, and it’s good practice for our camp ropes course! Griffin & mom whipped up one of Samara’s “oreo ball” recipie while we chatted – and then we got to enjoy them while we played games. Samara taught me Tenzi and I showed her how to play jacks with the new set she had gotten – which came in a Canadensis carrying case! Everyone should know how to play jacks at camp, and if you don’t know yet…we’ll teach you! I hope she’ll find time to practice, so we can play this summer!
Links: Oreo Ball Recipe – Tenzi – How to play Jacks
Although the break was very relaxing, I wanted to tell you about a few of the adventures I got into…
Now that Rachel Waxman (from Evening Activities) lives in Philadelphia, I get to see her monthly for catch up dinners – and since BeckyJ (2012 Upper Inter Group Leader) was home from college during winter break, I got to see both of them over break! We had a camp “comfort food” style dinner of mac & cheese, grilled cheese and tomato soup…and then we wandered around town until we found an open cupcake store!
I also had lunch with Julia Eckenrode, who will be returning this year as our Glass Fusion director – it was great to start talking about her project ideas for this summer. I’ll be getting to see Julia a few times in January because Cara Corradetti and I have signed up to take her glass blowing class…we are SO excited, and we’ll definitely be sharing pictures of our projects on the blog!
Also during the break, Dave and I took a trip to Texas – we spent 3 days in Houston with my sister, and then spent 2 days in Austin exploring town. It was a great trip, the temperatures were mild and we ate tacos for breakfast, lunch, dinner…and even dessert! Would you eat a s’mores taco at camp this summer??
Annie came with us too, and we found a restaurant called “Annie’s” – how could I resist the photo-op?
We also found another restaurant called “Texadelphia” which was perfect since my sister lives in Texas, and I live in Philadelphia…we didn’t try the cheesesteak taco though.
Of course, no vacation or break would be complete without crafting! At the top you can see a box a made for my best friends twins, and a card I made for my friend who just welcomed baby Nora. I didn’t want to share my Chanukah cards on the blog until I got to give out all my gifts, but check out the designs I crafted using my silhouette – it was fun playing around with the colors.
I also got to make thank you cards for all the great gifts we received – I even tried making the envelopes too (they need some tweaking…) We can’t wait to show you how to make your own stationery at the new elective this summer!!
