Good Morning!  I didn't get to do my Wednesday post last night, so I will update this morning on yesterday's happenings.  It was another nice day at Camp.  We are so fortunate when the days are sunny and warm because we spend so much time outdoors.  I got to watch a little of the animal game in rec and it was as fun as I expected.  I heard everything from lions to seals!  It was perler bead day in crafts.  This is where you take the tiny little beads and set them on pegs in different shapes. Then they are ironed into magnets.  It was challenging for many of the campers, but it is good practice for those fine motor skills!  
Since it was a nice day, we went swimming for general swim.  Many of the campers get in to swim every day.  There is always a game of staff versus camper keep away, a game of catch, or a few "sharks" in the water.  The staff also moved the pontoon lift to a better location.  Dan and our maintenance men launched the pontoon yesterday, so hopefully that means pontoon rides soon!
Our evening activity was a new one called "Cabin Group Olympics."  The cabin groups worked together on different tasks.  First, we did trivia.  Each question was worth 2 points - one question was for the campers and one question harder for the staff.  We found out that the campers knew more than the staff on many questions!  One question was "Name the 4 Golden Girls."  The staff at the table had no idea, but one of the Cabin 8 boys rattled them off with no problem!
For the next challenge, the non-counseling staff held paper bags with an unknown item inside.  The campers had to reach in and feel it without looking.  Then everyone helped guess what was in the bags.  We felt tortilla chips, dry oatmeal, tree bark, perler beads and a cattail.  
Then, we played a round of name that tune.  Again, the campers rocked at this game!  The hardest thing was keeping quiet so that everyone else didn't hear the answers!  Unfortunately, we ran out of time for the last challenge.  It's a good one though, so stay tuned!  We have some ties right now, so everyone is anxious to do the last activity so we can see who won the cabin group Olympics!
The staff had a staff meeting last night, so everyone got to sleep in an extra hour this morning.  I didn't hear any complaints about that!  This mornings breakfast was some yummy long johns.  Now everyone is off and running again.  I will update again later to tell you what we do today!

It was another warm and beautiful day at Camp Grassick!  In crafts, the campers made clay projects.  There was everything from My Little Ponies to rainbows and lots of flowers, bowls and basketballs.  In rec, there were lots of new games again today.  In one game, the campers had to find their partner with their eyes closed by making animal noises.  I missed that one, but I bet there were a lot of interesting sounds out on the rec field!  They also played a version of tag in partners.  Lots of running tires us out!  Reading, speech and OT are all busy with sessions as well.  It is so nice to hear the campers use good sentences and speech sounds.  
We were able to get in swimming again today.  It was a perfect day on the lake with hardly any wind, so lots of campers and staff went out today for rides in the kayaks, paddle boats and canoes.  After supper, our evening activity was supposed to be relay races, but it was still really warm out.  We decided to have an evening swim instead.  The wind did come up, but we still had lots of kids and staff in the water this evening and the kids kept assuring me that they weren't cold.  (They are tougher than we are!)
I didn't take any pictures today (which is unusual for me!), but hopefully we will get some to go with the stories I will have tomorrow!

Hello Everyone!  
I'm going to try to do a better job at Camp Updates this year!  
The campers arrived yesterday. We were so excited to see old friends and make new ones.  The staff had training last week and they get very anxious to meet the campers that they hear so much about.  We were lucky and had a beautiful day for check in.  I haven't seen too many kids with sunburns, but I sure saw a lot of staff. They have to remember to take care of themselves as well as the campers!
Today was a beautiful day at camp - lots of sun and hardly any wind, a rarity in ND!  The rec staff was busy trying out some new games such as ball wars...lots of balls flying everywhere!  In crafts, the campers made token pouches to carry the tokens they are earning in their classes.  Waterfront was spent learning the rules for water safety.  Everyone was happy to go in swimming and cool off!
Tonight we had a welcome dance.  We had moves like you've never seen before!  It was warm in the rec hall, so I'm sure showers felt really good tonight.  It sounds like another hot one tomorrow, too.

On Saturdays, we get to sleep in an hour which is always a nice treat. After breakfast, we had a few classes before the non-counseling staff left for their day off.  The groups that had speech made up stories using Story Cubes.  In reading, the groups played UNO.  It is always fun to do some different things on weekends.

Lunch was leftovers - this is always a favorite meal for campers and staff because we get another chance to have all the great food we had all week.  We are blessed with wonderful cooks and if you go away from meals hungry, you are doing something wrong!  We encourage the campers to try new things at meal times and we often see campers discover that they like different foods that they didn't think they would like.  

After rest hour, everyone played a big game of kickball.  Then it was time for swimming again.  Dan's daughters came for a visit during swimming with his 5 grand kids - the little ones were a huge hit with many of the kids and there was a constant supply of entertainment for them as the campers offered to play in the sand with them, swim with them, or just make goofy faces, hoping for a smile! We took a break for Trading Post and then swam some more.  Our new picnic shelter by the trading post is wonderful for sitting in the shade and taking a break with a treat.

Our evening activity was a movie.  We watched Inside Out and many of the campers said that they really liked it.  We also got some yummy popcorn and a caffeine free drink for our night treat during the movie.

It was a full day and I saw quite a few sleepy campers heading off to bed after the movie!

Friday was another hot day!  Everyone really enjoyed their swimming time.  Our lifeguard was gone today, but most groups still went swimming with their counselors. The lake was also busy for "Tom Time".  Tom is one of our staff members who does things like boat rides and fishing.  He told me the fish were hungry today and at least a couple campers caught good sized northerns.  We are strictly catch and release though, so no fish for supper!

We enjoyed general swim again and it was a beautiful day to be in the water.  Since it was still so warm, we decided once again to have an evening swim for our evening activity.  Judging by the cheers and yells when the announcement was made, this was a very popular decision! 

This is a photo of some of the counselors during Find Your Counselor - proof that they hid in the dumpster (or proof that they're crazy!)

Boy, I'm really slacking! After being gone and thinking I got all caught up on Wednesday, I realized that my post didn't publish! Darn technology!

Wednesday was a hot one!  The kids kept cool by playing water games in Rec. Everyone was also very excited about their swim time! In crafts, they made tote bags.  We all enjoyed general swim time in the heat.  Even the lifeguard and I had to take a quick dip to cool off!

Our evening activity was scheduled to be Minute to Win It, but since it was still quite warm and it was such a beautiful night, we opted for an evening swim instead.  It was absolutely gorgeous on the lake with just a very gentle breeze.  I can't believe more boaters weren't out enjoying the lake.  We had several campers and staff that took the kayaks and paddle boats out for a ride.

​Everyone was ready for a good night's sleep after so much time in the sun and water.  A great day at Camp!

Hello Everyone! This is Jenny, the Assistant Director at Elks Camp Grassick.  I know I promised you an update every day, but unfortunately, I was called for Jury Duty and was gone from camp for 3 days.  It was an interesting experience, but let me tell you, I would have rather been at Camp!

Sunday we were excited to welcome all of our campers.  The staff is always very excited to greet old friends and meet all the new campers.  It was a nice day and everything went very well.  Sunday night after supper, we introduced ourselves to one another.  The campers did so well at telling us their name, where they were from and their favorite hobby.  It's hard to talk in front of a big group of people sometimes and they all did great!  Dan even quizzed us, asking questions like "which staff member is from California?" or "name all the sets of twins at camp". We had a lot of good listeners and it was a great way to get to know everyone.

Monday was the first full day of camp so there were a lot of routines to be learned.  In crafts, the campers made token pouches to carry their tokens in and decorated cups to keep in their cabins.  They learned their buddy board numbers in swimming so that everyone was ready for general swim.  It was too cool to swim during general swim time so we started the movie "Up".  The evening activity was the Welcome Dance which is always a favorite.  I'm sorry I missed it because I know we have some awesome dancers!

Tuesday was a warmer day so we got to go in for general swim.  It's so good to have nice days that allow us time in the water.  We worked with clay in crafts.  It needs time to dry and then we will fire it in the kiln which is always a pretty cool event and the campers get very excited waiting to see their "baked" project.  In Rec, there were some exciting games of Lightning and Kickball.  I hear that Cabin 5 got very into their games - great competitors! The evening activity was relay races.  It's always fun to cheer for our teams and see what goofy races that Dan comes up with such as balancing a frisbee on our heads!

Wednesday was another warm day so the Rec staff played some "Splish, Splish, Splash", this is like Duck, Duck, Goose but with water! A little water, a little water, a little water and then a big splash when you pick the person to chase you.  This is always a camper favorite and fun to play on a hot day.  In crafts, we made picture frames and got our pictures taken to put in our Super Hero frames.  I heard that there were even a few "poses".  Tonight's evening activity was Find Your Counselor.  The campers and non-counseling staff finished watching Up while the counselors looked for the best hiding spots.  The kids looked high and low for their staff - in trees, under row boats and behind bushes - but they were very hard to find!  We finally found all of the counselors hiding together...in THE DUMPSTER!!  Everyone had a good laugh at that one because no one expected that hiding place!  I'm glad I didn't have to crawl into the stinky trash and there are sure to be lots of hot showers tonight!

I'm glad to be back at camp and hope to keep posting all the fun things we are doing.  I will also try to post some pictures later.  

Tuesday was a big, big day with lots of fun activities.  We started out the day with our usual schedule of classes.  It was a nice day and I heard there was some splish, splish splash being played in rec.  In crafts, the campers made little books out of scrapbook paper and sticky notes that are super cute.

In the afternoon, we had our water carnival during our general swim time.  This is always a fun activity.  We started out with a coin dig.  Dan buries change in the sand and then each cabin group gets a chance to dig around for the buried treasure!  Even the staff likes it - we call it our bonus!

Then we do relay races in the water - running, pulling each other on noodles, etc.  The next activity was the giant raft.  Campers tried to balance on the raft first and then went for a wild ride while staff spun, bounced and splashed.  It was like our own version of white water rafting.  There was a lot of laughing and screaming and only a couple people went "over board"!

After that, we threw pop into the water for the kids to find.  We found out that some root beer floats so those were easy to find!  After that, we had a greased watermelon contest.  This is basically like a football game in the water with a large, greased watermelon as the ball.  Each team is trying to be the first to get the melon to shore while keeping it out of the hands of the other team.  The staff begs to have their own battle for this one!

For our evening activity, we had bingo and hay ride.  What a fun night!  Dan drove the hay ride and took the kids over to the Stroh farm.  Kristen Mimnaugh Stroh is the OT instructor at Camp and also Dan's daughter.  She and her husband and kids live just down the road from camp.  The kids got to get out and see the sheep and baby lambs in the barn.  They even got to see some being bottle fed.  It was a special treat as I'm sure many of the kids have never had the opportunity to pet and hold little lambs.

While one group was on the hayride, the other group stayed in the dining hall and played a few games of Bingo.  The campers always like to win a prize.  We also got to have the pop that we rescued from the lake during the water carnival.  All in all, it was a very exciting day!