August 20, 2011

Crazy Camp Food and Other Weirdness ¹

by Wendy • 2011: Bold, featured, My Life As It Happens

What’s camp without the crazy factor?  I love camp because it gives us adults a chance to act like kids again without retribution from other adults.  We act silly.  We dress goofy.  We play insane games.  And we eat interesting food.  This camp was no exception.

The theme for 2011 was super heroes.  Every day the counselors would wear different capes and shirts that represented super heroes.  I felt a bit out of the loop, otherwise I would have totally gotten a daily cape to wear!  I did know that we were having a dance on the Thursday night and I made up my own super hero costume for that.  My other redeeming moment was finding a super man shirt at Wal-Mart in Baltimore.  Other than that, I did not have any other cool outfits to wear.  Next year, if I get to go, I will be more prepared!

Anyway, on visitor’s day, the kids have a chance to dress a firefighter or police officers.  Local public servants come in to hang with the kids.  All week long that invaded my arts and crafts house to get materials for their firefighter.  Of course it was all top secret until the moment of the big reveal!  These guys were great sports!  The kids went to town decorating them up as their own versions of super heroes with interesting powers.  One firefighter’s super power was reading people to sleep.  HILARIOUS!

When I was deciding what costume what I wanted to wear for the dance, I wanted something unique.  Catherine and I have been into flamingos and so I decided to be ‘Super Flamingo.’  My power was sticking out my long neck in order to save a friend.  I spent several hours before my trip concocting the craziest outfit I could.  As you can see below, I made a cape, a headband and a mask with pink feathers and other garb.  My cape was actually an apron I found at Hobby Lobby.  I printed off pictures of flamingos onto iron-on transfers and then ironed them on the back.  Catherine loved it and I plan on having a photo shoot with her in that outfit.

Some how, some way, the directors found this GIANORMOUS Incredible Hulk to set up in the dining hall.  It was pretty neat but it was also pretty creepy at night.  It faced our dorm hallway and whenever I came out of my room, there it was looking at me.  <shutter>  Every day someone did something goofy to the Hulk.  I managed to catch this photo in a peaceful, kid-free moment.

And what’s camp without one of these critters crawling around?  Hey Mom, it was as big as my thumb and right by my bed.  It was all good though.  We captured it and released it back into the wild.

And then of course what is camp without the insane camp food?  I swear there must be a camp cookbook out there that has recipes on how to use the previous meal’s leftovers for the next three meals.  This dessert was by far the most interesting concoction of them all.  It was lemon filling mixed with chocolate cookies, topped with chocolate pudding and whipped cream.  I had to try it.  I never had it before and probably wouldn’t eat it again.  But I’m glad I tried it!  Not too many people can say they have eaten that combo!

Camp was a blast!  It was incredibly tough on me physically but it was the perfect place for me to be.  It was great to be involved with something that is so different than the work that I normally do.  I have been so above and beyond stressed with my work this last year, that I didn’t realize how good it felt to do something that didn’t involve that part of my life.  I was with great friends that are also in my line of work and every once in a while we would ‘talk shop,’ but other than that, it was all about arts and crafts and being silly.  It was good to be a kid again.

Here are some other random camp photos that I just love:

The completed city scape

Miniature ponies

Posing with the super heroes and villans

The view.  My arts and crafts house was to the right of those canopies.

The shortcut from the dining hall to my arts and crafts house

My arts and crafts assistant.  She was awesome!  And she is pregnant with twins!  Loved her to pieces!

The kids gear getting ready to be packed up on the bus