My Wife Said WHAT?!?!

“Steve Sir is not worth anything!” - Susie Ma’am

Generally, these are not words you like to hear from your loving wife.  But today is not an ordinary day at Camp Champions.

Tonight was Green Acres!

Green Acres was our post-dinner, pre-Torchlight game today.  Counselors dressed up as farm animals (with a few hippogriffs and unicorns thrown in). The campers, organized into teams of 4-6, chased them.  If they caught an animal, they would receive a token worth a designated amount of points. Faster animals, like horses, are worth more than slower animals, like cows.

This is simply a delightful event to watch.  It happens during what photographers call the “magic hour” when the sun is low on the horizon and everything is extra beautiful.  In the shady areas, dragonflies swarm and add a subtle beauty to an otherwise chaotic scene.

The campers still have lots of extra energy, so a big run-around game is particularly appropriate.

Here are some highlights.

A cabin of 8 year-olds acted homesick.  When the counselor (dressed as a duck I think) approached, they tagged her.  Well played.

Several groups of cabins worked together to corner animals and “herd” them to each other.  Once the animal was caught by one of the groups, s/he had to give out the token, thus giving the other cabins time to also make the capture.

Harry Potter was here as well.  What does this have to do with Green Acres and barnyard animals?  Hard to say.  Either it makes perfect sense or no sense at all.  I am going to say I understand.  The campers did not seem to mind.  For that matter, neither did Harry.

One of counselors owns a gorilla suit, so he wore it (how could we say no?). This outfit proved to be truly vexing to Fenway, our loving, if not mentally challenged, Basset Hound.  To put is simply, Fenway freaked out.  Teenagers grossly overuse this phase (“freak out”).  A parent that is understandably concerned about a bad grade or behavioral transgression is said to “freak out”.

In this case, “freak out” might have actually be the exact correct term. The 7 year-old dog saw the running gorilla and began to bark and bay uncontrollably.  She then bolted from our golf cart and chased the gorilla. She is a complete wimp, so we knew that she would not actually come into contact with the gorilla-counselor, but he still ran a tad quicker as the harried hound bolted his way.  In case you are wondering , Fenway Ma’am has closing speed.  After the chase, she returned to the cart proudly.  I cannot be sure what she was proud of, but she was proud nonetheless.

Finally, Susie Ma’am and I were sitting in her golf cart in the field.  I had my animal shirt and my tiger hat on.  (OK, a tiger is not a barnyard animal either, but I look GOOD in the tiger hat!).

In any event, we are not official Green Acre animals and are worth no points.  One group of campers, however, saw my hat, assumed I was a real prize, and tagged me.

“How many points is he worth?” they asked.

“Steve Sir is not worth anything!” Susie Ma’am replied.

So you see, you can have your wonderful bride say this sentence and not have it be a problem!

It’s Not a Mess, It’s a Home

During Friendship Circle today, we had a nice exchange.  [Note: Friendship Circle and Man Cave are the one hour meetings we have in our house with each cabin.  They give us a chance to get to know each camper at least a little.]

This is one of the only times we allow campers to have sodas.  If you think we are bribing them to enjoy time inside with the older crew (Susie Ma’am and myself), you are probably right.  As we led a cabin of 11 year-old girls to the back refrigerator, they walked by a messy kitchen table.  We have the entire leadership team meet each day and papers occasionally accumulate.

A particularly articulate girl looked around and said, “Susie Ma’am, I love your house.”

“Thank you, but it is really messy right now.”

“But Susie Ma’am, that is even better - it makes it feel like a HOME!”

Steve Sir