The following is a link to our weeks 5 & 6 video.  Enjoy it!  https://vimeo.com/103056272

Today is another beautiful session 3 day here in Starrucca, PA.  We had blue skies and temperatures in the mid to upper 70’s today.  Last night’s Revival Night break was fantastic!  We started off Crazy Games in the gym with dodgeball and then started playing the revival music.  A henchman came out to the crowd and the kids all screamed and ran down to the waterfront.  Once there, our henchmen all joined one another on the beach via boat from the island, some rose from under the docks in the lake, and a couple rose from under the sand on the beach.  It was fun to watch and the children enjoyed their favorite evening activity.

Today is our last day of Legos with our science department.  A woman who specializes in Legos brings them to camp and our campers build some amazing creations from them.

Our 9^th-12^th grade boys played a home game of basketball today against another camp.  Our boys worked hard and played hard but unfortunately fell short of a win.  They were happy though because they said they had fun and played their hardest.

Today’s special feature,…waterfront!

Tonight’s evening activity is Miss ILC,…for real this time, we promise!  Our male counselors get dressed up as females and compete against one another in a variety of categories.  It’s a lot of fun for our campers to watch as our counselors embarrass themselves,…uh, I mean show off their amazing talents for all to see.  Should be a good time tonight!  We’ll tell you more tomorrow.  Until then, ILC U THERE!

Hi Island Lake families!  Believe it or not, it’s another beautiful day in Starrucca, PA.  Does it feel a bit like Groundhog Day around here when I mention the weather?  Ha!  Today we had partly cloudy skies with temps up to the mid 70’s.  This morning started off cool but by afternoon it was a shorts and t-shirts kinda day.  Perfect camp weather!

Our 7^th – 10^th grade girls went out of camp to play in a volleyball tournament and we’re happy to announce that WE WON!  Go volleyball girls!!!  It’s always a great feeling for the kids to come home winners.  Well, I mean, our campers are always winners, but it’s fun to win sports tournaments too!  Hehe!  Tomorrow our 9^th – 11^th grade boys will play in a basketball tournament so hopefully they’ll do just as well.

Today’s special feature,…TENNIS!

Tonight’s evening activity is,…..Crazy Games!  Ok, I’m fibbing, it’s going to be Revival Night but shhh, the kids are all expecting it to be Crazy Games!  It’s so early in the session that no one is anticipating Revival.  It should be a great surprise for everyone.  For those of you who are not familiar with what Revival Night is, just ask your children when they return home.  Let’s just say, it’s our campers’ all time favorite evening activity!

In the real world we hear it’s now officially the weekend.  We lose track here at camp, but enjoy your weekend and until tomorrow, ILC U THERE!

Today is the first day of majors and minors for our 3^rd session.  Our campers are getting right back into their routines with activities once again.  For those who are new to the 3^rd session, they are first starting with their activities and it’ll become routine to them before they know it.

The skies were partly cloudy today and the temps are once again cool in the high 60’s to low 70’s.  Pretty wild that our summer temps are so low this year but hey, it beats the heat and humidity that the summers usual bring!

The big talk around camp is our upcoming teen trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls.  We’re busy preparing for it and plan to take almost 90 campers and 10 staff with us.  This trip is usually the highlight of the summer for our older campers as they are anxiously looking forward to next Monday when we depart for this 4 day/3 night trip.  We’re getting pumped!

Today’s special feature,…CIRCUS!

Tonight’s evening activity is groups.  Here’s a list of what everyone is doing:

Boys:  Group 1- dodgeball ;  Group 2- gaga;  Group 3- basketball competition;  Group 4- touch rugby;  Group 5- kickball

Girls:  Group 1- campfire;  Group 2- cupcake competition;  Group 3- 70’s dress up aerobics;  Group 4- music video contest;  Group 5- family feud

It’s going to be a chilly night, but luckily those bunks stay warm from the daytime air.  Until tomorrow when it’ll warm up once again, ILC U THERE!

We made it!  Changeover Day is behind us and today was our first full day of 3^rd session.  Where did the summer go?  The weather today has been a roller coaster.  We had a chilly start to the day but temps rebounded nicely into the 70’s this afternoon.  After a brief shower 4^th minor, the skies cleared and the rest of the day was gorgeous.   Our campers were extra busy today with 4-minors full of level testing, auditions and trying out new activities they might take as majors.

As is the tradition on 4 Minor Day, we normally have Panic, however, we decided to throw the campers a curveball and have a camp wide game of Counselor Hunt instead.  One counselor from each bunk dressed in their best camouflage and found a super secret hiding spot on camp.  Our campers and their remaining counselors had one simple task:  find as many hidden counselors as possible in the allotted time.  Each found counselor was worth a different point value; some were worth up to 50 points while others were worth negative points.

At the conclusion of Counselor Hunt, our group leaders went around to their bunks to help the counselors sign up their campers for their majors.  Our department heads set up shop in the office to solve any conflicts a camper might have whilst choosing their majors.  We use this extra step to ensure that no camper is ever closed out of an activity.

Tonight’s evening activity was groups!

BOYS:  Group 1 – Gaga; Group 2 – Campfire; Group 3 – Touch Rugby; Group 4 – Capture the Flag; Group 5 – Kong Pong

GIRLS:  Group 1 – Dodgeball; Group 2 – Photobooth Party (the campers play dress up and have their pictures taken); Group 3 – Bunk T-shirts; Group 4 – Cupcake Wars (may the best decorated cupcake win); Group 5 – Trash bag Fashion Show (the campers design an outfit for their counselors using only trash bags)

Enjoy your evening and until tomorrow, ILC U THERE!

Today was our 2^nd changeover day for ILC summer 2014.  Where has this summer gone?    We can’t believe we are starting our 3^rd session already!  This morning it was difficult to say goodbye to so many amazing campers.  We hope they all had a fantastic summer and now return home with wonderful memories to hold onto until next summer when we can all be back together here at camp once again.

In the meantime, summer continues as we enter into our 3^rd and final session.  We are excited to get to know many of our new campers who are arriving with fresh haircuts, clean white sneakers, and exhilarating grins from ear to ear.  Our campers who stayed on from session 2 are pumped up to make new friends and see many from last summer.  We know the 3^rd session will be just as incredible as our previous 2 sessions.

We are also busy preparing for our big 3^rd session teen trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls.  About 90 campers and 10 staff will be heading to the good ol’ country of Canada to spend 4 days and 3 nights checking out the sites, racing around in Jet boats, and enjoying the Maid of the Midst under and around Niagara Falls.  This is the highlight of the summer for many of our older campers so we’re all revving to go.

The weather was beautiful today until about 5pm or so when the storms came through.  Nothing too bad but it’s been raining on and off ever since.  Regardless of the weather, tonight’s evening activity of “Make Your Own Sundae” (Aka “Make Your Own Mess”) will still go on in the canteen this evening.

The following are some photos of the buses arriving today.  Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILC U THERE!

      I couldn’t resist tossing in this photo of me in the air!  Our camp photographers are great, huh?

Today was the last day of the 2^nd session and unlucky us, we ran into quite a snag today.  This morning around 10am our power went out throughout the entire camp and it didn’t return until around 3pm this afternoon.  We apologize to any of you who tried calling us during that time.  Although it was a huge inconvenience to us in the office, our campers had a great time with the black out.  For some reason, they enjoyed “roughing it” during those few hours.  Now we’re trying to get our internet back up and running.  Once our internet is back I will post this blog.

Today we had only majors and then this afternoon we had super clean-up and packing time for those campers who are leaving tomorrow.  Later this afternoon we had our big Rock Concert in the gym.  The theme was the 90’s so the kids rocked on to the oldies from that decad.  Well, oldies according to the kids, yesterday’s music according to us!

Tonight’s evening activity is the older kids’ show, “Hairspray”!  No doubt they will do a fantabulous job on the show tonight.  Corie is an amazing director and Natalie has designed some beautiful sets (with the help of their talented staff, but of course).  Tomorrow you will be able to view photos of the show on CampMinder.

I apologize but with the craziness of today’s black out and preparing for tomorrow’s changeover day, I don’t have a special feature for today.  However, since this is being posted late, there will be another blog later on this evening.

Yesterday we had a camp-wide power outage that last from the morning hours into the mid-afternoon.  We apologize if you tried calling us but couldn’t get through.  We then had an internet issue which has since been resolved, so we are happy to announce that we are connected once again.

I just want to apologize to any of you who couldn’t get a hold of us yesterday.  I’m sure you all missed my blog oh-so-much. (Hehe!)  On a brighter note, all of the buses safely left camp this morning, so if your child is on one of them he/she should be arriving at your designated bus stop at any moment.

More to come later,…until then, ILC U THERE!

Today was the last day of our 2^nd session majors and minors schedule.  Tomorrow we will have only majors, along with super clean-up and an afternoon rock concert.  Last night’s performance of “Dear Edwina” was adorable! Those little ones put on quite a show with a fantastic set to go along with it.

With the sun shining once again, we finally had a beautiful day in Starrucca, PA.  Temperature were in the mid 70’s so we could not have asked for a greater day of weather.  We got hit with some drizzles at the end of dinner but it passed pretty quickly.

Lots of activities and events went on here at Island Lake today.  Our Shakespeare in the Park performance went very well with lots of spectators who signed up to watch this morning during 1^st minor.

We hosted a Magic Show in the magic building during the 3^rd minor and lots of campers signed up to watch the show this afternoon.  It was abracadabra great!  We had our Skate Park competition for our skaters and rollerbladers of all ages and levels, which was a wheely good time.

Our dancers headed out to another camp for yet one more dance competition today.  They did very well and placed 1^st in one dance, 2^nd for a couple of other dances, and 3^rd in another out of about 8 different camps.

On the waterfront today the sailors had a “Pirate Day” where they sailed out with waterguns and had a fun waterfight in the middle of the lake.  Quiddish ended up being postponed from yesterday to today so our campers and counselors participated in a big Quiddish match this afternoon up in the sports department.  The ILC Mud Run took place in the 3^rd minor today for all of our mojo fitness campers, as well.  They ran all over camp and completed obstacles along the way.

Our 9^th grade boys tennis team won their final matches today and are the champions in all of Wayne County.  Go tennis kids!  Our Island Lakers have been bringing home lots of championship wins this summer, and we’re extremely proud.  Today our 7^th grade girls tennis team won their semi-finals matches and they will play in the final championship round tomorrow.

Lastly, in arts and crafts news, they held a Freeze Dance Drawing Contest today and we hear it was a lot of fun.

Today’s special feature is a variety of SPORTS!  Enjoy!

Tonight’s evening activity is the Dance Show.  Until tomorrow, the last day of our 2^nd session, ILC U THERE!

Holy cow, there are only 2 more full days left in the 2^nd session!  Where has this summer gone? The saying is definitely true,…time flies when you’re having fun!  We hope your children are all having the most remarkable, amazing, fantastic, extraordinary, spectacular, wonderful, memorable summer with us here at Island Lake this summer.  We’re sure they’ll come home and share tons of great stories with you.  It’s just hard to believe that their wait for next summer will have to start all over again.

Let’s just focus on the here and now since our ILC summer is going so incredibly well thus far.  Today’s weather was kinda iffy & icky all day.  It’s been mostly cloudy with peeks of sun here and there.  We’ve had the threat of rain, but no actual rain to speak of other than drizzles at breakfast this morning.  Last night was another cool night followed by a warm day today with temps in the 70’s.

Our canoe & kayaking campers went on an overnight river trip today.  We hope the weather holds up for them but hey, if not, they’re already in the water getting wet!  Lol!

Today our sports kids took a day trip to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame for a day of fun, fudge, and pizza.  Oh yeah, let’s not forget about the educational aspect at the Hall of Fame, too!

Our 5^th & 6^th grade boys basketball team headed out of camp this morning for a game.  We also offered Quiddish this afternoon for the minor periods.  That’s right, you read this correctly, Quiddish, as in the game from the Harry Potter books.  Bunk Cup points will be awarded to the winning teams and hey, flying broomsticks are optional!

Today’s special feature is ARTS & CRAFTS!  Below are some photos from our art pavilion this afternoon,…

Tonight’s evening activity is the younger campers show, Dear Edwina.  We’re excited to see those little ones perform on stage for their fellow campers and counselors.  You can check out lots of Dear Edwina photos tomorrow on our CampMinder daily summer photos site.

We’re also going to attempt to take some sibling photos tonight after dinner.  You can check those photos out on our daily summer photos over the next 24 hours, too.  Enjoy and until you all see photos of your smiling campers, ILC U THERE!