As promised, below are photos from the BEST HOEDOWN EVER!  It was amazing!  Our group leaders did such a wonderful job on it and the kids had a blast!

Happy Country Western Day! Tonight is our big Hoedown for evening activity so lots of campers and counselors are sporting their flannel, cowboy boots, braids, freckles, bandanas, and all the fun that goes with the country western theme today. Tonight’s hoedown is going to be blast! We’ll have music, a petting zoo (counselors wearing animal onesies- how cute!), a pitching post (marriage booth), pie eating contest, and a corn hole (bean bag game). Good times for all here at Island Lake!

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 mostly sunny today with temps in the 70’s and very little to no humidity. Our older campers who are going on the teen trip to Canada are getting very excited! In only 4 days we’ll be taking coach buses up to for 4 days of sightseeing, waterfalls, rapids, a labyrinth, a planetarium, and a day in Quebec City, and more. These details only touch upon all of the exciting plans we have for our Montreal and Quebec trip and our teens are itching to go!

Today’s special feature will come later tonight- pictures from the HOEDOWN! I’ll take photos during evening activity and then I’ll upload them here to blog. Please return later tonight to see some great photos of your children having a fantastic time at the hoedown! Until later when I post the photos, ILCUTHERE!

Welcome to 3^rd session at ILC! The first full day of the session begins with sunshine and temps hitting the mid 70’s. It was the perfect weather to run around for our 4-minor day. Today our theater lovers auditioned for the 3^rd session show, Once Upon A Mattress. Those new to this summer also took their deep-water test for swimming in the lake, waterskiing, wakeboarding, and taking out the boats. Kids also got tested for their level in a variety of activities such as tennis, dance, rock shop, and horseback riding. 4-minor day is their chance to try out activities to see what the kids would like to sign up for as their majors.

Later this afternoon after our 4 minors, it was such a beautiful day that we decide to hold a variety of extra activities throughout camp. We opened the swimming pool, the tennis courts, and the gym. In the gym the kids played basketball, 4-square, and a variety of sports monster games.

Once the activities were over our group leaders went around to all of their bunks to sign up our campers for their majors. All of our department heads were in the office to assist in case of activity conflicts during the same major. We assist the campers with their schedule to make sure they can take every activity they’d like and be sure no one is closed out of an activity.

Tonight’s evening activity is Groups! Here’s a list of what the kids will all do: BOYS: Group 1- “Messtival”- games including egg roulette, water bucket challenge, body painting, spaghetti tag, and a few others; Group 2- Gaga; Group 3- Dodgeball; Group 4- Capture the Flag. GIRLS: Group 1- Pool Party; Group 2- Unique (same trivia game we had during color war where there are teams and the kids flip the light switch when they know the answer to the trivia questions. It’s loads of fun, I promise!); Group 3- Outdoor Games on the Ballfield; Group 4- “Messtival” (with boys group 1).

Today’s special feature is a variety of activities! Have a good evening and until tomorrow, ILC U THERE!

Today was our 2^nd changeover day for ILC summer 2016. 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 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 have arrived 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 Montreal and Quebec, Canada. Over 60 campers and 5 staff will head to the land of “Eh?” and maple syrup to spend 4 days and 3 nights checking out the cities and surrounding areas. Included in this trip are a visit to La Ronde Amusement Park, the Old Port of Montreal, Lachine Rapids, the SOS Labyrinth, a walk through Old Montreal, Quebec City, Parc Olympic, the Biodome, and much more. This trip is the highlight of the summer for many of our older campers, so we’re all revving to go.

Tonight’s evening activity is “Make Your Own Sundae” (Aka “Make Your Own Mess”) in the canteen. Tomorrow is our 4-minor day. Until then, ILC U THERE!

Happy 80’s Day here at Island Lake! Several of our campers and staff are on point as they dressed to impress and pay tribute the 80’s. What a great decade, huh? Many of us (you, the parents, and I) were kids/teenagers in the 80’s and we had no idea at the time that we would look back on those days and long for them once again, huh?

Ok, back to camp and back to the here and now. I cannot believe that today was the last full day of session 2 here at Island Lake. This entire summer is flying by way too fast. It’s going to be sad to say goodbye to many amazing campers tomorrow morning. I hope they had the greatest experience here at ILC & I hope to see them all at camp next summer once again here at the 18462.

Attention p arents of session 2 campers who are departing tomorrow; you should have all received an email with changeover day information. Please read it thoroughly to make sure you are properly prepared to pick up your children at the bus stops tomorrow.

Since today was the last full day of the 2^nd session, our campers had only majors, no minors. This afternoon they had super clean up and packing time for those campers who are leaving tomorrow. Later in the afternoon we rocked out to our big Rock Concert in the theater. The theme was Evolution, which was music from the 60’s through today, hence the 80’s theme day. Today’s special feature is campers and counselors dressed up for 80’s day! Check out the photos below at the end of this blog.

Lots of activities went on here at ILC today. Our CITs took a trip to our nearby town of Hancock, NY for lunch at the local diner. They always enjoy the time they spend together as a group out of camp. Needless to say, the CITs had a nice lunch at the diner. Our tennis kids finished up the ILC Open today, as well. Listed below are the winners in each age group. A special congrats goes out to the following campers and thank you to all who participated.

6^th – 7^th grade girls- Skyler B./ 6^th – 7^th grade boys- David P./ 8^th – 9^th grade girls- Gabby G./ 8^th – 9^th grade boys- Bastiaan H./ 10^th & up girls- Cameron L./ 10^th & up boys- Alex B.

Tonight’s evening activity is the older campers’ show, Xanadu. No doubt our kids will do a fantabulous job, especially skating around the stage on rollerblades! Tomorrow you will be able to view photos of the show on CampMinder.

Our session 2 campers still have 1 more night to spend with one another. We hope your children who are leaving tomorrow arrive home happy, semi-clean, with only amazing, fantastic, superb, incredible stories to share with you about their summer 2016 here at ILC. Tomorrow we will welcome all of our session 3 campers to Island Lake. Until then, ILC U THERE!