Hi Island Lake Families! I’m sure you’re sick of me saying this but today was another beautiful day in Starrucca, PA. The sun shined, temps were in the 70’s, and there was no humidity in the air. Another great day to play camp!

Tomorrow morning, bright and early at 6:30am we are leaving for our teen trip to Montreal and Quebec City, Canada. Our 9^th grade and older campers who signed up for the trip, along with 4 staff and myself (Wendy), will be heading out of camp to make our way to Montreal, Canada. Everyone is very excited for the trip. We will post photos of the trip with our daily summer photos on Friday once we return.

Tomorrow we will head straight to La Ronde Amusement Park for the entire afternoon into the evening. We will check into the hotel at night and get a good night’s rest for the following day. On Tuesday we’ll go to Lachine Rapids (jetboating) and then do a variety of activities at the Old Port of Montreal. We’ll go to Voiles en Voiles (a pirate ship with a ropes course), the SOS Labyrinth (indoor maze), and walk around Old Montreal.

On Wednesday we will spend the day in Quebec City. We’ll visit Old Quebec, the Citadel, Lower Town, and the Palace Royal. On Thursday, our final day of the trip, we will travel to the Parc Olympic. We’ll visit Montreal Tower, the Biodome, and Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. We’ll watch some short movies at the planetarium and explore before boarding the bus to head back over the border and return here to camp. Everyone going to Canada is super pumped for this exciting trip ahead.

Here at ILC, Camp of Thrones continues. Last night at dinner we had the opening ceremonies. This included a precession of royals who were dressed up to present their respective kingdoms. There are photos posted on our CampMinder daily photo page dated from yesterday. Challenges have begun and alliances have been formed. Skatepark has challenged science and cooking, therefore skatepark is at their mercy with science and cooking’s choice of an event to be challenged with. Waterfront challenged arts & crafts and the rock shop. Again, art and rock shop get to decide what the challenge will be. Skatepark and art, waterfront and sports, tennis and pioneering, theater and circus, and rock shop and horseback riding have all formed alliances with one another respectively. As alliances, they are allowed to use each other’s forces (campers) for challenges and what not.

This evening after dinner our science campers will be taking a trip to Binghamton to the Kopernic Observatory. There they will explore the outer worlds, space, and the stars. Always a fun out of camp trip for our campers who love astronomy!

Step right up because tonight’s evening activity is the Staff Circus Show. It is sure to astound us. It is sure to amaze us. It is sure to be out of this world amazeballs!

Today’s special feature is PIONEERING! Enjoy the photos.

While I’m away in Canada, Dustin will take over the blog for me. No doubt that he will do a fantastic job reporting to you what’s going on here at ILC. We return to camp late Thursday night so I’ll be back behind the keyboard once again on Friday for our final few days of camp (Tear!). Until then, ILCUTHERE!

Today was another wonderful day here in Starrucca, PA. We woke up to early morning rain but it had already passed before our 8am wake up call. The temperature rose to the upper 70’s and the sky was a mix of clouds and sun until lunchtime. At that point the sun fully broke through and made for a beautiful day here at ILC with temps in the low 80’s.

Camp of Thrones is now in full swing. Kingdoms have been formed, royal families have been chosen, and challenges are on the horizon. Today at dinner the royal families will be introduced. Alliances are currently being discussed. No challenges have occurred yet but that’s next to come.

At rest hour today I will hold my big Canada teen trip meeting with all of our campers and staff who are going on Monday. I will hand out the itinerary, a packing list, talked about our expectations from the kids while we are out of camp, and discussed details about the overall trip. Our 9^th grade and older kids participating in this trip are so incredibly excited for our 4 days of fun, which is only 2 days away.

Tonight’s evening activity is Island Lake Live! What is Island Lake Live, you may ask? Well, let me tell you. It’s like Saturday Night Live meets the Tonight Show. A couple of our group leaders will host the event and our rock shop counselors will perform as the house band. We will show some pre-taped segments such as Carpool Karaoke, Mean Tweets, and our CITs will do some live bits for the camp to enjoy. This is the first time we’re hosting this evening activity here at ILC and it’s sure to be a memorable event.

Today’s special feature is LUNCHTIME in the dining room! I just walked around and took photos of a variety of our campers while eating their Philly cheesesteaks, French fries, mushroom cheesesteaks (for our vegetarians), and delicious chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Enjoy drooling over this great food and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!

Hi Island Lake families! Today we had a beautiful morning in Starrucca, PA. The skies were sunny and the temps hit the mid 70’s. Perfect camp weather! By afternoon the clouds slowly rolled in but the temps stayed warm and camp proceeded per usual.

This session we are going to once again play CAMP OF THRONES. No, it’s not the Game of Thrones; rather it’s similar to the game of Risk. I’ll try to explain it without it sounding too complicated. The goal is to be the kingdom (department) to acquire the most territory on camp by the end of the summer. Each camper has an opportunity to choose which kingdom they’d like to pledge their allegiance to. The kingdom head (department head) will appoint a Royal Family to be the official decision makers of the kingdom. The Royal Family will choose a kingdom name and appoint citizens to create a Kingdom Crest (flag).

Once the kingdoms are decided upon, they may declare an invasion on a neighboring kingdom (i.e. tennis can invade theater but not horseback riding because horseback is not located near tennis). Invasions can only occur at specific times of day and there will be challenges set up for the citizens (campers) of each kingdom. The challenges must be appropriate to the defending kingdom. If the challenging kingdom wins, they acquire the entirety of the defending kingdom, including their territory, royal family, and all of its citizens. If the challenging kingdom loses, they forfeit their citizens to the defending kingdom.

A kingdom can decide to ally themselves with one other kingdom over the course of the game. The game is meant to be played only in fun. Our goal is to have our campers show off their talents and encourage one another to excel. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

Today our 8^th and 9^th grade girls tennis team went out of camp to play in the Wayne County semi-finals. Guess what? That’s right, you guessed it, they won! Our girls are now in the finals! Go Island Lake 8^th & 9^th grade tennis girls! We’re so proud of them!

Today’s special feature is dance, cooking, video, and science! Tonight’s evening activity is a Staff Magic Show. This is an opportunity for our Island Lake magic counselors to show off their abracadabra skills and entertain the camp with the wonderment of the magical world. They’ll mix some stage magic with illusion to astonish our campers and leave them in amaze. Rumor has it that halfway into the magic show we’re going to break out into Revival Night. Shhh, don’t tell your children! For those of you who don’t know, Revival Night is one of our campers’ all time favorite evening activities. I’ll let your children tell you more about it when they get home from camp.

In the real world we hear it is now officially the weekend. We lose track here at camp, but enjoy your weekend and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!

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!

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 101 Dalmations was adorable! Those little ones put on quite a show with really cute costumes and a great set to go along with it (lots of spots and lots of barks!).

Yesterday’s rain continued on and off throughout the night. This morning and this afternoon we had midsty rain but the precipitation was not heavy enough to bring most of our outdoor activities inside. On the tennis courts were affected by the rain. Due to bad weather, yesterday’s river trip got cut short and the kids returned to camp shortly before dinner. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the opportunity to sleep outdoors under the stars but hey, at least they were able to canoe and kayak during the day before the rain shortened their trip.

Today was another busy one here at Island Lake. Our dancers went to a nearby Wayne County camp to participate in a big Dance Competition this morning and it lasted into the afternoon hours. We also sent a busload of children to Cooperstown to enjoy a fun-filled day at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here at camp we had our end of the session Skateboard Competition up at the skatepark for all of our rad, gnarly skater dudes.

In the sports department, our 8^th & 9^th grade boys basketball team played in a tournament game here at camp this morning and they won. Yeah boys!!! Our 8^th & 9^th grade girls lacrosse team went out of camp this morning to play in an intercamp game but unfortunately they did not win. Our 6^th & 7^th grade girls soccer team played in the Wayne County finals here at camp this afternoon. They won every game up to this point to make it into the finals but they came just short of a win. We’re proud of our girls for making it so far.

Step right up and get excited because tonight’s evening activity is the Circus Show! It’s going to be an exciting fun-filled night with the flying trapeze, high wire, fabric, lyra, mini-trampoline, rolling globe, ground skills, and more! Don’t worry parents; we’ll record the show so you can order it on DVD after the summer.

Today was sibling photo day so can you guess what the special feature is for the day? That’s right, you guessed correct,…SIBLING PHOTOS! Below is just a small array of the photos that we’ll have posted on our website later on.

It’s hard to believe that we have only one more full day left in the 2^nd session. If your child is going home at the end of this session or your child is coming up to camp at the start of our 3^rd session on Tuesday, you should have received an email from me by now with changeover day and bus stop information. I’ll also post more Changeover Day info in tomorrow’s blog. Until then, ILC U THERE!

Happy “Ballin’ Braids Day Challenge”! Today we are braiding the hair of every camper (& counselor) who has hair long enough, boys included! Campers signed up for free swim at the lake during the minors to have some staff braid their hair (if they didn’t already braid it amongst themselves). Below is a video of children getting their hair braided for this special day.

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 having the most remarkable, amazing, fantastic, extraordinary, spectacular, wonderful, memorable summer with us here at Island Lake. 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.   Last night’s Dance Show & Magic Show were both a success. Our campers did an amazing job up there on stage. You’d never know that they had less time to practice this session. As opposed to 1^st session, we had 2 Lazy Days, 1 Visiting Day, and 3 days of Color War all packed into 2^nd session, but still found time for rehearsals.

Our canoe & kayaking campers went on an overnight river trip today. They left this morning and they’ll return tomorrow morning. Last night our pioneering campers hiked up to Tent City for an overnight. They built a smoker to cook food on for later dates, they made s’mores, and played music by the campfire. The kids said they had a “really fun time.”

To go along with the busy day we’re having here at camp, the ILC Open begins today. Many campers are participating in this tennis tournament within camp and have matches to play throughout the day until the end of the session. We got hit with some rain this afternoon so our activities, including sports and tennis, were moved indoors. It’s ok though, we still have time to finish the ILC Open over the course of the next couple of days.

Tonight’s evening activity is our younger campers’ performance of “101 Dalmations.” I hear it’s going to be the cutest thing ever so I’m very excited to see our little kiddies perform. We’ll have lots of pictures to show you tomorrow and if your children are in the show, you’ll have an opportunity to order a copy of the video on DVD after the summer.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more Island Lake scoop. Enjoy the video below and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!