Camp recap

~whew!~

It's been a busy week, what with the fair and then camp. The past couple days we've been settling back into our routine, with some tired kids (and parents!) and lots of laundry to do. (I think we were about caught up on the sleeping bit, at least, until last night, when we spent the evening- uh, until about 1:30 am- with our dear friends, learning this game.)

But on to camping matters: I initially met these families after they invited Ella and I to join their Keepers of the Faith group. Prior to meeting, we'd just been reading each others' blogs. We've now gone to a few Keepers Meetings, and have enjoyed the fellowship with these other homeschooling moms and their delightful children. Two of these moms decided to plan a camp for all the Keepers families, and we decided to go.

I took the kids out to camp, which was held at one of the families' homes- on Wednesday morning. (Mark joined us that evening after work and stayed the full second day). The kids officially "registered" for camp, checking in at the registration table, finding out their "dorm" number, and getting bandanas. Each dorm member had matching bandanas. The dorms, or teams, as our kids kept calling them, consisted of an older child (in the 12-16 age range), a middle-aged child or two, and then a little one (or two).

Ella's dorm, "Children in Action"


Ella's dorm clears the ground for their tent.


All the kids lined up for The Shoe Toss.

One of the first things expressed to all of the kids was that the purpose of camp was to have lots of fun and glorify God. (How much do you love that?)

From the beginning, the teams emphasis was not about winning the games, but rather having fun and working alongside one another. The older children were encouraged to help the younger children, and they all did an amazing job throughout camp.

In fact, my favorite part was watching the older children take a hand of one of the littler ones (many times one of my boys), and guide them through a game, or help them get their tray of food at mealtime, or invite them to come and sit with them. I cannot say enough about the character of these older kids.

Boaz helps Isaias during one of the relay games

My (personal) other favorite part was that each time we gathered as a large group, one of our wonderful camp leaders went around to each of the adults, asking if they'd seen any kind acts that day. It gave us the opportunity, as parents, to praise the deeds we had witnessed, and the heart behind those deeds. I loved that.

I'm pretty sure my kids would tell you their favorite parts were the Snack Shack (after each lunch, and after the kids had each scraped, washed, and dried their own trays, they were given three tickets to spend at the Snack Shack). Or their "teams", or the water balloon fight they had the final day, or sleeping in the tent. Or the scavenger hunts, the songs, games, or the food. But for the past few days I've also heard them playing together, and pretending they are some of these older kids, so I know they made quite the impression on these particular little hearts.

The game where Mark got to chase down each kid and tag them. He tagged all but two very fast kids.

These two moms did an *amazing* job creating and planning this first-ever Solid Rock Family Camp. Everything was well-thought out, our days were packed full with back-to-back activities, things from "gather with your teams, use the items in this bag, and build your own invention. Then tell us why we want to buy it", to game where they had to get every member of their team over a rope (being held by two adults), without any member of your team touching the rope.


I am so impressed with all of the thought and detail that went into putting this on, and the HUGE success that it was. Great job, Hilary and Renee!!!

The boys' dorm, "The Courageous Crusaders"


Some of those Baker's Dozen boys

We feel so incredibly blessed to be able to be interacting with such wonderful (not to mention creative!) families!