Monday, July 20, 2009

Parent News

July 9th

It was quite warm today up here at Camp Menzies but everyone had a lot of fun despite the heat. In the morning, the campers participated in a variety of activities with their units. For lunch some of the units had cookouts where they made food ranging from burritos to teriyaki chicken with vegetables. Tomorrow, we will be packing in the morning and then having a special ceremony followed by picture taking before everyone leaves. We are sorry to see everyone one goes, but excited for the new kids that are coming tomorrow, it has been a blast up here this session! We have few units leaving and new ones coming. On the Loose left today for their backpacking trip and they will go water rafting tomorrow. CIT’s are still on their two days trip to Lake Alpine where they are working on their program. Horse Lovers today went swimming and horse riding and continued to learn about horses with a ground lesson and two hour horseback riding time. Smores and more also had fun swimming and doing arts and crafts. . Have a good evening everyone and look for more pictures tomorrow.
Love, Ramona Raccoon

Happenings @ Session 2, 3 & 4

Session 2,3 & 4 –Happenings

Greetings Camp Menzies Parents!
Today was an eventful day at Camp Menzies, all the girls attending session 2 spent the morning packing and left in buses and vans in the afternoon. The session 4 campers arrived at lunchtime and spent the afternoon visiting the swimming hole, activity areas, patch ‘n’ go (our infirmary) and the dining hall to learn all about camp. The CIT’s helped the girls to pack before spending the afternoon working on leadership skills. This evening we heard from Yosemite Institute and beyond and Picture this, both groups are doing well and are looking forward to heading off to Mono Lake on Saturday. Mountains to the sea will be whale watching tomorrow. All trips will be getting back into camp on Monday afternoon or early evening. Here are some reports from the Ramona’s Reporters who left on the bus today:

6/25/09-Horsin’ Around
Dear Parents,
This week we learned to…. Horseback ride and to ride horses. We also learned how to saddle a horse. We get to go on a trail ride today. We got to do archery. We had an all camp campout and are making friends too. We got to see a lot of stars; it was cool to see the big dipper. We also made clay at Arts ‘n’ Crafts with Cobra. We had a great time with friends! We are going to nature for a pond study this afternoon.

6/26/09-Horsin’ Around
Dear Parents,
We’ve had a bunch of fun at Camp Menzies! My favorite part was riding horses. I rode a horse named Montana. I’m also excited about sleeping under the stars. We have this freezing swimming hole and everyone tried going in but most people got out right away. We also went to the canoe lake. It was very hot and took hard work. We have many awesome counselors and C.I.T.’s (Counselors in Training). They have cool and funny names. We also have really tasty meals for the girls and counselors. They make fun stuff to do at meals so we enjoy them. Many kids have cried but they like it here, we are having a lot of fun. Our cabins are very nice. They have eight beds in each cabin. We have free time which is called “me time”. At “me time” we make lanyards, read, talk, make cards and have fun. We have ridden the horses twice at camp. Some horses’ names are Bart, Nacho, Applejack, Topaz, Montana, Sugar and Cowboy, truly.

Last day of session 2,3 & 4 – Busy as bees

Hello Friends, Neighbors, Parents, Guardians, and everyone else! It was another hot day up here at Menzies, but it was a busy one too! Mad about Murals started their mural today and it is looking good! They also got to go horseback riding. They rounded out the evening with a dinner cookout, pasta and red sauce cooked over the campfire. Summer Stock was in action today. Half of the group attended “Smokey Joe’s CafĂ©” and the other half worked on acting techniques in camp. The show was entertaining and one of the favorite songs was “Lean on Me.” They rounded out their night with a night canoe in Lake Nettie Hunter. Eco Explorers had a fun filled day filled with learning, water, and crafts. These explorers headed out to nature to explore edible plants in camp. In the afternoon they got to find out about all the water Menzies has to offer. They went to swimming and got to shower! In the evening they slept out in the meadow. Take aim was right on target for a great day at Camp. Half of the group headed out to spend time with the horses and the other got to create at Arts n’ Crafts. Of course the evening was spent trying to achieve William Tell accuracy in Archery and in the evening they explored camp with a night hike. Horse Lovers was loving camp. In the morning they went to many of the camp activity areas, including archery, swimming, and horseback riding. In the afternoon the girls had a ground lesson with the horses and horse staff. The evening the spent start gazing in the meadow. We are looking forward to seeing Mountains to the Sea, Picture This, and Yosemite Institute tomorrow! Then we’ll get to see all of their pictures and hear all of their stories.

Love, Ramona Raccoon

Camp Echo

June 26th
Greetings Camp Menzies Parents!
We have had a busy couple of days at camp. Yosemite Institute and Beyond, Mountains to the Sea and Picture This have all headed out of camp on their trips. Yesterday we had an all camp counselor hunt and all of the groups in camp had an overnight in the meadow. Many of the groups enjoyed canoeing and swimming today in the warm afternoon. Trail Signs went on a long hike in Calaveras Big Trees State Park and the CIT’s helped out cleaning in the kitchen after dinner and also wrote a mission statement for them. Here are some reports from yesterday’s Ramona’s Reporters:
6-24-09-Sleepy Hollow-Under Construction
This morning we woke up and got ready for breakfast. After breakfast we rode horses and played games in the meadow. Then we played karaoke in archery with the Mountains to the Sea group. Last we came back to Sleepy Hollow and did unit Kapers and had lunch in our unit. After that we started building, we put on rafters and siding on the cabin. Next we took showers and had me time before playing games in the meadow and dinner.
6-24-09-Silver Fir-Camp Superhero
Hi there, Camp Superhero here!
Today was a super day; we started out with horseback riding and archery. We were very excited about both activities! At archery we fought villains by shooting at targets shaped like villains logos. After lunch we did a service project for camp by cleaning the trail from our unit to the campfire circle (Pine Haven). Another thing we were looking forward to was canoeing! We had a canoe race and played canoe tag. During the last part of the evening we moved our sleeping bags to the meadow. We slept in the dewy grass of the meadow. Orion told many marvelous stories; our favorites were the stories of Orion and Scorpios and Persephone. And that was our super day!