The Emptying of The Pockets

 

Not too long ago a good friend of mine posted about the contents of her purse. This past week I was inspired to share the contents of my pockets as my next post... seeing as I don't really carry a purse around where I work because I would look silly, I decided emptying my pockets would be much better. I think that it gives a really good glimpse into the life of a Pfeifer Camp Counselor. 

Without further adeu; here are the contents of my pant and jacket pockets the day after camp-out. :)

Gloves (folded and unfolded)- The unfolded are mine. I started my morning at 5:30am wearing them while taking down my tent, but by 6:15am they were shoved in my pockets because it was difficult to quickly tie twine on my girls' packs. The folded ones were an extra pair in case a girl lost hers. Always gotta be prepared!

Socks- On the note of being prepared; I had an extra pair of socks just in case. It is started camping knowledge that you want to change socks before bed because your feet will be much happier in un-sweaty socks while trying to fall asleep. 

Twine- Twine is pretty much the most important part of campout... and also the most frustrating often times. We tie everything onto external frame backpacks with twine, so it is always a necessity. Any Pfeifer counselor would probably agree that camp-out mornings are often more difficult than the actual camp-out itself because we are up at the crack of dawn in 40 degree weather trying to wake-up 10 9-11 year olds, get everything tied back on their packs, take the tents down, and grab the bear-bag- all while sporadically taking about half of them to the bathroom in the woods because they have held it all night in the tent. Soooo having enough twine for the packs, in case they lost it, is important because THE LAST THING you want to hear in the morning is; "Ms. Adriennnnnnne; I don't have enough twine, and my hands hurt, and I'm cold, and I can't roll my sleeping bag, and I'm fixin to uuuuuuuuusssse it!" Little Rock Children's Lingo Dictionary: Fixin to use it means they are about to pee their pants. 

Pocket Knife- To cut said twine and other things that need to be cut. 

Taboo cards: We have had these taboo cards at our table in the Mess Hall so that the girls done eating can play with each other and entertain themselves so that they don't get too crazy. The ones featured here are inappropriate ones they found. The first couple of times we had the cards for meals the girls found it more entertaining to look for inappropriate ones than to actually play the game. If you can't see them one is Bunny and one of the words you can't use is Playboy. The other one is Naked in which you can't use Stripper. You also can't say Nudist Colony for Naked either. Weird.

Composition Notebook and Pen- For taking notes on the girls and the numerous lists I make throughout the day to keep myself organized. 

Folded Piece of Paper- My weekly schedule with random notes about things I needed to do.

Hairband- Obvious. It is a cabin of girls.

Cough Drop Wrapper- Because all of the girls think they are sick and in need of a cough drop because one of the other girls got one.

Cross- From my grandpa. I keep it in my raincoat pocket.

Reversible label- From one of the many stocking caps I passed out for camp out to prevent the whining of being cold. 

Justin Beiber Dog Tag Necklace- Aubrey asked if I would hold on to it to keep it safe. Gotta keep that Beiber gear safe.

Toilet Paper- Numerous reasons for having this. 

Leaf- Who knows.

Petzl Headlamp- Because it is still dark when we wake up to take down camp; and well, it's also dark when we go to bed.

Germ-X- For the germs.

Tweezers- The girls were taking showers that morning and all of the sudden I hear; "Ms. Adrienne will you come here please?!" "Yes, just a second; what is it?" I said. "I have a tick...LOOK!" Oh Lordy was it a big one right on her left hip. So I ran over to my toiletries shelf and found my tweezers because I couldn't get it with my fingers. In the 5 seconds it took me to get them though she had calmly and coolly pried it off of herself . She then proceeded to hand it to me and I squished it real good! 

Cabin Adventures

 Our cabin of girls this session are quite entertaining... so I see it only fit that I share some of the adventures of our cabin thus far since we are about 1/2 way done with the session!
    This session Cindy and I decided to have different themes each week having to do with different types of environments. The first week we chose the rain forest because we thought that it would be fun to decorate. Unfortunately I have not taken pictures of our vines and randomly placed paper snakes and monkeys, but as the heart above indicates it sure is "Enchanted" :)
   The second week of camp our theme was the desert. To be honest, we didn't really do too many activities, nor did we decorate... but I did make a pretty sweet Word Search that the girls have enjoyed and I checked out some books at the library so that when they had time the could read them and look at the pictures. This week is an ocean theme. If we have time, we are going to do some origami with the girls and maybe make name-tags in the shape of ocean animals.
   One really meaningful thing that both cabins of girls got to do last Wednesday evening was the FIRST EVER  A.C.E. Girl's Night. Heather organized the event, along with help from Alexa, and it was a great success. The girls made lip gloss out of Fruit Punch mix and warmed Vaseline. The girls loved it, and we as the counselors did our best to convince them that they really didn't want to "accidentally" consume too much of the lip gloss even though it tasted really good. After the lip gloss and the subsequent trips to wash their hands of the greasiness of the Vaseline, we did "Compliment Name-tags". Basically all of us wrote our names on a piece of construction paper, taped them to the ground and wrote a compliment on everyone's paper. My personal favorite on mine was "You smell clean". After the name-tags all of the girls set out their sleeping bags on the floor and we watched the movie "Rio" while eating popcorn. Everyone really had a great time and I think the girls really felt the love that night... which is what a lot of them need because we have a lot of girls that are dealing with low self-esteem this session.

   On Thursday afternoon we took a hike as a cabin "up the hill" and did an activity that is a personal favorite, called Ant Farm Realty. On our way, we found this cool tree that was growing over the sign that was posted on it.
    Once we got up there, I also noticed how three or four of the trees looked as though they had been scorched at some point; maybe lightening.... either that or there is some disease making all the bark come off the trees.
   After hearing the girls' hypothesis on the bareness of the trees they began the construction of their ant realty. In the end, the girls made some very creative properties. Interestingly, all of the groups had a spa area on their property for the ants. One group had a hospital, cemetery, school, and a grocery store. One of the more hilarious comments came from Chloe in the group with the hospital. After one of the girls was jokingly giving her a hard time she goes, "Imma gonna build me a hospital because you're about to put me in it!" I giggled to myself for a couple of minutes about that one.

The last picture here is one that was taken by Arrianna. She noticed how pretty the sunset was, so I asked if she wanted to take a picture of it. This is the view from the equipment shed looking out at the field.
   This week has started pretty well, and Cindy and I are making sure that we continue to switch things up on them help them work on those things that they want to while at camp. This first night this week was a bit challenging as a couple of the girls had a lot of homework and had to stay up late, then wake up early to get it done. We are excited for the rest of the week and are glad that we will probably get to camp out tomorrow because the weather has been pretty nice this week.
   

A Morning in the Snow

A wildflower in the snow.

Three of the four bird feeders we hung.

On Monday morning we woke up to snow here at Pfeifer Camp. It was expected in the forecast, and the weatherman was right! After bundling up in our cabin and stoking the fire, we headed out on our trip down to breakfast. While we were eating our syrupy pancakes we were told that class was postponed for an hour so that we could play in the snow. We were also given one mission: Make bird feeders using paper plates and yarn. Our girls are always up for a mission, and successfully made some inventive feeders. We hung them on a couple of trees by the two main paths through camp.

The big snowball and one of the bird feeders.

Our mini-snowmen village.

After hanging our feeders we went to PLAY in the snow. Although there really wasn't enough snow to make snow angels in, they sure had fun making mini snowmen. One girl even managed to make a pretty big snowball- with a bit of help from her cabin mates- and she put it in a stump to see how long it would take it to melt. We had a grand adventure, and all of the girls went to class that morning with a smile on their face and a story to tell. By the time we were on the porch getting ready for class the snow was pretty much melting and the precipitation coming down was a light sleet. Either way though, all the kids had a wonderful time and the small bit of snow was much appreciated.