Mustangs Second session!
Session two has arrived so quickly. We have an awesome group of 20 girls in Mustang this session so we are almost full in our lodge! Mustang lodge is called Hayden and it’s situated very central to camp. Just outside our door is Filries field, the hard courts and one of our many flag poles! It’s only a couple of minutes’ walk from our dining hall too! Arrival day is normally a whirlwind of luggage, stuffed toys and goodbyes. After all of the parents left, it’s time to get to know each other with some name games! With 20 campers and multiple staff, it is a lot to remember. We also set expectations with our campers every session so we can all stick to the same rules, that goes for staff too! It’s great to get the girls to give us the expectations that they want to work with and also to see the counselors setting the same example. Once all the cabin rules and orientations to camp where over with, it was time for dinner! During this meal time we teach the campers about how we like to do things here at Frost Valley. We like to eat family style! Along with the multiple salad, soup and fruit options, we have food from out hot lines. Each table receives huge bowls of food and our moto at meal times is “if you kill it, you fill it” so if you’re the last one to take food from the bowl, it’s your turn to go fill it from the line for everyone. Strangely, the kids love to kill it so they can go fill it! After dinner we had our opening camp fire of session 2! This is where the whole of Wawayanda sit on a huge hill that overlooks Lake Cole. In this time all Village Chiefs and their staff come up and perform a skit or a song. The Mustang girls cheered so loudly when their counselors performed! After all that the girls were very tired and had their first night in Hayden lodge!
Mustang’s morning always starts with Flag raising! This is a chance for all of Wawa to get together to Pledge Allegiance, recognize birthdays and missing teeth and share pearls of wisdom. We also have a Core value of the day. Today’s was Stewardship. We then all sang along to a song and headed down to breakfast. Next up was waterfront. Today was all about the boating and lake orientations! After we learnt all the rules, it was time for our swim tests. The Frost Valley swim test consists of two small tests. The first one is in the blue section. You have to swim from one dock to the other and back again without touching the ground or the dock. Then you are a blue swimmer! This means you can go in most of the sections on the lake and also the trampoline. Next up is the test in the green section. All you have to do is tread water for two minutes whilst keeping your head above the water. Once this is completed, you can swim in all areas, use all boats and even use the trampoline and the ice berg! Once waterfront was over it was back to the cabin to shower, change and play some more name games before lunch! After lunch we had our rest hour and then it was time to get ready to finally go to the barn!
Our first time down the barn can be overwhelming! We have a 32 stall barn all full of horses, staff sweeping around and picking up poop. Evaluation days are always about learning how to handle the horses, learning to tie them up and lead them. Also grooming and tacking. Once this is under their belts, it’s time for their evaluation ride. This is just a normal lesson and the barn manager figures out what type of horse will be a good match for each camper. She is very good at her job! Once these rotations were done it was time to head to hang out. This is 45 minutes before dinner that the campers get to just head off on the field with their friends to …well hang out! Next up we will be heading to dinner and then get ready to have our evening program. Tonight we are doing paper bag skits! This is a great chance for the campers to be creative. We give each group a random bunch of items and they have to make up a skit including them! The items can be anything from a croc to a camera, even a banana! They have 15 minutes to think of the first skit. Once these have been performed we give them only ten minutes to think of one, then five! The shorter time they get, the funnier the skits! I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with!
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