In light of today’s “biblical times” theme, CSS brought in a petting zoo! That’s right, llamas and goats and sheep and monkeys and bunnies and a pony and a snake and even a unicorn! (Just kidding!)
The campers were ecstatic!
Sarah Z. told us about her experience afterward. “There was a miniature horse. It was not a pony! And there was a monkey show, and it ate ice cream and watermelon! But my favorite part was feeding the miniature horse.”
Melanie C. said, “I loved the bunnies! And the monkey was cute!”
Frannie C. said, “I liked everything! Because I got to feed the monkey and I got to play wackamole which is a game where you have to bop the things as fast as you can as they come up!”
Becca N. said, “I thought it was really fun, and the whole Noah’s ark theme was really interesting because they’ve never done anything like that before!”
Simi S. held the snake and fed the monkey, too!

Here are some Simcha Stories from our very own Nechama and Shira!

Power pallets is one of the most exciting workshops in CSS because it involves so many different activities within itself.  Lee-el, who heads the activity, guides the campers on the baseball field as they work hard on sanding, hammering, cutting, shaping, carving, putting pieces together, and finally, painting everything!  This year they are making benches for camp fires, book shelves, barrels, crates, and more fun things!

Sarah L. said, “I love power pallets.  There are so many fun things you can do there.”

Becca G. painted a bench today! She said, “I even mixed red and blue together to make purple!  It was so cool.”

This morning we were woken up by a unique someone:  Moshe (Moses) Rabbeinu.  He told us to quickly grab our matzah and run, run, run to the dining room.

We walked into the dining room to see a beautiful palace made of various colored fabrics, and Rivka’s well was sitting outside with a metal bucket perched on top.  Campers and staff members were dressed like all sorts of people from biblical times, which is our theme for the day, of course!  There were Rabbis, biblical characters, sifrei Torah, Egyptians, and even the 10 plagues roaming around the dining room! Some people even dressed up like animals from Noach’s teivah:  Stephanie, Brochy, and Simi all dressed up as tigers, Daniella dressed up as a bumble bee, and Tamar dressed up as a rabbit!

Everyone enjoyed the delicious matzah brei for breakfast; of course that was no coincidence!

Right now we have an exciting activity going on in the dining room: matzah baking!

Wow, what an eventful day! Where to begin?

After a delicious lunch, Camp Simcha Special got ready to welcome all of the amazing bike riders who rode all the way up to camp!  CSS hired a special DJ for the event and set up a stage, too.  Campers and staff members, still dressed in their hippie costumes, sang and danced while they waited for the bikers to arrive.

It started to drizzle outside, but nobody seemed to notice because they were too excited about welcoming the bikers.  Even when it started to rain harder, everyone continued to cheer, sing, and dance with their never-ending spirit and liveliness.  Campers, staff members, and visitors who came to cheer on the bikers moved to the side, making a clear path for the bikers to come through.

And finally, after what seemed like more than a year, they arrived!!! One by one, about 100 bikers, all geared up and wearing Camp Simcha “Le Tour de Simcha” t-shirts, rode through the entrance past the finish line!  Hooray!!!  CSS could not stop cheering.

Everyone gathered in the gym to watch a few small performances by our special campers.  First, the campers, along with some specialties, did an “Indian Dance,” followed by a campers’ dance to the theme song of the summer, “Have Fun While We’re Young.” All of the staff joined in and danced along with them, doing all the motions.  Afterward, Dalia sang a beautiful Camp Simcha version to “Never Alone,” and then a second time, after the audience yelled, “Encore, encore, we want an encore!”

The bikers were then escorted into a large tent outside where they were able to change and eat delicious food, while the rest of CSS watched an incredible magic show in the gym!  The magician had so many cool tricks to show us!  We could not figure out how he kept turning the red cards into black ones! And where did that 12th card come from? Didn’t Chayala count 11?

And the fun didn’t end there, it was only the beginning!  Next came the amazing, rockin’ concert starring…. BENNY FRIEDMAN!  Yes, the one and only Benny Friedman who sings “Yeish Tikvah!”  Disco balls were lighting up the social hall as we danced to booming music and sang on top of our lungs.  The walls and floor were shaking as we jumped up and down excitedly.

Today was definitely a fun day!

Gooood morning CSSers, and welcome to the late 60s!

Peace and love are spreading around the Simcha dining room.  Signs that say “GROOVY,” “LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED,” “GIVE PEACE A CHANGE” and “FLOWER POWER” are plastered on the tie-dye backdrop that is hanging in front of the stage.  Campers and staff members are dressed in hippie getup: peace sign shirts, earrings, belts, glasses, fringed bell bottoms, and hippie headbands.

After everyone ate their last bites of breakfast, they all gathered near the stage and danced away!

Now off to learning groups!

Three incredibly talented trampoline experts joined us in CSS tonight and wowed us with their tricks!  They flipped and jumped and even stopped mid-air to make hilarious moves!  One of the guys did a triple back flip in the air, and he was so high he almost touched the ceiling! They even jumped with skateboards and skis that weighed up to 15 lbs strapped on their feet!! Now that takes talent!

They ended off the show with booming music, and everyone got up and danced to the beat.  The campers took pictures with the talented crew after the show, which made the night activity all the more exciting!

Please excuse the appearance of our blog while we do some upgrades. Thank you!

Off to the side of the Camp Simcha dining room is every camper’s dream: Nadia’s Sweet Shoppe.  Our campers are hard at work, baking all sorts of delicious treats.  Every day is a different pastry, and today’s special pastry is… cookies!  Campers enjoy putting different toppings on the cookies like chocolate chips, frosting, whipped creams, sprinkles, and more!

Dani liked the whipped cream best; “I put it on my nose and on my water bottle, too,” she admitted.

And do you know what the best part about the Sweet Shoppe is?  You get to keep everything you bake!

Below the dining room, down the stairs, is the computer room (where all of CSS blogs are created.)  Sitting in the corner of the room on the computer, I can feel the ceiling and the walls shaking around me.

That’s because all of CSS are singing and dancing for Michal’s Bat Mitzvah!! A huge mazel tov to Michal and her family!  Aviva is playing the piano, and everyone is singing and cheering!  The black-and-white floor in “Simcha Diner” has now become a dance floor as campers and staff members dance to the beat of the music.  All of Michal’s friends dance around her in a circle and wish her Mazel Tov. A gigantic cake sits on the table next to the dance floor waiting to be cut and eaten! Mmm, yummy!

Once again, a special Mazel Tov to Michal on your Bat Mitzvah!  We are so happy for you, and we are honored to be able to spend your bat miztvah with you!