What a beautiful first Shabbos in CSS!  Although the rain kept us indoors a lot of Shabbos, the singing and cheering definitely made up for it!  And today’s skit featuring Rabbi K’s wife was a huge hit; the whole audience couldn’t stop laughing.  During the afternoon, the campers played Bingo, relaxed in the library, and some even took Shabbos naps.

We’re looking forward to another fabulous week in CSS!

. . .And then something special happened.  I thought I heard something loud!

Only in Camp Simcha would they bring in a HELICOPTER for all the campers to take a ride!!

After the ride, Shira exclaimed, “It was AWESOME!”

A special thank you to Eli Rowe who brought his helicopter!

Isn’t Camp Simcha Special amazing?!

Gooood morning, everyone!  A whole week has gone by, can you believe it?

Everyone went all out with their flapper dresses, feathered hats,  and the boys, in button-downs, nickers, suspenders, and newsboy caps.  Esti even wore a TV costume in light of the theme!

Props to everyone who helps decorate the dining room every night – you do a beautiful job!

Breakfast was fast, and everyone ran off to their learning groups and their first two activities.

Today, at the mosaics workshop, Simi made a sign that read, “I love Taylor” out of mosaics, Samantha made a sign for the door to her room, and Talia made a picture frame with mosaic tiles around the frame.  Everyone was working diligently using small mosaic tiles, tacky glue, and soon, grout, to create beautiful masterpieces! Making mosaics is really fun!!

Welcome to the Age of Exploration!

It’s already Thursday! The week has flown by.  This morning, we were greeted by pirates and women in corsets on their huge ship.  Christopher Columbus was at the front of the ship with a large smile, anticipating discovering America.  Familiar “Pirates of the Caribbean” music was on in the background while we all enjoyed pancakes for breakfast.

Rebecca won a raffle during breakfast, and she got a squeezy, wiggly water tube.

In learning groups after breakfast, we learned how everyone should honor each other.   Everyone shared their deep thoughts on the topic.

Melanie gave an example of how to honor your friend.  “You should care for each other and make sure your friend is okay.”

Meira said: “you should help your friend in need.”

Last night, CSS invited Steve Max to come entertain us with his “Simon Sez” show.  His show is probably one of the most engaging shows the whole summer because it involves the entire audience’s participation.  First, he asked campers from different states to compete with each other and see “who is  a better listener.”  Then, the two sides of the Social Hall had a round.  The campers were such good listeners he could not seem to get anyone out!  So Steve tried all his tricks.

“Simon says, hands up!”

“Simon says, hands down.”

“Simon says, hands up!”

“Simon says, wave your hands!”

“Hands down! Noo — I didn’t say Simon Says!!”

He even had a special counselors round, and Gabi and Rebecca were the last two in the game.  He did all his tricks on them, and finally Rebecca won the challenge and received a special t-shirt!

Tonight’s night activity definitely got us pumped as the 6 African Jabali acrobats danced to African music, jumped, flipped and balanced around Jacob’s Gym.  They played limbo and started out simply.  Slowly, they lowered the bar – lower and lower and lower – until the man dressed in a shiny blue uniform with long dreadlocks was practically crawling until the rope. Then, all the men played jump rope and did cool tricks like flips and head stands while jumping rope.  Next, a man juggled a ball on a stick that he was holding in his mouth, and he did all sorts of tricks with it.  He threw the ball in the air, and caught it with the stick, and he bounced the ball up and down, without it falling to the floor.  We didn’t think it could get more entertaining until another man stacked 4 chairs on top of each other and did head stands and hand stands on the top chair!

Thank you to Alexis, Chayala, Hindy, Frannie, Rebecca, Sol, and Zlati who were great helpers and contributors to the show!

In conjunction with today’s awesome tribal theme, Camp Simcha had a special “Native American Festival” which had all different exciting booths and Indian music!  Most of the booths involved arts n’ crafts, but each booth gave you a different craft to take home.  The campers enjoyed making Native American dance rattles and pan flutes, which are similar to harmonicas.  They also made necklaces: basket-weaved necklaces made out of yarn and Native American necklaces made out of rocks and beads called “arrowhead pendants.”  Additionally, the campers made drums out of long rectangular sheets which they colored and wrapped around two container covers, along with some feathers, too, of course!  The teepee key chains were also a big hit – the campers loved making these tribal-themed key chains!  And how can we forget!! There was a huge fire pit, and a drum man singing and rain dancing in the middle, while there was corn grilling off to the side.

“My favorite activity was for sure all the arts n’ crafts!” Dani says.

“Naaahh, I loved the archery!” Jackie exclaims.

All the booths were so popular, and there’s even more fun to come tonight!

This morning, the dining room transformed into a Native American town.  Staff members dressed asIndian men and women were coming in and out 0f their teepees.  Red, yellow, green, and blue feathers were poking out of their large headdressesand their long hair was swaying against their fringed dresses.  Some kids even took a canoe ride along “Lake Dining Room.”  Then,everyone sang along to “Come and Get It,” while they ate a delicious breakfast.  Let’s see what’s in store for today’s Native American theme!