ParentSpace Blog

The teams were set, the battle lines drawn. Today was all about war, with the two competing sides in fierce battle for victory. The dining room was divided up, with red & blue streamers on one side, and black & yellow on the other. The team cheers continued without letup through the entire breakfast, and into the rest of the events.

We had major league gaga competitions, banana boat races and for the first time, we had a baseball game!

After lunch, a ceasefire was declared, and we gathered in the gym for an epic stunt show. The troupe stunned us with their amazing acrobatics, contorting themselves into tiny shapes, making human formations and pyramids, and even jumping rope while sitting on the floor!

Supper was another opportunity to excercise our vocal chords, with even more cheers.

As night fell, we assembled in the social hall for the grand finale, with team cheers, speeches and songs. After that, we had a hilarious set of skits, preformed and filmed by our super-talented counsellors and specialities.

The judges convened, the points were tallied up, and the winner is… the blue & red team.

As we made peace here, we pray that our friends in Israel should achieve real and lasting peace, ASAP!

The morning started off with a game of Totally Twisted Twister, which somehow involved and evolved into a colour run! Things seem to transmogrify quickly and crazily here!

After lunch, we got to shave our counsellors. They’ve been saving up their beards for the last few weeks, and today we gathered together for a mass clean-up! We even have a few newly-minted skinheads.

Supper arrived, with its customary dancing. Today however, there was a twist: one of the workshops here is rerecording/making cover versions, with the campers doing all the solos. Now we got to enjoy the fruit of their labour, dancing to the beat of their remixes.

From there, we went straight to the hall for a Camp Simcha Rave! They really went the whole nine yards here: there were black-lights, light-sticks, lasers and, of course, our very own DJ John at the deck.

By now, even we thought the day was so intense it must be over by now, time to head to bed, we were astonished to hear Dembi at the mike announcing the breakout of COLOUR WAR!!! Teams are Superman/Blue & Red/Kindness vs. Batman/Black & Yellow/Faith. After the themes were announced, the captains introduced and the teams divided up, it was time for the two teams to part ways and make their plans.

Find out tomorrow what happens to the wildest and happiest place in the world when they go to war.

Last night three campers were commended for acts of unmitigated selflessness, in helping the housekeeping staff in their work, aiding other campers during activities and courteous treatment of waiters. Each of them also received an MP3 player

This afternoon we had hysterical skits by our staff, including a “competition” called “How Pathetic are You?”, with couneslours to tell the most embarassing story they could about themselves, and then a Camp Simcha version of Scenes From a Hat, with Team 1 competing against Team 770 to come up with the craziest lines for various situations. We cried with laughter at all the crazy lines!

Then came the bi-annual bingo game, with Duvie “the Legend” Becker calling out the numbers and announcing who won the great prizes, including MP3 players, GoPro video cameras and even a Samsung Galaxy tablet!

Today camp was invaded by pirates. Jolly Rogers flying high on the speedboats, and even the stage turned into a pirate ship!

In that spirit, we had a wild game of capture the flag, running and chasing each other all around camp, though the weather meant that at times we were not quite seaworthy and had to go into port!

Today we also had an epic funfair! There were rides, games and even funfair food – unlimited cotton candy and popcorn!

Good Shabbos, see you tomorrow night!

Today we welcomed the cyclists of Bike4Chai to camp. Over 300 people rode all the way to camp, fundraising for Chai Lifeline!

We greeted them with confetti, wild cheers and high-fiving them as they arrived. Once they got into camp, there was a gigantic tent, with a stage, screens and bleachers over two stories high.

We cheered and danced non-stop for ages, they got to taste a little of what camp is really all about!

Once that was over, we had a camp-wide water fight. With hoses, buckets and bottles, there was not a dry eye to be found. Nor a dry shirt, or even socks. In short, everyone was soaked!

At night we had a cholent challenge. Grouped by division, we made cholent, but with a twist: in order to get the ingredients, there were quizzes, challenges and joke-telling. Add to that chant and cheers, and it was a real blast. Tomorrow night, after simmering a whole friday, we will be able to taste for ourselves who made the best cholent.

Stay tunes for the results!

 Today was all about food. Giant food. The dining room’s makeover today included giant food hanging above our heads, and even a massive webpage with weather predictions including clouds and meatballs!

Next it was time for a spaghetti hunt. We ran around camp, searching all over for spaghetti-string. Once we collected all the pieces, we tied them together, forming a massive rope that surrounded the whole camp!

With Avrumie’s division, the Heroes, collecting the most spaghetti, they won a special, foody prize: a food fight, with tonnes of spaghetti in a paddling pool!

After lunch, we had had food designing contest. With cupcake decorating and sushi making as the official aim, somehow most of the icing kinda missed the cupcakes, and ended up as makeup on everyone’s faces. No idea how THAT happened. None at all…

To round off the day, we had Steve Max, professional Simon Says Leader! His quick tricks, funny challenges and witty commentary had us rolling with laughter!

Good night, see you tomorrow at Bike4Chai!

Welcome to our first full day inthe happiest place in the world!

Our first breakfast of Camp Simcha Special 2014 set the tone for what was to come. The staging area was transformed into a magnificent castle, with silver walls over 10 feet tall, massive arched opening and even a gas lantern over its entrance!

The dancing seemed like it would never stop! By each meal, we seem to reach new heights in energy!

Today we got to check out all the amazing workshops in camp. Between pottery, rocketry, candle making and a whole lot more, we barely had a moment to rest! Add to that lunch, with the customary dancing (you’re starting to see a pattern here, aren’t you?) and swimming, speed boating and meetings, you can see why we needed a boost of fuel for our energy in the afternoon, which we got from Camp Simcha’s very own Ice Cream Golf Truck!

Supper, with its craziness, was cut a little short with a fire drill. With all the fun, safety is always the top priority.

With nightfall came a special show, with a pack of dogs showing off their speed and agility; they jumped through hoops, over obstacles and then really blew our minds away with their ability to catch disks and frisbees being thrown at them from all directions!

Time to head to bed; we need to rest up for another day to come over camp!

Camp Simcha Special 2014 has officially begun!

Our world-famous welcome just got majorly upgraded, with inflatable tunnels, fog machines and our in-house DJ at the deck!

As each camper arrived, they went through the tunnel, exiting in a cloud of fog to a line of cheering counsellors, all dressed in the wildest costumes.

With this year’s theme of Simcha Tales, the stage, dining room and staff are all decked out with fairy tale stairs, super-sized books hanging from the ceilings and costumes from all genres: Supermen, kings and even some giant food!

The dancing just went on and on, non-stop, for hours!

If you thought that was enough, and we’d just relax, unpack and go to sleep, this is obviously your first time here; the fun never stops! Supper somehow just transformed into one long dance scene, over an hour long, stopping only when the next event started: Jeopardy!

Our game show hosts, Tzvi and Yaakov, made sure the day lasted on a high, with EphShap on the controls, keeping us guessing with crazy questions, trick answers and confusing scores!

See ya all tomorrow!