Week One 2013

As we begin a new week, it is hard to believe that we are already done with Week One of the HPR season!  This past week has been filled with welcoming new faces, reuniting with familiar ones, and wasting no time diving back into the excitement.

Highlights of the week for Traditional Camp include cooking at Nature Camp Craft (what could go wrong with lots of dough, butter, and kids?!), learning new songs at Explore, perfecting soccer skills at Sportsfield, and discovering that activities at Science can actually be REALLY fun!  Campers were also introduced to their first Fruit of the Spirit, self control, in Faith Building and will continue to focus on a different attribute each week.

In addition to the Traditional Camp, the Kindergarten, Middle School and LIT programs are also in full swing.  The kindergarteners spent their week learning about bugs, and ran all around camp with magnifying glasses to investigate all of the creepy crawlies HPR has to offer.  For many of them, this week was their first "real camp" experience and we are so pleased to see so many of them loving every minute of it!  

The Middle School campers spent their first week engaged in team building activities and took their first trip to Feed My Starving Children on Friday.  Preparations for next week's overnight are well underway and it already looks to be a very fun trip.  The LIT campers spent time meeting the traditional camper groups they will be assisting, getting to know each other better, and preparing for their role as the oldest kids at camp.  We are also so excited for their own overnight next week and cannot wait to see them return energized and closer than ever!

We wrapped up the week with a Friday theme of "Let's Play Ball," which included Mushroom Ball (HPR's own special version of dodgeball), a Punt, Pass, Kick competition, a basketball relay, and exciting team building activities.  The costumes for this Friday did, however, cause a bit of a rivalry as campers and counselors alike poured out of cars in both Packers and Vikings jerseys!  Regardless, it was GREAT to see so many campers in costume and we hope this continues throughout the summer!

We are so lucky to have 7 more weeks to go at HPR!  Look forward to hearing all about an exciting Week Two and the Counselor Talent Show on Friday!


Want more pictures from Week One? Check out our Facebook Page!

3 Day Camp 2013

As we are beginning this week of Traditional camp, we are already missing many of our 3-Day campers!  We were blessed with a fantastic three days filled with great activities, cooperating weather (mostly!), and a terrific crew of kids. 

While we were only together for a short time, we packed in plenty of great activities for the campers.  Highlights included making s'mores over the campfire, getting up on horseback (many for the very first time), and exhaustive hunts for the numerous unicorns and fairies currently residing at the ranch!

In addition to the scheduled morning activities (Archery, Faith Building, Nature Camp Craft, Tennis, Horses, Canoeing, Science, Explore, Arts & Crafts, and Sportsfield), campers signed up for a wide variety of special afternoon activities that were created by our staff.  These were opportunities for our campers and counselors to get to know each other on a more personal level as they participated in these often silly and creative times together later in the day.

Friday, however, was easily the craziest day of the week!  Themed "2x2 Day," counselors did their best to represent Noah's Ark.  We were ready to greet the campers in the morning decked out as raindrops, cardboard representations of the ark, and a few too many elephants and cats!  We were so excited to see that many campers also joined in the Friday costume fun, which is always encouraged. 

 

Special Friday activities included a camp-wide scavenger hunt, animal call telephone, fishes and whales, and other animal activities related to Noah's ark.

As we say goodbye to the 3-Day campers, and already miss them at HPR, we want to say THANK YOU for bringing your awesome kids to camp.  We enjoyed every bit of their time here and hope to see them again next year!


Want to see more pictures of all the fun we had? Check out our Facebook Page!