Week Five 2013

As many of you know, Week Five was a HOT one!  In order to stay cool, we had a lot of waterslides, water balloon fights, car washes, and installed our special video camera at the drinking fountain to monitor how many times campers filled up their bottles! ;)

Highlights of Week Five for Traditional Camp included cooking over the fire at Nature Camp Craft, creating reactions at Science, playing hockey for Sports Field and passing a ton of levels at Tennis!  Additionally, our afternoon activities gave kids plenty of great opportunities to spend time with their counselors and fellow campers.  We held a spa day and gave campers blue facials, went on trail rides around the trails at HPR, and exploded pop bottles with Mentos!

The Kindergarten campers experienced plenty of "Wet and Wild" activities of their own as they spent time with the LIT campers "fishing" in the ocean and making rainbow fish out of computer discs and colored foam.

The Middle School campers made Hobo dinners over the fire, canoed on the St. Croix in preparation for their big canoe trip during Week Six, and constructed a "Mission Impossible" obstacle course that they led blindfolded campers through!

The LITs made tie blankets to donate to the Children's Hospital and spent a lot of time working with their younger camper groups during morning rotations and group time.  As always, they enjoy their time spent with the Kindergarten campers and are looking forward to this coming Friday, which they are in charge of planning!

We ended the week with a Lumberjack themed-Friday.  We flipped pancakes, raced to pound nails into stumps, played on wooden skis for team building, and learned how to tie a timber hitch to haul wood!

We also had our own Lumberjack Day Parade! The floats were incredible and the competition was fierce!

As we begin Week Six, we cannot believe we already have to say goodbye to a few two week campers.  We're excited the heat index is a liiiitle better this week and are already gearing up for Bonkers on Friday!

If you like what you see, you should take a look at our Facebook Page!

Week Four 2013

We definitely took advantage of the beautiful weather this past week at HPR and filled our days with as much excitement as possible!  Concluding the week with our Overnight and the Camper Variety Show reminded us of how lucky we are to be able to hang out with such fun, talented, and creative kids.  As we say goodbye to a few campers this week, we are hoping they have enjoyed their time here at HPR and we look forward to seeing them again next summer.

Traditional camp spent Week Four making pizzas at Nature Camp Craft, passing levels at horses, learning drills and playing games of basketball, and making scientific observations in the chicken coop.

Our resident game maker, Matt F, who brought us the Hunger Games, has worked his magic again and created the Colosseum.  This large afternoon game involved canoes, dodge balls, a go-cart, face paint, and plenty of exhausted campers and counselors! 

The Middle School program did something special this past week as campers rotated between our 4 counselors and participated in smaller, more specific activities.  Highlights include 3-D drawing, map-making, learning about New Orleans and Mardi Gras, and yard games.  The boys of the MS program also visited Good Samaritan and created their own programming for this visit.

The LIT campers spent much of their week working with the traditional campers, as they were scattered around camp to lend a hand and learn about the joys and difficulties of being a camp counselor.  Additionally, they built birdhouses with the Kindergarten campers as a part of their buddy program.

The Kindergarteners spent this week learning about animals.  They were decked out in safari vests, made out of paper grocery bags, and safari hats, from a paper bowl and plate, and found monkeys and gorillas all over camp!  They also worked with the LITs and built birdhouses, as mentioned above.

 We finished out our week with an "On Broadway" theme Friday and the Camper Variety Show.  We saw talents like singing, dancing, gymnastics, and musical instruments.

We are excited to greet new faces this week and are looking forward to a stellar Week Five!!

Want more Pictures? Check out our Facebook Page!

Week Three 2013

With only three days this week, we worked hard to pack as much fun and excitement into each day as possible.  By the looks of many campers and counselors alike at the end of the day today, it seems we have succeeded! :)

Campers experienced many Fourth of July-themed activities this week, including creating liquid "fireworks" at Science, writing our own HPR Constitution, and creating our own American flags.  In addition to these holiday activities, many campers were able to ride horses out into the pasture this week (a change of scenery for both the campers AND the horses!), participate in NASCAR races around the mound, and continue the exhilarating hunt for even more fairies around camp! 

The LIT campers, well-rested after last week's overnight, visited Feed My Starving Children on Tuesday and prepared enough meals to feed 75 children one meal a day for a year!  The LITS also spent Wednesday with the Kindergarteners preparing fake snot as a part of their health-themed week.

The Middle School campers visited Good Samaritan on Wednesday and participated in many off-site bike trips to canoeing and nearby parks for sports activities like speedball.  Lucky for the rest of us, they also cooked extra banana coffee cake for many of us to enjoy in the garage!

As mentioned above, the Kindergarteners participated in many health-related activities this week and searched for germs all over camp!  They participated in a scavenger hunt for "good" and "bad" foods, handed out "glitter germs" and then finished off the week getting cleaned off in human bubbles.

We sent off the campers with a camp-wide line dance to Bruce Springsteen's "American Land" on the tennis court and are excited to see what next week has in store!

Have a safe Fourth of July and we'll see you next week!

 Want to see all of the fun? Check out our Facebook page photo albums!

Week Two 2013

Wow! What a week! Week Two was so much fun and may have been our busiest week yet! We had so many exciting things going on I wouldn't be surprised if our campers slept the entire weekend to catch up! Especially our Middle Schoolers and LITs who came back from a two day overnight at William O'Brien State Park. They worked hard, played hard and made a lot of memories. 

The theme of this week in Faith building was Kindness. Campers had the chance to say mean words and hit a cardboard person with paint. We all apologized and wiped some of the paint away and learned that saying sorry is excellent, but using kind words instead of mean ones is always better. 

We also had a Wild West themed Friday full of line dancing, steer roping, cow milking and lots of cowboys and cowgirls! We loved seeing everyone's costumes!

Our Kindergarteners enjoyed a transportation themed week, building cars, going to "car washes" and "drive-in movies", and learning about many different kinds of vehicles. Look at those smiles!

 Our 3rd annual HPR Hunger Games was also on Friday. Campers had the opportunity to volunteer as tributes and compete against more than 100 other campers and counselors for the title of Hunger Games Champion. It was an adventure with lots of drama and excitement! We ran, we hid, we conquered! It was a huge success!

If that wasn't enough, we had a counselor talent show to showcase all the great talent our staff of counselors have. Campers had a fantastic time seeing their role models get up in front of everyone, some were funny, some were amazing, but all were inspiring!

It was a huge week, but if you still want more, check out all of the memories on our Facebook page!

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!

Summer 2012

Hello Friends! 

It was a terrific summer and we hope that all our campers are off to a great start of a new school year. We had so much fun this summer; it is hard to believe camp has been over for several weeks! 

Even though some time has passed, we look back on the summer with fond memories. We were so lucky to see so many campers take a chance and perform in front of a crowd for our Play and Horse Show. There were 80 kids involved in the play and another 75 in the horse show. Way to go! Not only did our campers learn and grow, but they made a difference in the world. This summer HPR, through our work with Feed My Starving Children, fed thousands of hungry children across the world.  We also raised over $1,500 dollars for the American Cancer Society – thank you to all the families that donated!

This summer was a blast and it may be over, but HPR is already thinking about all the fun we will have next year! We even have the dates for next year's camp sessions! 

HPR 2013

June 12th-June 15th : 3 Day Camp

June 17th-August 9th : Traditional Camp Programs

July 4th-5th : Off for Holiday

August 12th-August 16th : Extended Camp Programming 

We have got lots of new ideas we'll be working on over the winter that we are really excited about! Remember to check back with us in January and we'll tell you all about them! We wish everyone a fantastic year and we can't wait to see your happy faces next summer!

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