WACKY WEDNESDAY

Today we celebrated Wacky Wednesday. "Why is this Wednesday so special?" you might be wondering to yourself. Tecumseh has campers for nine weeks in the summer and we're currently in week five-- the middle week and this is the middle day of the week. Today we switch from the beginning of the summer to the beginning of the end of the summer and all craziness breaks loose.

Cabins dress up in themes for flagpole to earn points towards their cabin's total. I was very impressed with Kaitlyn and Jackie's cabin dressed up as a whole calendar this morning with each girl representing a different month.

We decided to just have all the CILTs dress up crazy and go as a Harlem Shake video. We brought our own music and busted it out right after they finished putting up the flag.

I love that Wacky Wednesday gives us just one more reason to be weird and goofy and wear overalls and do strange things just because.

Soaps and Kellie brought their girls out to teach us a new repeat after me song. In a very serious voice she started, "You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset," and then we continued to sing all of You Belong With Me repeat after me style. It was awesome and very wacky.

It makes it easier for me to take a lot of pictures when girls in this session like to be in pictures just as much as I do. Also how fun that they all wore overalls today?

They are making CILTs more awesome and giving camp a reason to dance.

 Wacky Wednesday is just so wacky. Flies at breakfast. Yelling "We've got spirit yes we do, we've got spirit how bout you?!" into the main dining room. Laying down on the floor after we finished clean up. Screaming as we walked across the silent bridge to chapel.

For some of us though, I guess being wacky is just another normal day because we're kind of weird all the time. Abby and Odle are certainly a little strange. Emily and Katlyn have been kinda crazy since they got here. I'm definitely far from the most normal person you'll ever meet. Perhaps this day was made for people like us.

Team CILT was all dressed up and ready to shadow clinics on this Wacky Wednesday.

And of course the counselors were dressed in their wacky best as well.

Alex and I joined hip hop for a bit and watched Justin help this small group make up their solo eight count.

I was so impressed with flag football's creativity today as they practiced throwing accuracy using hula hoops as targets.

I saw lacrosse drills in Main Field and then ventured over to the CAC where I found Molly and Anna with their clay wands.

The clay wands go over people's heads beeping until they choose someone by beeping extra fast. Then Molly and Anna listen to the clay wands to see what the clay gods want that person to do. The CILTs got chosen right away and had to crawl around the table moo-ing like cows. When the clay wands choose me I had to run into the middle of the CAC and scream, "MY NAME IS SARAH WRIGHT AND I LOVE CLAY CLINIC!"

At the end of first period clay clinic came inside to perform their song to the tune of firework. "Now we're in clay clinic. Making pinch and coil pots. Now we're making hot, hot plates. We're gonna give them to our moms and dads."

I stopped by the pool to see some skin diving and swim lessons going on.

In front of the Trading Post I had to sit down on the steps to watch Tommy Bein Country Line Dancing with all of these little girls.

He may not appear to fit in with their demographic at first but he was soon a champ at promenades, right hand stars, do-si-do and the line dance.

Lunch was crazy as you would expect on this Wacky Wednesday. The best was when they turned on music half way through and we got to dance for the rest of lunch and long after clean up because of the storm outside.

This Session is full of some pretty awesome dancers that not only have an enormous amount of enthusiasm but also some stellar original dance moves.

This Team is also getting really good at group photo opportunities.

I love finally getting to have Libby Whiting as a camper and knowing her for her and not just because of her siblings. I think Grace is so wonderful and love just being around her and hearing more of her story.

Daily Ellyn and Sarah pic. Who do you think won this arm wrestling match?

During rest hour all of the River Village cabins were magically transformed into... something else. Each cabin came up with a theme to earn mega points towards their Wacky Wednesday total. These points all go towards winning them their top pick of prizes from counselors.

CILT counselors get the privilege of helping to judge these cabins by walking through and participating in their scenes. Jamie and I headed out to the OT to judge all of the Blazer girls. We started at Pawnee Burger where the burgers are not made of real meat and we got to be the 10th customer in two years.

In Pima we walked through a Disney Medley of stories and then help with a crime scene investigation in Onondoga.

At Club Oneida we got checked off on the bouncer's list and then entered the dance party inside where we got glow sticks, refreshments and VIP seating in the lounge.

At Eel River cabin we met Squirt and Crush outside who then took us through the world of Finding Nemo.

We wore goggles and all of their lights had been covered with tissue paper so it really felt like we were underwater.

Last stop was the Illinois Car Wash. We signed up for the super extreme wash and sure got what we asked for.

Jamie and I put on our cars as soon as walked inside and then drove through the balloons, streamers, squirt guns and bubbles to get clean.

The drying station was manned by girls with hair dryers and fans. Then came the hot wax aka silly string. As we pulled away we each got a complimentary Diet Coke.

Emily Parkes got this awesome new bubble gun thing in the mail from her mom today and let me figure it out. It makes hundreds of bubbles at once and is just SO cool. I couldn't stop playing with it and got sticky bubbles all over my hands.

I love pool time with all of the River kids together. Today all of the Day Camp counselors were there too and we had so much fun.

I spent the second half of pool time with Lizzy, Sarah, Smoon, Gummy, Peanut, Katie and Maggie on the spring boards yelling trivia questions and attempting dives and super far jumps. Camp never stops being fun.

We were happily surprised when we found a care package from Becky to all of the CILT counselors in our mailbox today. It's our first camper care package of the summer and it arrived so quickly.

We should have expected such awesomeness from this girl. Becky got us two spools of paracoord rope, a tool kit of fishing line/ duct tape/ screwdriver/ wrench and letters for each counselor with a friendship bracelet inside and gluten free cookies for Smooney.

I got to eat dinner with just a small table of CILTs tonight who couldn't go on their cookouts and then we all played during Trading Post time.

CILT Jar Challenge of the night: Fly kites during Trading Post.

This has been one of the things I've been so excited about all summer and I kept seeing our kites just waiting in the drawer of fun stuff. Tonight we got to break them out and put them together.

Yoda was a struggle bus at first and just couldn't get in flight no matter how hard Alex ran and laughed.

Little spurts of wind made it down into River Village but we ran like mad to get those kites up into the air.

A couple Brave cabins came over part way through to copy our every move. Alex is the best at follow the leader.

We saved the kites because we know we'll want to play with them again soon. Bad news- Emily got pooped on by a bird tonight. Good news- it's still a good day because she's at camp.

We took the CILTs out to the OT to start our next activity. I was going to take a picture on the Wright Way rock but then everyone jumped in. That happens a lot around here. I'm not mad about it at all.

Tonight was magical because Jamie, Smooney, Alex and I were all on together. That never happens except for RFAJWD. But tonight we had nothing on the schedule except to HAVE FUN.

Fact: CILTs have more fun than people.

We taught the CILTs to play Fugitive tonight. Seven braves souls set out from the Day Camp site in hopes of getting to the Longhouse porch or the top of Irving's hill without getting tagged. I was part of a defense crew by the old well house that headed off two different groups of fugitives.

Emily, Emmalee, Emily (yep, all three of em), Kerri and I were very intense and serious about our job.

Grace and Libby didn't make it back safely but still had a good time running through the woods and giving themselves war paint.

Next the CILT played Dominican Chaos in Main Field. Basically it was organized chaos. Hopi creamed the competition in our cabin rounds.

We all headed inside to cool down and play 4 On A Couch, a favorite CILT past time. Tonight I loved getting to just play with all of these kids with no other agenda but to just hang out with them and be friends. Sometimes I really miss that part of being a regular resident counselor.

In devotions tonight we discussed the tension between micro and macro morality. Sitting and listening to the CILTs comments in that circle was one of the very coolest conversations I've been a part of all summer long. I was so impressed with what they had to say and excited about such a genuine conversation about things that really matter. I really believe that these kids will be a light to so many others back at home as they just live out the best version of themselves and try to put God first in all that they do.

I think it's going to be a constant trend that we never want to go to bed at the end of the day because we'd rather just keep hanging out with each other. If only we didn't need sleep to function.