From the group who brought you Roofball, I am proud to let you in on Farmhouse’s newest lawn game, Plunger Ball! Though before I continue, I should note that when talking about this game, you must say it with pure enthusiasm and loudly. So it is not Plunger Ball, it’s Plunggger Baalll! Now that we have that settled, you will need the following supplies to play:
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With some time off from my non-camp job, I have had some time to catch up on my camp related reading and given that I work at both a school and a summer camp, this article about how schools talk about what summer camp does caught my attention. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.acacamps.org/campmag/1411/pedagogically-speaking-how-schools-talk-about-what-camps-do

-Lady Sarena

If you listen very carefully, you can hear it- the sounds of Fleur de Lis reunions happening all over the East Coast and beyond. Camp friends, home from college and off from school, are enthusiastically greeting one another, catching up on recent events and pouring over favorite camp moments. They will be hugs and laughter; stories remembered not quite right and perhaps even a camp song or two. For a while there, it will be just the same as it is over the summer and a little bit of camp magic will be alit in winter. So my hope for you this holiday season is that it is as wonderful as it can be and it reminds you that while some people only get one magical season, we FDLer’s have the benefit of two.

-Lady Sarena

I know that I am not alone when I tell people that some of my best friends are people who I met through camp. As we find ourselves in the time of year for reflection and taking stock of life, here is an article about why those friends can prove so important-http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/opinion/david-brooks-there-are-social-and-political-benefits-to-having-friends.html?_r=0 

I hope you enjoy!

-Lady Sarena

In Indonesia if you are the fourth-born child, your name is Ketut. Just like that. Families are often four to six children, so naturally I met a lot of Ketuts. One Ketut in particular made a huge impact on me. I woke up one morning when I was in Bali a couple of weeks ago and went straight to the bus station to try to catch a shuttle to meet up with Ladies Hazel and Harriet from last summer. I bought a ticket for the next available shuttle for four hours later, and immediately started chatting with the friendly men who ran the card table on the side of the street that sold bus tickets.
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In my neck of the woods, it started snowing on Monday and has yet to stop. Now, I love snow but it does tend to remind me how far away camp is. So here is a little bit of camp to combat this ever growing amount of snow-

-Lady Sarena

This summer I posed some new questions to our staff, including “If you were marooned on a desert island, what one object and one person would you want with you?” To say the least, our staff took many different angles with this one. Take a look-
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When I was 10 years old, my aunt gave me a week at the Bronx Zoo’s winter day camp for Christmas. She worked there at the time in the Funds Development department and I, like most 10 year olds, was pretty into animals so it was a convenient, well thought out gift. 20 years later, I still have pretty clear memories of that week and if you were to ask me what the best gift I ever received was, my answer would be camp, both that week and the summers my parents generously let me spend at resident camp (farm camp to be precise, again I was pretty into animals).
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This past spring as the snow finally began to melt and the flowers finally began to melt and the flowers finally began to bloom and Lake Michigan finally began to transform from a frozen ice sheet into a recognizable body of water, the conversation around my school quickly turned to summer plans. It was well understood that “What are you doing this summer?” was not meant to be taken as an innocent inquisition, but as a loaded interrogation.
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I know that since I started at camp, I have counted it among the things I am thankful for each year. From the friends, to the opportunity to try new things, the appreciation it fostered in me for the outdoors and just the experience in general, there are so many things that camp has given me that I feel lucky to have in my life, So in the spirit of the season, here is some perspective on why parents are thankful for summer camp this holiday season-

Why Parents are Thankful for Summer Camp

Enjoy and Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

-Lady Sarena