the essence

Our camp theme for the week was Pilgrim's Progress; a story that if you're not yet familiar with is totally worth your time! Our chapel sessions followed the story throughout the week and we kept the games & activites in step with the story.

One of the stops in the story is the town of Vanity so on Wednesday night we had vanity fair (a carnival). We had pizza, cotton candy, popcorn, games, & rockin' photo booth where everyone could dress in costume (the time period was the 1600's), & it was deicided on Saturday that Ray would be the court jester.

On the morning of the fair Ray enthusiastically had this conversation with me:

Ray: I know, tonight at the fair I can make animal balloons.
Me: But, Ray, you don't know how to make animal balloons.
Ray: No, I'll blow up water balloons & then write the name of the animal on them!

Even with this being high school campers I knew it'd be a laugh! (one year we could win pet grapes which we carried around in ziploc bags filled with water & loved it!) Sure enough, it was a big hit. I taped signs to Ray which said "free animal balloons" & even after he ran out of balloons people were asking him for them; one girl even offered to pay him! The kids got pretty creative, too. Ray made an "ape chasing a lion across the desert plains" and a "monkey sitting in a tree."