Church, county, and children’s faces have been edited out or blurred! The step kiddo went off to her first sleep-away camp this morning. Oof, it feels like forever since I did camp as a child. This will be her first time away from home for an entire week without any family members. She didn’t want us to wait with her so I just snapped a photo as she was waiting to board the bus.
I’m amazed at how smoothly check-in and load-up went. Every kid had to be checked in, given their camp shirt, checked for lice, luggage loaded in the trailer, then bathroom break, and finally put on the bus. We arrived at 7am and the children were boarding the bus at 8am.
I went super overboard and had my stepdaughter’s bags packed last week. Since we didn’t want her to forget anything. There are no electronics allowed and no phone calls into camp. So if she forgot anything, she’d just have to suck it up for the five days she was gone. Everything had to be labeled with her name or initials. I think next year I’ll try something I saw on TikTok. I found out the day before she left so it was too late to try this.
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The only thing that’s not on that packing list that we added to her bag was feminine hygiene products. Everything was labeled and put into ziplock bags to make organization easier. I packed this list for my stepdaughter to use to double-check she didn’t lose anything when she returns home from camp. Her ADHD is really bad. At one point I had three of her hoodies on the floor of my car because she’d drop them and forget they were there. We’ve honestly resigned ourselves to the fact that everything might not return home. (Probably one of the reasons they don’t allow electronic devices at camp.)
Plus they have so much to do. Swimming, canoeing, archery, rifles, crafts, too many sports to name, rope courses. The kids are planned to be going from 7am until about 11pm each day. It boggles my mind how expensive camp is these days though. $25 to hold a child’s place. Then $325 for camp. Most of the activities like tie-dying shirts, airbrushing shirts/canvas bags, and woodworking crafts are anywhere from $3 (if you bring your own shirts/bags) to $10 for craft activities. Meals are provided, but snacks are not. And outside food and drinks are not allowed. So drinks, snacks, and other treats are $2-$5. We generously budgeted about $200 for activities and refreshments.
It makes sense, but at the same time, I cannot help but feel like everything is so expensive these days. With the rising gas prices, this will probably be step daughter’s biggest summer trip at least for our side of the family. Her mother’s family lives across the state so they might be going for a visit over the holiday. With our local state park’s pool closed, I’m not entirely sure what we’ll end up doing for the rest of the summer.
I wish I could have added photographs of all the packing I did for my stepdaughter’s trip but her full name was plastered over EVERYTHING. Just know that it was a thing of beauty and chaos all wrapped into two bags of luggage. Thanks for stopping in today! Yesterday’s post was my last pre-planned post so I was scrambling today to pick a topic. See you guys tomorrow.
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