Thursday, July 18, 2013

Summer Camp Highlights

We had a fabulous time at camp last week!  Thanks for sharing your kids with us for a few days.  We love them all!  This year's event had a Western theme and featured cowboys and cowgirls, horses, trick roping, campfire singing, and even calf roping on the sidewalk in front of the store.


Monday, we kicked off the week with a visit by author Rebecca Janni and her family.  She even brought along her cowdog!  Rebecca, author of the "Every Cowgirl" books, read from her new book, Every Cowgirl Goes to School, and helped us make western vests and sing songs and enjoy 'smores 'round the campfire.  The video above shows Rebecca reading from her book, and here she is with Hannah, after signing a book for Hannah.


Tuesday's fun included calf roping and a real live horse right here in downtown Seward.  Thanks to Cindy and Cara Wolverton for introducing Rocky, and to the Zabkas for letting us park a horse on their grass for a few hours.  In addition to meeting the horse and learning to rope, we enjoyed reading stories, making a farm from cheese and animal crackers, and tossing some horse shoes.  The big kids enjoyed one of my favorite books, Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch.


Wednesday featured Cowboy Camp, the book about a boy named Avery who didn't think he was cut out to be a cowboy.  At our own cowboy (and cowgirl) camp, we perfected our roping and tried our hand at milking, both on the sidewalk out in front of the store.   You may have driven by and wondered what was going on--Stephanie from the Seward County Independent did!

For snack on Wednesday, we had cactus juice.  If your little cowboy or cowgirl claims it's the best juice ever and you want to recreate it, take some lemonade mix, a little Tang, and green food coloring, and mix them all together.  That's all it was!  We also made haystacks and trail mix, eating what horses and cowboys do.

Thursday's fun included more roping and milking, as well as stories, crafts--the footprint horse was a big hit--and snacks.  Desert sand cups were delicious, especially with the rattlesnakes we added!  Making WANTED posters, using ourselves as the bad guys.

To end the week, we invited a special guest to put on a trick roping demonstration for us.  World Champion roper Joan Wells of Lincoln, who grew up in Seward, showed us how to twirl three ropes at once, and she also shared interesting facts about the history of trick roping.

A big THANK YOU to our volunteer helpers, Molly Newburn, Cara Wolverton, Jenna Ripke, Elise Bohning and Megan Runyan, and Josie Rojewski, and to Stephanie and Cheryl for making the week run smoothly.  We're already looking forward to next year!