Just like that, our first Holiday Saturday Camp of the season is over and done! We had so much fun meeting new friends and creating all kinds of goodies.
A quick vote showed that most of the campers’ favorite activity was making a really cool Pumpkin Play Clay that combined canned pumpkin, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice to make a fall-scented play dough that can easily be re-created at home! The campers had so much fun mixing this up, and it’s a great activity to try with younger siblings as it’s totally taste-safe and non-toxic. In the craft room, campers also decorated a bag from our overall sponsor, Hershey, to transform it into a spooky, Frankenstein’s monster-themed Trick or Treat bag. They’re ready for Halloween!
In the kitchen, campers enjoyed making cupcakes with a candy surprise inside! This is a great use of leftover Halloween candy, although our campers insisted that they NEVER have leftover Halloween candy. The frosting flowed freely as they decorated these cupcakes to look like a pumpkin, complete with a pretzel stick stem.
Another fun recipe we made using Hershey’s candy was a Candy Bark that campers enjoyed piling high with chocolate and drizzling with, guess what, MORE CHOCOLATE! Following the Frankenstein trend, we made a crisped rice and marshmallow treat that we dyed green and decorated with melted Hershey’s chocolate and candy eyeballs to look like Frank himself. Campers loved buttering their hands and squishing the marshmallow mixture into the pan. It was quickly decided among the campers that the best way to clean all that sticky, sweet, cereal mixture off of your hands is to just lick them, but we promise that hands were washed thoroughly afterwards! For lunch, campers made quesadillas that looked like mummies and jack-o-lanterns, using mozzarella for the mummies and cheddar for the jack-o-lanterns. We cooked the quesadillas in the oven to get them crisp and melty without having to babysit them in a pan or risk ruining their cute little designs.
One of my favorite parts of getting ready for camp is decorating the cottage and coordinating counselor outfits. For our photobooth backdrop, we used green wrapping paper to create a Frankenstein that was larger than life! As always, our tin foil Hershey’s Kiss hats were very holiday appropriate! Our wonderful counselors wore oversize green t-shirts that were decorated ric-rac to create a fun Frankenstein hairline and googly eyes and a painted on mouth to complete the Frankenstein look. So fashionable it’s scary!
I’m so happy to be able to help these sweet campers have fun making crafts, recipes, and maybe a few messes along the way. I think more than a few of them walked away with a new Halloween tradition, or at least a great sugar high!