Jello, Harpoons, Babies, and water balloon disasters... just a normal day of camp!

So far camp at Lakenheath AFB has been fantastic! We started yesterday morning with a small but very enthusiastic seven campers. Today we had twelve. We may still be a small group as far as numbers go but boy are these twelve campers creative and a joy to work with. In this group, kids really do say the darndest things!

We started off our first day of camp with an activity called Beach ball Brainstorm that involved crazy "what if" questions and a beach ball. I've never had a group of kids love this game so much! These guys would have happily played this game for the whole three hours. The campers were so hilarious with their answers that Kate and I are still laughing about it. For example,

Question- "What if we lived underwater?"

Serious camper- "I'd make sure I had a harpoon."

(A harpoon? Why didn't I think of that?)

Question (asked by a camper)- "What if the clouds were made out of cotton candy?"

Miss Rachael- "I think I'd get a big belly from eating so much!"

Concerned camper- (says very seriously) "Just make sure you're not pregnant when that happens!"

Miss Rachael- "Oh... right. Thanks for the heads up."

Concerned camper- "No problem."

Question- "What if Penguins lived on the moon?"

Enthusiastic camper- "I'd take up a team of astronauts and play with them!!!"

Practical camper- "They'd die."

(The rest of the campers just stare at the practical camper with sad eyes like he just ran over their pet!)

Question- "What if we had lions and tigers as pets?"

Harpoon answer camper- "I'd teach them to hunt!"

Enthusiastic camper- "I'd give them a bath and dress them up all cute!"

Practical camper- "I'd move."

Now after camp whenever Kate or I talk about eating lots of food, the other always responds with "Just make sure you're not pregnant when you do that!" Or if one of us talks about going somewhere the other says, "Make sure you take your harpoon!"

This morning we started with a team building activity that included water balloons... lots and lots of water balloons. Kate and I rushed into the bathroom to fill them up before the campers arrived. Before we could even fill up one balloon though Kate dropped hers down the drain. She tried to save it but it was a goner. We looked down the drain then up at each other and busted up laughing. Kate responded with "Ooops!" Kate decided to put a paper towel down over the drain to prevent that from happening again. After we each filled up one balloon successfully we thought we were on a role! Obviously not though because Kate's second balloon shot off the faucet and flew all over the room spraying water every which way as it went. Kate immediately yelled "Shoot!" (she may or may not have yelled a more inappropriate word) as she chased the balloon all over the bathroom. I would have helped her but I was doubled over in hysterical laughter gasping for air. After Kate wiped up all the water (and I could kind of breathe again) she brushed the water off her face and we each grabbed another balloon. We relaxed a little when we successfully put four more water balloons in the bucket. Just when we thought we were past the disasters Kate didn't realize the top of her next balloon had a hole in it. As soon as she turned the water on it started spraying out onto the wall rather than in the balloon. In a panic she quickly tried to turn the water off. However, here in England the faucets work a little differently and instead of turning it off she turned it on full blast and this time drenched the walls, the floor, the mirror, and the counters. I was a complete goner by this point. While Kate said more inappropriate words and grabbed mounds of paper towels (which were completely soaked and soggy because they were sitting on the counter) and tried to clean off the mirror I just doubled over again and began hyperventilating from laughing so hard. We kind of pulled it together enough to finish filling up the bucket with balloons. We decided we needed a small break and took the bucket outside. When we walked out of the bathroom though and into the break room there was another lady from the youth center staff sitting at the table staring up at us with a concerned face. We just smiled and pretended we weren't soaking wet and didn't practically ruin the bathroom and rushed passed her and out the door.

Luckily the campers LOVED LOVED LOVED the activity though so our chaotic and gut-busting morning was totally worth it!

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! We are also planning on traveling to a nearby town tomorrow for some sort of festival. The youth center director was mortified today when he found out we haven't left base since we got here and rather than dropping us off at lodging he dropped us off at an information center he was sure could help us figure out something to do! He said, "Go on, get out of here and go have some fun! What the heck (again, he may or may not have used a different word) have you been doing?"