Hey, Summer Lovers!

The end of summer camp rarely marks the end of summer fun! In fact, it typically kicks off the rest of your summer plans. It’s the perfect time for family vacations, long car rides, and bored little kids. And, as adults, let’s face it—we too can get pretty bored when a road trip lasts a couple hours too long, right.

If only you could play a game in the car more entertaining than “I Spy” or “Twenty Questions.” Oh wait—you can! Our Travel Games at Everything Summer Camp are a great cure for the boredom you endure on the long ride to your vacation spot. We’ve got fun classics like Chess, Checkers, Memory, Battleship, and plenty more.

There are literal hours upon hours of entertainment in these mini-game sets and enough fun to last a thousand road trips!

The cloth-covered metal cases called Go Games are compact games specifically made for playing during long car rides. The case zips open to reveal the game board. The pieces are magnetic and stay firmly in place. You can even zip it closed mid-game and continue the game after hitting a rest stop!

Everything Summer Camp also offers an assortment of shrunken, portable-sized games that play like the original versions! The built-in Carabiner on these games lets you clip it to just about anything. Have your pick from Connect 4, Scrabble, Boggle, Twister, Operation, and Battleship.

We also have Electronic Carabiner Games for single players. Play classic arcade games like Frogger and Tetris or other types of classics like Battleship and Yahtzee!

Lastly, you can ride around with a cool deck of cards or Melissa & Doug’s Flip-To-Win Memory Game board. We also have Melissa & Doug Flip-to-Win Hangman which includes an erasable whiteboard and self-storing, dry-erase marker and eraser. There aren’t any loose pieces so it’s sure to come home in one piece!

That’s how you have hours of fun in the car before your vacation ever even starts!

Hey, Summer Enthusiasts!

It’s great to be enthusiastic about the fun of summer—in fact, it’s kind of hard not to be. Summer means fun in the sun. Whether your fun will happen at camp, during family visits, or on family vacations your summer is sure to be a good time! Today’s blog post concentrates on how to make sure that your summer stays good once you get back home.

Coming back home to find that your house has been robbed or damaged certainly has a way of killing the mood when you get back from a long vacation. You come home ready to relax and instead you get a big mess that you need to deal with.

What could you have done? It was inevitable! Bad things happen to good people.

 Getting robbed can happen to anybody, it’s true. But there are some measures that can be taken to try and help prevent break-ins and burglaries while you’re away. One of the best ways to help prevent someone in your house while you’re away is to not announce your vacationing to the cyber world.

 We all love to let our family and friends know about what we’re doing and where we’re going for our vacations, but it’s not the wisest decision to post information about vacationing on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. You may be talking to your friends and family, but they’re not the only ones reading it.

Unfortunately, there are people in the world who go to such great lengths as checking social media sites to gather information on when people are not occupying their houses. Then they strike.

That’s why, during your time away from your house, it’s a good idea to keep your social media posts focused on what mood you’re in rather than talking about where you are or where you’re planning to go.

That’s all for today, Summer Lovers! Thanks for reading!

Hey there, Summer Campers!

For today’s blog post, I’m going to tell you about a very “pretty woman” that we all know as Julia (Fiona) Roberts. Like many other famous people- not just in Hollywood, but from all sorts of different scenes- Julia Roberts went to summer camp when she was around your age.

She actually attended her uncle’s summer camp, Camp Birchwood, located in beautiful Minnesota. Camp Birchwood is a summer camp with whom we here at Everything Summer Camp are proud to work with. She once stated that "All the coolest things I know how to do - I learned to do at camp."

But it wasn’t long before she reached for stardom at the young age of 23 and caught it! Now, having been an obviously caring and charismatic character in Hollywood for the last few decades, Julia has stolen the hearts of millions.

Known for such classic movies as My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, and Mirror Mirror, Julia Roberts has also voiced for animated films like Charlotte’s Web, as the voice of Charlotte the Spider, and was the voice of Hova in the Ant Bully. She has received multiple accolades for her acting and continues to bring warmth and beauty to the big screen.

Julia married Daniel Moder on July 4, 2002. Daniel is a cameraman whom she met on the set of one of her films where they fell in love. Still together, they are now a family of five with their three children. They have twins, Hazel Patricia Moder and Phinnaeus (or “Finn” for short) Walter Moder and also Henry Daniel Moder.

Julia Roberts went to summer camp and went on to find success, love, and happiness, what will you find? Thanks for reading, Camp Folks!

Hey, Summer Enthusiasts!

It’s always a burst of excitement and wide smiles when your campers return home. You’ll want to brace yourself for the next few days for the flood of camp stories your kid has. Whether you want to or not, you’re going to hear all about their new camp friends and crazy adventures that may or may not be exaggerated.

For today’s blog post, I want to give you some tips to help you and your kid upon their homecoming after summer camp ends. The best advice I have for you is that the best time to plan for the next year’s summer camp season is right now.

A great way to start getting ready for summer camp next year is to go over your kid’s packing list. First of all, did your kid bring everything home that was brought to camp? If anything is missing, it’s smart to contact your kid’s summer camp to see if they might have any of the missing items.

Next, you can go through the camp clothing your kid has. Often times, you can keep the clothes for next year’s summer camp stay. If your kid will soon outgrow their clothes for camp or you no longer want the clothes for whatever reason, you can donate them, use them as a hand-me-down to a younger sibling, or throw them away (if they’re ruined).

After the clothing, you’ll want to see if any gear is broken whether it’s a flashlight, fan, or any other breakable product.

In doing so, you’ve discovered all the items that will need to be replaced for next year. Why wait for next spring to go through stressful shopping? Buy your summer camp gear now and get great season-ending sales on quality products!

It’s smart to talk to your kids about summer camp promptly after their return home when the memories of camp are still fresh on their minds. Ask them about what gear worked and what didn’t. Was the sleeping bag warm enough or maybe too warm? Maybe the backpack wasn’t big enough.

Unpacking gear can also be split into two groups—one to store away until next year, and the other to use up now. You’ll want to use up any liquid toiletries like sunblock and bug repellent this summer. Those products will lose their effectiveness by next year.

It’s wise to go over the second group of products that’s to be stored away to remove the batteries of any battery-operated items. You’ll want to watch where you store your camp trunk or duffel for the remainder of the year as well. If you’re storing your footlocker in a garage or basement, you’ll want to make sure it’s off the ground. Cold concrete floors can slowly deteriorate the metal of a trunk over time.

You may want to store it with a Moso Air Purifying Bag to secure it from funky smells due to moisture or mildew.

Lastly, I just have a friendly reminder not to forget about developing the pictures from your disposable camera if your kid brought one to camp (though I doubt your child will let you forget)! As always thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Bookworms!

For as much time as you’ll spend at summer camp running around, participating in vicious games of Capture-the-Flag, daylong hikes, and general fun, you’ll also have some downtime—time to yourself if you like. Maybe you like to draw. Maybe you like to write. But no matter what you like, I’ll bet you love to read.

How do I know that? Well, for starters, you’re reading this blog post.

Anyway, if you love reading and you love summer camp, then allow me the complete pleasure of introducing you to Melissa J. Morgan’s Camp Confidential book series for preteens. These books (which are also sold in the UK under the name Summer Camp Secrets) are certain to get you into the summer camp spirit and keep you entertained for days!

Ms. Morgan’s Camp Confidential series currently consists of 26 books but still has potential to expand if the author so wishes to continue telling of the misadventures and secrets that the girls have at Camp Walla Walla.

The series gets started with a group of girls at Camp Lakeview. Despite their secrets, dislikes, disagreements, and fights the group grows together. You’ll fall in love with great fictional friends like the compassionate and caring Natalie or Alyssa who’s more of the cool and quiet type. Meet the ever-pranking Jenna, the charming Grace Matthews, and all the snootier girls that the Lakeview group must abide at their new camp, Walla Walla.

You’ll struggle to put these books down as you learn more about these lovable characters and turn page after page of plot twists, misadventures, and hilarious moments. Discover who your favorite character is, which camp you’d rather go to, and if Natalie can make things work with Simon.

You can find every single installment of Melissa J. Morgan’s Camp Confidential series right here at Everything Summer Camp. So delve into these great cool summer camp paperbacks and enjoy your camp stay!