Last Day!

Oh no! It's finally here, the last day of camp! I'm getting misty eyed just thinking about my campers leaving....Some of them will join me in after school, so that's a relief. It's been a fun-filled week, with carnivals, earthquakes, and all sorts of interesting events!
 It feels like yesterday that I was passing out orange shirts, greeting all the kids, starting each day with a energized rally. I had so much fun this summer, I'm not sure I'm ready for it to end. I'll miss the Museum of Moving Images, the kung fu, the swim class, the MET, cooking, Central Park, the Yellow Brick Road, the gift making, the Brooklyn Childrens Museum, the comic book class, and most of all, you!
 Thank you for making my summer so easy and fun, I really do have the best job! I'll see you all next summer and I won't forget this summer!
 I'm still working on the slide show, but I'll post the awards ceremony shortly! Thanks again for your patience and love, it's what makes this whole thing possible!

Carni VAL!

 Today is the Empire Camp Carnival! There will be games inside and out! Football Toss, Knock the Can, Strength Test, Fortune Teller, and of course juggling and so much more! We are going to have so much fun today! We'll be taking the subway back to P.S.183 this afternoon, and we should be back around 3:45-4.
 Thank you so much and we'll see you soon!

Almost there....

What an interesting day.... Yes I called my maw who lives in West Virginia and yes she said it was totally bananas down there!
 Today is another wonderful experience at camp, filled with kung fu and swimming! I love all the things at camp, but most kids know my favorite is swimming. I'm proud of all our kids at the pool. I know it's hard for some kids to get in the water and work, but we have so many little swimmers ready to learn and it makes my heart sing!
 Thank you so much for your patience yesterday. I do understand how difficult it was for all of you to come downtown to pick up your child, but please know that as a childcare professional, we deemed it unsafe to travel underground after an earthquake, within the same afternoon. I know the MTA was saying there were no interuptions, but our thoughts are only of the safety of our kids.
 I hope all of you are safe and I will see you soon!
 Yes, we will be at P.S.183 this afternoon. We should be getting back there around 3:45-4.

Earthquake?No problem!

 Whoa, that was weird. To be honest, our little guys were in the park with me and we didn't even notice! I want to let you know we are not putting the kids on the bus this afternoon and we are definately not taking the subway. Chipman and I are attempting to call all parents ( its difficult but we're trying)to have you come and pick up down at the NEST school. I know this is a difficult situation, but please understand our kids safety is at risk if we choose to take the subway. I also think that if we take the bus we will be stuck in awful traffic and I don't want the kids to stress.
 If you are trying to get through to me, I'm so sorry if it doesn't go through, we are allll groovy and to be perfectly honest, I didn't even know about it!
 the address is 111 columbia street 10002. Feel free to call or email!

Field Day!

 What great weather! Today, we're heading to East River Park to meet with the Downtown's camp again. We had a field day together back in July and now we're meeting again to finish the challenge! There will be relay races and games for everyone. We'll take the bus in the morning, reeeal early, and the subway in the afternoon. We should be back around 4pm,hopefully earlier, but that's what we're shooting for.

Week 8!

Can you believe it? Summer camp is almost over!! That means we have to make this week really count....meaning, lots of swim, lots of group games, and lots of fun.
 This week every morning at 9:45 we'll take the school bus down to the NEST school, where our sister camp is located. Thankfully the pool we use, Seahorse, is right next to the camp so as soon as we get off the bus, off to the pool! That means it would help us greatly if kids are already changed into bathing suits when arriving to camp, we don't mind taking the time to help kids out, but if they come dressed that means more time in the pool!
 In order to ensure our kids get two classes at NEST after swim, we'll be taking the subway back in the afternoon. I'll explain, if we take the bus back to the Upper East Side, we'd have to leave NEST at 2pm, leaving no time for a real class. The bus has to leave so early as to not hit traffic, I hope I didn't confuse you.... I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's important that the kids get to participate in all the awesome things we do at Empire, and since our kids are very skilled at subway travel, I'll think we'll be fine.
 With that being said, I wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone who may need to pick up their child early, if that is the case, please please let me know in advance so I can arrange an early dismissal. Please call with any questions or email me anytime!
(540)336-0684
bridgette@empirecamp.com
 Thank you to everyone for being so nice to me on my birthday! Camp is so important to me, and it meant so much to receive such kindness from all of you and the campers!
 I realized that the slide show I made for the kids has music on it that is copyrighted! Whoops! We all enjoyed it at camp, but I must find a way for you to view it, I'll see if I can post it up without music, it will be less enjoyable, but at least you get a chance to see it!

Changes...

Well, today is important for two reasons.....one IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! yes,the rumors are true, I'm finally a quarter of a century....I feel.....different. The other important thing is we're heading down to the NEST school today. We're leaving around 9:45, and coming back around 4. Since it's a Friday and there's bound to be traffic, we're shooting for 4pm, but please be patient as we try to get back to Ella Baker as soon as possible.
  The Slide Show was great yesterday! I'm attempting to put it on the blig but I am having some trouble. If you go to YouTube.com, type in JackRuss2 and the slide show should be available for viewing, I'm trying my darnedest to get it on the blog though!
 Thanks for your help and see you soon.

Wowie!

Oh man! Our field day in central park got rained on! We still got to have fun though. Today is more swimming, some Kung Fu, some soccer, some gift making, and some comic book! I'm so excited for tomorrow! We'll probably head to central park in the morning tomorrow since we didn't get to yesterday. Then a picnic, some clean up, and then our award cermony and slide shows....sorry no grown ups! BUT we will video tape it for you to watch! Friday will be an awesome day as well, we're going to be speading the day at NEST (the downtown site) and coming back up to Ella Baker at the end of the day to celebrate my birthday! iI love to dance and have a good time,so it will be a great way to end the week!
 Thank you so much for all your support and I hope to see you soon!

Rain Clouds Can't Stop Us!

This week may be rainy, but we're professionals, so we can still make it fun. Today is another swim day! The only class supposed to have soccer today are the Wild Tigers, but if it rains, I know they wanted to add on to their movie they were making last Tuesday.
 Speaking of Tuesday, we're having our last Field Day in Central Park tomorrow...tears...we'll be having relay races, obstacle courses, and of course my favorite, group games! But what if it rains? My grand plans will be ruined..... if that's the case, we can always move our field day to Thursday and on Tuesday do some cleaning......on Thursday I was planning on going to John Jay in the morning, come back and clean, and then have an all camp awards ceremony ( where the counsolers give each kid a camp award, sorry, kids only) and a little slide show, again, kids only. We'll have to keep our eyes peeled towards the sky for any drops of rain, but that's the plan for this week!
 See you soon!

The mini-giants!

A Draft....

So, I've been putting together some clips here and there...working with iMovie, and I thought this would be cute, let me know what you think!

The news!

Here is the first video from our Empire Wonder Lab......as you can tell it is my first time using iMovie, but it was fun! I'll keep posting as I finish them!

The other half!

I did it! Finally! So sorry for the lateness, but here it is, the rest of our talented talent show.....aren't they the cutest? I'm also working on putting up the videos they made on Tuesday at the Empire Wonder Lab! You'll be so impressed by their hardwork.

Here's the first half of the talent show!

 Sorry for the delay! Looks like I had a lot on my plate this week and couldn't get to it. over the weekend i'll add the videos the kids made on Tuesday!

 Today is our trip to Governors Island and I'm sooooo excited to go! It'll be a great trip and a great way to end week 6. We have so many kids leaving this week that I feel this is a great way to end their summer camp experience. Thank you and I hope to see you next year!!!
 Too bad they won't be here next week though..... I mean, it will be my birthday and all next Friday....... but we'll celebrate as if everyone who started at camp was still here!
 Have a great weekend and see you soon

What a week!

Boy, did the week fly by or what? Tuesday was great! The kids had an awesome time in the park and had so much fun making movies. Johnny came by to do science and the  racecars were a success! Sadly, yesterday morning when I came into work I saw that not all of my racecars were still in the room. We're still on the look out for a black and red race cars and it's remote, if you've seen ,it let me know!
 Yesterday was another fun day  at the pool.  Our kids are getting better and better each time we go!
 Today is our movie day where we're goin to see Cats vs Dogs revenge of Kitty Galore.........sounds neat!
 After that, if it's not raining, we'll go to John Jay pool for playground and sprinkler fun!
 Hope to see you soon!

Week 6 is here!

Good News and Bad News..... The bad news is that I accidentally left the video camera charger at school! Boooo on me! So my apologies for not having the Talent Show up and ready this weekend, it should be up by Monday night.
 The Good news is that this week is full of great things!We're going to our last trip on Governor's Island on Friday and we want to leave super super early, like around 9:15 early. A lot of kids didn't get to enjoy the bikes last time so we want as much time as possible to spend on the island!

 Whoa! Looks like I'm getting ahead of myself, let me backtrack to the beginning of the week.......

  On Monday, when you pick up a schedule, you'll see two new classes, Do it Yourself with Allison, where our art teacher shows the kids how to make their own lip gloss, and I know she has something special planned for the boys. The other class is called "Brainstorm for Empire Wonder Lab"..... First before I explain what this class means.....What's Empire Wonder Lab?
 Empire Wonder lab is an idea conceived by Matt Chipman, Site Director of the Downtown Empire Camp. In several classrooms, we will set up different stations. Rm114 will be the Race Track Room, where kids design their own racetracks and race zip zaps through them. Another classroom will have Science Projects, and lastly a "video room",where kids create their own little movies or sketches.He had great success running this program, so we'll give it a try.
 The Brain storming class is to give the kids a head start on creating their racetracks and discuss what they want to video tape, so when Tuesday comes they're not spending the whole time preparing and can get down to having fun!
 I know that was wordy, but I want to keep everyone informed and this is the best way I know how! On Monday, be sure to collect a schedule. Both Mini Giant Groups have soccer on Monday, so be sure to pack sneakers and water!
 Thanks to all the parents who attended Friday's show. I'm so used to running talent shows for kids that it was nice to see parents a change. I'll get the video up ASAP and I'll see you all soon!

The big day!

 Man, the Bronx Zoo was great! I'm so proud of all the Mini Giants for being so well behaved on the trip! We got to see really cool lego sculptures, snow leopards, and of course my favorite, da bears.
 Today's the big day! The Talent Show starts at 4pm at P.S.183. If you can't make it, I totally understand, we'll video tape it! I know there will be some really cool acts, and our kids so excited. Thanks for everything and we'll see you soon!

The Bronx Zoo!

Hey hey! Today is our Bronx Zoo trip! I love going to the zoo. I lived in DC for a few years and lived right next to the National Zoo, I used to take my little brother there all the time. The Smithsonian was our favorite place to go, but the National Zoo was a close second.....
 I digress. It will be hot today, being summer and all, so remember those water bottles and sun block. I had a lot of kids come in yesterday without sunblock OR swimcaps...... Gotta have em!
 It shouldn't be too hot today or rainy, so you'll most likely find us in the space between the school and the yard at the end of the day!
 Don't forget that tomorrow is our Talent Show, at 4, at P.S. 183.

Dress up day!

It's finally here! I can't wait to take some pictures! We still have swim and Kung Fu and other cool stuff, rain or shine.
 Don't forget this Friday is the Talent Show at 4pm at p.s.183. Be there or be square!
I heard it's supposed to rain today, if that's the case you will find us at p.s183 at the end of the day today. Feel free to call!

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Reminder!

This Wednesday is our Dress as your Hero Day! Kids can come dressed up as their favorite superhero, celebrity, mom or dad, counselor,character from a book, anyone they look up to! I'm pretty sure that Micheal Jackson will make an appearance!
 It's not required that your child come to school dressed up, but I thought it would be fun! Hope to see you soon!