Last weekend at Camp Balcones Springs, our Retreat Staff welcomed several Girl Scout troops from the Austin area to the property! Brownies (and even some Daisies) got a taste of CBS over a weekend full of fun camp activities.
Scouts and scout leaders arrived Saturday afternoon and went swimming and "Blobbing" in Lake Ted, climbed the Rock Wall, flew down the screamer, played Gaga ball, and spent time hanging out in Dustin's Tree House. After a fiesta dinner in the Rio Grande, the Girl Scouts went to our bonfire area and enjoyed roasting S'mores.
The next morning after breakfast, some girls returned to the Rock Wall, while others jumped on the Charlotte's Web trampoline and made friendship bracelets in the Arts and Crafts Shed. Our guests enjoyed Camp Balcones Springs' famous "beach burgers" at lunch before returning home from their Brownie excursion. (Rumor has it there were unfortunately no Balcones Breezes included in this lunch time meal.)
Having the Girl Scouts with us this weekend got us thinking about camp and how exciting it is that it is just around the corner! We are looking forward to all of the fun summer will bring, and we are thankful to have gotten a taste of that with our Girl Scout visitors last weekend. See you all soon!
Monday, April 22, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Easter Fest 2013!
In celebration of Easter, the Retreat at Balcones Springs hosted the CBS Easter Fest--a holiday-themed family event--this past weekend!
The activities began Friday, as families arrived to appetizers and cocktails in our Bluebonnet lounge and a fiesta dinner in the Rio Grande dining hall. Afterwards, families gathered on our lawn to watch an outdoor movie under the stars.
The next day was full of camp and Easter fun. Guests played matball on our soccer field, climbed the rock wall and took a ride on the screamer, went down our famous Balcones Springs zipline, played in Lake Ted, took kiddie rides at the horse barn, and decorated eggs and other Easter crafts to celebrate the holiday.
After dinner, families hopped on a hayride out to the barn to enjoy a bonfire, complete with s'mores. The next morning, we celebrated Easter with a special brunch and Easter Egg hunt! Our two pet bunnies--the latest addition to the Camp Balcones Springs family--were also on display during the weekend to meet and play with guests of all ages.
We were so happy to spend Easter Weekend with all of the lovely families that stayed with us! We hope everyone had an equally joyful Easter.
The activities began Friday, as families arrived to appetizers and cocktails in our Bluebonnet lounge and a fiesta dinner in the Rio Grande dining hall. Afterwards, families gathered on our lawn to watch an outdoor movie under the stars.
The next day was full of camp and Easter fun. Guests played matball on our soccer field, climbed the rock wall and took a ride on the screamer, went down our famous Balcones Springs zipline, played in Lake Ted, took kiddie rides at the horse barn, and decorated eggs and other Easter crafts to celebrate the holiday.
After dinner, families hopped on a hayride out to the barn to enjoy a bonfire, complete with s'mores. The next morning, we celebrated Easter with a special brunch and Easter Egg hunt! Our two pet bunnies--the latest addition to the Camp Balcones Springs family--were also on display during the weekend to meet and play with guests of all ages.
We were so happy to spend Easter Weekend with all of the lovely families that stayed with us! We hope everyone had an equally joyful Easter.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Senior Camper Hang Out!
We had a blast this past Friday in Austin, as the camp team hosted a Senior Camper Hang Out Night with several of our rising senior campers!
The evening started outside of the Austin Salvation Army, as the Camp Balcones Springs mobile food bank, staffed by our senior camper guests, served hot plates of food and drink to the homeless and hungry. We were blessed to be able to serve such a large amount of food--vegetable strew, rice, enchiladas, chicken and turkey sandwiches, fruit, pretzels, and even ice cream! Lines were long, and we were thankfully able to serve food to nearly every person who asked for it.
After cleaning up, we headed back to Christine's house for a cook-out and outdoor movie! While waiting for dinner to be served, campers filled out surveys and spoke with our high school program staff to generate ideas and feedback for the coming summer. CBS is in the process of revamping its Senior Camper program, and we wanted to make sure to include the campers themselves in this reinvention!
Once dinner was served, campers enjoyed burgers from the grill, fruit, chips and salsa, soda, and lemonade while discussing the most recent results of March Madness games (and the current success or failure of their brackets). After eating, campers and staff relaxed in bean bags and blankets in the front yard for an outdoor viewing of Super 8, complete with s'mores.
We were so happy to have the chance to hang out with some of our rising senior campers this Friday, engaging in community service, getting ideas for improving camp this summer, and enjoying a fun movie together. We hope to have another gathering like this again soon, and we hope even more to see all of our rising senior campers this summer!
The evening started outside of the Austin Salvation Army, as the Camp Balcones Springs mobile food bank, staffed by our senior camper guests, served hot plates of food and drink to the homeless and hungry. We were blessed to be able to serve such a large amount of food--vegetable strew, rice, enchiladas, chicken and turkey sandwiches, fruit, pretzels, and even ice cream! Lines were long, and we were thankfully able to serve food to nearly every person who asked for it.
After cleaning up, we headed back to Christine's house for a cook-out and outdoor movie! While waiting for dinner to be served, campers filled out surveys and spoke with our high school program staff to generate ideas and feedback for the coming summer. CBS is in the process of revamping its Senior Camper program, and we wanted to make sure to include the campers themselves in this reinvention!
Once dinner was served, campers enjoyed burgers from the grill, fruit, chips and salsa, soda, and lemonade while discussing the most recent results of March Madness games (and the current success or failure of their brackets). After eating, campers and staff relaxed in bean bags and blankets in the front yard for an outdoor viewing of Super 8, complete with s'mores.
We were so happy to have the chance to hang out with some of our rising senior campers this Friday, engaging in community service, getting ideas for improving camp this summer, and enjoying a fun movie together. We hope to have another gathering like this again soon, and we hope even more to see all of our rising senior campers this summer!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Engine 2 at Camp Balcones Springs!
This past week and weekend at Camp Balcones Springs, our retreat staff hosted Engine 2, a plant-based dietary group based out of Austin. Approximately seventy Whole Foods employees from all over the country entered the gates of CBS last Wednesday for the Engine 2 immersion program, spending seven days eating a plant-based, Engine 2-designed diet, exercising, and having their cholesterol and blood pressure tested to measure the effectiveness of the Engine 2 program.
Aside from eating specially-crafted meals designed by Engine 2 and prepared by camp's renown chefs, our Engine 2 guests had time to go for runs around camp, play tennis, paddle board and kayak on Lake Ted, and even go down the zip line!
The Engine 2 diet is a vegan-based diet that also eliminates all plant-based oils (olive oil, coconut oil, flax seed oil, etc.), salt, processed sugars, and refined grains. We hope to have picked up some healthy cooking and eating habits from Engine 2 over this last week that we can apply to our camp food this summer! (But don't worry, we won't be getting rid of Nutella or chicken tenders just yet.)
Aside from eating specially-crafted meals designed by Engine 2 and prepared by camp's renown chefs, our Engine 2 guests had time to go for runs around camp, play tennis, paddle board and kayak on Lake Ted, and even go down the zip line!
The Engine 2 diet is a vegan-based diet that also eliminates all plant-based oils (olive oil, coconut oil, flax seed oil, etc.), salt, processed sugars, and refined grains. We hope to have picked up some healthy cooking and eating habits from Engine 2 over this last week that we can apply to our camp food this summer! (But don't worry, we won't be getting rid of Nutella or chicken tenders just yet.)
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Family Camp!
To help tide us over until the summer, this past weekend at Camp Balcones Springs, we hosted several wonderful families at CBS Family Camp!
Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and dogs alike all arrived Friday evening to a fiesta dinner in the Rio Grande. Afterwards, parents could relax with appetizers and drinks, while the children (and maybe some of the dogs) watched a movie in our Live Oak room. The next day was packed with activities, featuring horseback trail rides, the zip line, rock climbing, gaga ball, fishing, archery, riflery, cookie decorating, a scenic hike, and even spray-tanning for the moms!
After the fun-filled day, all of the families gathered in the Rio for dinner, featuring a huge "Monster" chocolate cake made by our Boys Camp Director. After dinner, families played games in the Rio and put their pipes to the test with family karaoke! The next morning, after some more horseback riding and sports playing, we said goodbye to all of these wonderful families. It was so fun to have a small taste of what camp will offer this summer, and we hope to see you then for more of the fun!
Here are some kind words from the families who visited with us this past weekend:
"This is our second Spring Break at Balcones Springs, and we love it. We love how relaxing the area is and how all families participate in the activities. And dogs can come!" "We couldn't have have enjoyed ourselves more. The friendly and relaxed staff really lends itself to the overall relaxed atmosphere without feeling overly catered to or structured." "This is the best place ever! I wish I could live here. It is so fun. This is funner than everything in the world!"
Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and dogs alike all arrived Friday evening to a fiesta dinner in the Rio Grande. Afterwards, parents could relax with appetizers and drinks, while the children (and maybe some of the dogs) watched a movie in our Live Oak room. The next day was packed with activities, featuring horseback trail rides, the zip line, rock climbing, gaga ball, fishing, archery, riflery, cookie decorating, a scenic hike, and even spray-tanning for the moms!
After the fun-filled day, all of the families gathered in the Rio for dinner, featuring a huge "Monster" chocolate cake made by our Boys Camp Director. After dinner, families played games in the Rio and put their pipes to the test with family karaoke! The next morning, after some more horseback riding and sports playing, we said goodbye to all of these wonderful families. It was so fun to have a small taste of what camp will offer this summer, and we hope to see you then for more of the fun!
Here are some kind words from the families who visited with us this past weekend:
"This is our second Spring Break at Balcones Springs, and we love it. We love how relaxing the area is and how all families participate in the activities. And dogs can come!" "We couldn't have have enjoyed ourselves more. The friendly and relaxed staff really lends itself to the overall relaxed atmosphere without feeling overly catered to or structured." "This is the best place ever! I wish I could live here. It is so fun. This is funner than everything in the world!"
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
How Children Succeed
Two weeks ago, the CBS Camp Team traveled to the American Camp Association National Conference in Dallas, Texas, where they heard an exciting lecture by writer Paul Tough on how children succeed. According to Tough, who has gained recent fame for his book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, the qualities we have valued in the education and development of children—namely, high test scores and measured academic performance—are not beneficial to or indicative of a child’s success, and the environments created by quests for these achievements can actually damage and hinder a person’s ability to succeed.
The real skills, according to Tough and other like-minded researchers, are not related to IQ, but instead come from qualities like curiosity, optimism, empathy, perseverance, self-discipline, zest, social intelligence, and grit. The last of these, grit, was the topic of Tough’s discussion. Tough defines grit as “perseverance in the pursuit of a passion,” and it has been a proven measure (by way of the Grit Test) of the determination necessary for success in work places across the US.
Although an appropriate amount of “licking and grooming” (comfort, protection, and consolation) is necessary from parents in the early years of infancy and childhood, continued protection from all ill-will is just as unhelpful as facing an extraordinary amount of adversity. According to a study cited by Tough, the most successful people face somewhere between 2-5 adverse events during childhood, while people facing no adversity or too much without any support system show an equal, and relatively lesser, degree of success.
A student can have all the success academically, succeeding in high school and at top-tier universities, but if she lacks grit, as soon as she encounters a set-back—for instance, the first job application post-graduation being denied—she will shut down, having no experience dealing with failure or how to move on from it. If our mindsets are fixed, we will see these failures, and any failure, as impervious to change or growth, and we will be halted and unable to push on towards success. However, if we train our mindsets and the mindsets of our children to be growth-oriented, failures and setbacks will not be defining and permanent, but rather, something we can move past or change in the future.
Protecting our children—whether it be in doing too many things for them when they are equally capable, taking things into our own hands to ensure their success, or physically shielding them from new or independent experiences—is doing more harm than it is good. Character traits like grit and self-control are born from failure, and it is important that we teach our children how to manage failure instead of shielding them from it. If you want your children to succeed, you must first let them learn how to fail. In addition to having deep reserves of grit, self-control, and optimism, those who succeed also tend to have help, so it is important that we as parents, educators, and mentors, learn to appropriately respond to and assist with failure.
Hearing all of this enforced how we feel about our mission here at Camp Balcones Springs, for it is in places like camp that children—and especially the overly protected children of today’s world—can take risks, face challenges, and learn that failure does not equate disaster. In stepping out of their comfort zones—and actually learning to be comfortable in those areas—campers have the rare chance to develop grit and the qualities necessary for success.
The real skills, according to Tough and other like-minded researchers, are not related to IQ, but instead come from qualities like curiosity, optimism, empathy, perseverance, self-discipline, zest, social intelligence, and grit. The last of these, grit, was the topic of Tough’s discussion. Tough defines grit as “perseverance in the pursuit of a passion,” and it has been a proven measure (by way of the Grit Test) of the determination necessary for success in work places across the US.
Although an appropriate amount of “licking and grooming” (comfort, protection, and consolation) is necessary from parents in the early years of infancy and childhood, continued protection from all ill-will is just as unhelpful as facing an extraordinary amount of adversity. According to a study cited by Tough, the most successful people face somewhere between 2-5 adverse events during childhood, while people facing no adversity or too much without any support system show an equal, and relatively lesser, degree of success.
A student can have all the success academically, succeeding in high school and at top-tier universities, but if she lacks grit, as soon as she encounters a set-back—for instance, the first job application post-graduation being denied—she will shut down, having no experience dealing with failure or how to move on from it. If our mindsets are fixed, we will see these failures, and any failure, as impervious to change or growth, and we will be halted and unable to push on towards success. However, if we train our mindsets and the mindsets of our children to be growth-oriented, failures and setbacks will not be defining and permanent, but rather, something we can move past or change in the future.
Protecting our children—whether it be in doing too many things for them when they are equally capable, taking things into our own hands to ensure their success, or physically shielding them from new or independent experiences—is doing more harm than it is good. Character traits like grit and self-control are born from failure, and it is important that we teach our children how to manage failure instead of shielding them from it. If you want your children to succeed, you must first let them learn how to fail. In addition to having deep reserves of grit, self-control, and optimism, those who succeed also tend to have help, so it is important that we as parents, educators, and mentors, learn to appropriately respond to and assist with failure.
Hearing all of this enforced how we feel about our mission here at Camp Balcones Springs, for it is in places like camp that children—and especially the overly protected children of today’s world—can take risks, face challenges, and learn that failure does not equate disaster. In stepping out of their comfort zones—and actually learning to be comfortable in those areas—campers have the rare chance to develop grit and the qualities necessary for success.
Mother/Son Weekend!
Two weekends ago, our retreat center hosted a weekend of fun outdoor adventures and bonding for several of our camper mothers and their sons--and some new friends!
The weekend started off with a hearty dinner, followed by a tie-dying activity, and then a relaxing evening of wine and cheese for the mothers, while the boys enjoyed ice cream and a screening of the movie Holes. The next day, mothers and sons explored all that camp has to offer, going on horseback trail rides throughout the property, climbing the rock wall, going down CBS’ infamous zip line, and canoeing and kayaking in Lake Ted. Some boys even managed to paddleboard without falling into the freezing cold water!
After dinner, everyone enjoyed s’mores and a bonfire before being surprised by camp’s most famous event--Mission Impossible! Mothers and sons were put on teams and given a “mission” to find certain glow sticks hidden all over camp. This process was more easily said than done, however, as they were being pursued in their search by bandits armed with water balloons!
The next morning, we bid adieu to all of our lovely mothers and sons, but hopefully not for long! Camp is just around the corner, and we hope to see all of our guests--and more--back here in no time!
If this sounds fun to you and you missed out, don’t fret! We are hosting a similar weekend retreat for the whole family--CBS Family Camp--March 8-10, 2013! Go here to find out more!
The weekend started off with a hearty dinner, followed by a tie-dying activity, and then a relaxing evening of wine and cheese for the mothers, while the boys enjoyed ice cream and a screening of the movie Holes. The next day, mothers and sons explored all that camp has to offer, going on horseback trail rides throughout the property, climbing the rock wall, going down CBS’ infamous zip line, and canoeing and kayaking in Lake Ted. Some boys even managed to paddleboard without falling into the freezing cold water!
After dinner, everyone enjoyed s’mores and a bonfire before being surprised by camp’s most famous event--Mission Impossible! Mothers and sons were put on teams and given a “mission” to find certain glow sticks hidden all over camp. This process was more easily said than done, however, as they were being pursued in their search by bandits armed with water balloons!
The next morning, we bid adieu to all of our lovely mothers and sons, but hopefully not for long! Camp is just around the corner, and we hope to see all of our guests--and more--back here in no time!
If this sounds fun to you and you missed out, don’t fret! We are hosting a similar weekend retreat for the whole family--CBS Family Camp--March 8-10, 2013! Go here to find out more!
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