Men's Dinner & Girls Cookout

Today on the Camp Balcones Springs blog, we’re highlighting Friday night’s Men’s Dinner event and the corresponding Girls Cookout!

After activities ended on Friday, boy campers gathered at the front of camp for one of our most epic camp traditions – Men’s Dinner! Boys camp began the evening by eating sausage, turkey legs, and crusty bread according to the following three rules: 1) No utensils, 2) Shirts optional, and 3) Most importantly, no girls allowed! After clearing the tables and having a small food fight, the night was continued with a full-camp capture the flag game. The boys were divided into their team comp teams, Rough Riders versus Texas Rangers. After a long, hard-fought battle, the Texas Rangers came out victorious, taking home 10 Team Comp points and extending their lead for next Friday’s Amazing Race event.

After cleaning up, boy campers came together to watch a movie (The Emperor’s New Groove) and enjoyed snacks of chicken wings and mozzarella sticks – if they had any room leftover from dinner!

For the past two blogs, we’ve discussed two of our favorite summer camp traditions – Women’s Dinner and Men’s Dinner. You may be wondering, then – what exactly do girl campers and boy campers do when those respective events are taking place? Well, we have your answers! During Women’s Dinner, boy campers participate in Boys Cookout, and during Men’s Dinner, girl campers take part in Girls Cookout.

At Friday’s Girls Cookout, girl campers began the evening with a competitive game of Capture the Flag in our wooded paintball area on the back of the property. Campers split into their respective Team Comp teams – the Silver Spurs and Lonestars – and worked to cover a white sheet, guarded by the opposing team, in their team’s color. The Lonestars were victorious this Term, winning by covering their sheet in green before the Silver Spurs were able to splatter theirs fully in purple.

All staff and campers, now themselves covered in paint, jumped into Lake Ted for a refreshing evening swim. Girl campers then prepared hotdogs, pizza pita pockets, and S’mores. After swimming and dinner had come to a close, we held our famous Chili Cook-Off event. During this annual tradition, each cabin competes to prepare the best chili (put to a peer-review test conducted by our Leadership and full-time staff members). Cabins are given the basics for a chili dish and are also able to select up to seven ingredients to add uniqueness and flavor to their recipes. Extra ingredients range from diced garlic and onion to Skittles and Dr. Pepper – and you’d be surprised just how well some of the stranger ingredients work out! Finally, as the chili is simmering, each cabin creates and presents their own skit to the Leadership review panel to introduce their unique chili recipe before tasting. This term, Jordan cabin from C Compound dressed as fraternity boys for their presentation skit and sang a rap song about the merits of their chili, taking home the award for best chili and cheer combination. Long cabin won the award for best stand-alone cheer, Ladybird for worst chili (yes – there’s an award for that!), and Gonzales took home the prize for best chili, the winning recipe including onions, cheddar cheese, and garlic powder. The Chili Cook-Off is just one of the many Camp Balcones Springs traditions that makes us one of the most beloved summer camps for girls near Austin, Texas!

Stay tuned for more about Saturday evening’s epic Night Team Comp basketball game!