By TALIA SCHMIDT

Baker City Herald

In the back of the YMCA gymnasium, 16 children squeal in delight at the whooshing noises Jill Nielsen makes as she leads her campers back through time, back to ancient Egypt.

On the second day of the Baker County Family YMCA summer day camp’s andquot;Time Machineandquot; session, the kids are full of energy and raring to go.

andquot;We’re going to Egypt!andquot; said nine-year-old Morgan Plumbtree, who will enter the fourth grade in the fall.

As the shaking and andquot;time travelingandquot; subsided, Nielsen the campers lovingly call her andquot;Jelly Beanandquot; announced that they had reached ancient Egypt. She then asked the children if they were ready to meet their surprise visitor.

When you’re nine, there might not be anything more exciting than spending the day learning about crocodiles, decoding secret messages in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and building pyramids.

Especially when the building blocks are sugar cubes.

Each day of the camp, the children will meet a new special guest to impress with their crafting skills. If the guest is sufficiently impressed, he or she will help the children solve the pieces to a mystery puzzle.

On Monday, Nielsen, a 2004 Baker High School graduate, informed the campers that she received an invitation to a party, but before she could read it all, an unidentifiable thief stole the rest of the invitation.

With help from the campers and several clues from historical figures along the way, Nielsen is confident she can piece the prestigious invitation back together.

Monday’s special guest featured a medieval princess to teach the kids about her lifestyle.

Camp counselor Tanna Jayo, who the kids refer to as andquot;TJ,andquot; plays the part of a different character each day of camp.

andquot;TJ wore a really pretty dress yesterday,andquot; said Plumbtree. andquot;It was black with sparkles all over. She was a good princess, not an evil one.andquot;

Jayo, a 2007 BHS graduate, works at the YMCA and was a camp counselor last summer, too.

Under Nielsen’s guidance, the children learned about jousting by making swords from swimming pool andquot;noodlesandquot; and lots of duct tape. They even learned how to sword fight while riding toy horses Brownie and Blondie that the kids decorated themselves. Kids also designed their own family crests.

andquot;Since most of my family are lions (born in the year of the lion), I made a lion crest and decorated it,andquot; said nine-year-old Kaylie Walls.

On Tuesday, Jayo played the role of Egyptian Princess Isis, who taught the children to build pyramids and decode hieroglyphics.

Nielsen gave each camper a box of 252 sugar cubes to build their model pyramids. The children used Elmer’s glue to keep the individual sugar cubes stuck to their construction paper mats. Once they had an outer perimeter of nine cubes by nine cubes, they began filling in the center and piling sugar cubes as high as they’d go.

The most difficult part? Resisting the urge to pop a cube of sugar in their mouths. Nielsen helped her campers fight the temptation by passing out hard candies as an alternative.

Nielsen and Jayo also gave the children English-to-hieroglyphics charts so they could learn to read, write and decode ancient Egyptian messages.

andquot;I’m going to make a message to my dad that says ‘I love you,’ andquot; said 10-year-old Kendelyn Bon, whose favorite part of ancient Egypt day was building pyramids. Bon said she also likes writing in code.

Wednesday’s camp session featured an Oregon Trail theme, and today campers traveled back to the 1970s. On Friday the campers will finish deciphering the puzzle and celebrate by attending the andquot;invitation-only partyandquot; with Nielsen.

Throughout the week, the children will receive stickers when they demonstrate excellence in safety, respect and responsibility. As a reward, at the end of the week the children can buy things with their stickers.

andquot;The best part is just getting to see all the kids running around having fun,andquot; Jayo said. andquot;It’s never the same here every day, which I look forward to.andquot;