Poland Spring Campground

Shiver me timbers!  Me maties and I had a jolly good time this past weekend!

The theme (as if you couldn’t guess!) was Pirate Weekend.

We started celebrating on Friday with a doubloon hunt, walk-the-plank contest

and sink-the-ship game

Then we had a very exciting Ping Pong Tournament! Here are our first and second place winners, Tom and Erin

Tom won by the skin-of-his-teeth, didn’t you? Erin is quite the player!  A wicked good game!

On Saturday, I trained our new employee, who for some reason, only wanted to hang out on the porch.

We greeted all the little “sprogs” (recruits) who be wantn’ to join our crew!

We played landlubber games, had a canon shooting contest, made pirate hats, tossed horseshoes and organized a Yo-Ho-Ho scavenger hunt.

Our resident pirates

Capn’ and Bones, trained the sprogs and then swore them in as official pirates!

Saturday night, Mad Science came to perform some magical science for us!

She balanced a ball on a leaf blower -

Introduced us to her very good friend Eggbert . . . then popped him into her mouth

for safekeeping!  Then she lit a fire under him (in the beaker) to get him to “go home” (by having the oxygen outside the beaker push him inside).

Eggbert went a little way in, then he got stuck.  Elizabeth said she’d take care of him later.

She went on to give the kids a dry ice bath,

and the adults a dry ice shower (which had the kids giggling)

It was great to see so many kids take part in our Pirate theme!  I had a great time, I hope they did too!

Snow-waterballoon fights, Holiday Hayrides, popcorn stringing contests, reindeer relay games, Christmas storytime and

Santa suit creations,

Stocking making (to hold the prizes they were sure to win at the Christmas party)

Christmas weekend was full of holiday cheer! Elves roamed everywhere!

Young and the . . . . young at heart . . . joined in on the preparations

Until finally, it was time for the main event.   Saturday night, everyone gathered at the campground office to await Santa’s arrival

And what an arrival it was!

While Santa was greeting each and every child , the rest of us played games like Pin the Nose on the Reindeer

. . . cookie decorating, snowball tosses and a balloon walk

Finally it was time for Santa to hand out gifts. Everyone gathered around and patiently waited for their names to be called

One little boy exclaimed, (after receiving his present) “I must have been really, really good this year!”

I think Santa and Mrs. Claus would agree . . .

we had lots of very good little boys and girls this weekend!

Thank you all for visiting!

Red, white and blue are everywhere!

The kids spent the morning making noisemakers and decorating their bikes for the Noisy Independence Parade

Later on they had a Bocci tournament, made bubbles and played waterballon games.  Tonight they’ll gather either at Family Bingo or the Ping Pong Tournment.

I wish I had more pictures for you, but it’s been busy, busy, busy!!

Busy for everyone except this young lady

She found a quiet moment with The Three Grumpies right in front of the registration desk.  I asked her if she liked to read and she said, “It’s one of my beloved things to do.”

How often do you hear the kids say this during summer vacation?

In July and the first three weeks of August, we have recreation everyday, all day! Each week, my recreation directors and I go over the schedule, tweaking it here, and adding stuff there, until it’s just right for the themed weekend to come. So I never know in advance exactly what we’ll be doing, but here’s a sample based on this weekend’s theme, Chinese New Year Weekend:

Friday 6/27

Saturday 6/28

Sunday 6/29

Monday 6/30

Tuesday 7/01

Wednesday 07/02

Thursday 07/03

Hmmmmm . . .

No one in the pool . . .

playground’s empty too!

Where was everyone?

At the ice cream party!!

making sundaes . . .

and having fun!

Even this little guy got a taste . . .

Bryant was all geared up for recreation this weekend! A Father/Son Horseshoe tournament, waterballoon slingshot, Tag and relay races, arts and crafts, scavenger hunt, a movie (The Golden Compass)

aaaaaaaaa-nnnnnnnnd

a Chicken B-B-Q!

We cooked 80 - half chickens on racks over the b-b-q pits. The guys dabbed sauce on the halves every once in awhile

and then flipped the racks

When Dave declared those chickens done, the racks were taken off and opened up.

By this time, I swear everyone in the campground could smell them!

Dave passed out the chicken while Joanne, Elaine, Sharon and Lee handed out the potatoes, salad, sauce, dressing and butter

It was scrumptious!

And the best part?? All the Dads ate for FREE!

Next weekend we have an ice cream party and pony rides to kick off our full recreation schedule. There’ll be all day, every day activities through August 24th!

Our Spring Special campers pulled out Sunday . . . the campground looks too empty without them!

For our last weekend we had horse drawn hayrides with No Baloney Pony

Also on the schedule was Kids Games, Basketball, Arts and Crafts and a Horseshoe Tournament. Our local church, Poland Community Church, put on a spaghetti supper as a children’s education fundraiser. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, rolls, drinks and dessert, all for $5. Can you believe it?

After supper we showed Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. A wicked good movie!

Here’s some photos our spring specials have sent us . . .

From the Emery family . . .

A fabulous catch . . . that turned into an awesome supper:

Maxwell and an admirer!

And here’s some photos from the Jordan Family:

This little guy’s soaking up the rays . . .

And so’s this BIG guy!

Can you see the feet on him???

Yesterday, I went to vacuum the pool and I found this little cutie in the skimmer:

I thought he was an albino frog, but I’ve since discovered he’s a Cope’s Gray Tree Frog.  I really wanted to keep him!  Soft and calm, he crawled up and down my arm easily. When I put him on a tree, he looked all around. Within a few minutes he’d turned a dull brown.

These guys, along with the peepers and eastern gray tree frogs, sing to us all night long!

One of our favorite Poland Spring Campground activities is our Ice Cream parties.

Each family is “charged” one topping, and they’re all laid out smörgåsbord style.

Chocolate sauce, butterscotch, bananas, crumbled oreos and chocolate chip cookies, M & M’s, strawberries, whipped creme, spice drops, chocolate covered pretzels  . . . I’m always amazed by how creative each family can be!

Then Dave begins scooping for a line with no end . . .

he’s a little worried there won’t be any toppings left for him!

But he didn’t have to be, as these campers will tell you

This coming weekend . . . a spaghetti supper, horse drawn hayrides, basketball, arts and crafts, horseshoes and Kids Games!

Just a small sprinkle of rain this morning, but otherwise a gorgeous weekend.  You just can’t pay any attention to those weathermen!

Bryant arrived today, ready and eager to run some recreation activities.  He started with Arts and Crafts, where the kids made cool glasses.  As usual, he couldn’t resist making a pair for himself:

Afterward, he tried something new for kids games.  Super-sized marbles!  He used various sized balls instead of marbles, but kept the same rules.  The kids thought it was a blast, and I wish I could have gotten pictures for you.

A few turned out for horseshoes too . . . our first organized game of the season.

The highlight of the weekend though was horsedrawn hayrides by No Baloney Pony of New Gloucester

Jim took our campers for several rides around the campground, in and out the driveway and back around the camp.  Those beautiful work horses pulled the wagon up and down the hills like it was filled with marshmallows.

Jim told us the horses weighed 2,000 pounds each!

No Baloney Pony will be back on June 7th with their wagon.  They’ll also be back to give complimentary pony rides to our littlest campers on June 21st, Tuesdays in July, as well as August 6th, 12th and 19th.

Come join the fun!

They predicted rain . . .

instead we had a gorgeous weekend!

While Mom’s relaxed, the kids went to Arts and Crafts to make these:

Flower Pens!  The pot above is mine from Ben . . . isn’t it pretty!?

This morning, we had a special pancake breakfast in honor of Moms.  It was free of charge, as long as at least one family member helped cook, clean up or

serve.  All the kid servers were awesome, bringing us orange juice, pancakes, bacon and coffee!  Yum!  It was a great way to start the day.

But don’t take just my word for it, check out the smiles on these Mom’s . . .

Happy Mother’s Day to all our camping Moms, whereever you may be!

Next weekend . . . Horse drawn Hayrides.