Poland Spring Campground

On the schedule today was story time, water balloon volleyball, ceramics, adult volleyball, capture the flag, darts tournament and ice games!  My favorite thing was making noisemakers for the

Labor Day Parade!

There were pin wheels . . .  Red, white and blue streamers . . .  Patriotic hats . . .

Debbi handed out some wicked loud whistles that had all the parents cringing

And then they were off to circle the campground!

I’m not sure how the little one below slept through it all.  You could hear this parading crew from the lake!

It was a great, end-of-the summer weekend!  There were times when Tami and I thought we were seeing double . . .

And there were lots of cute moments too -

(I always wondered how the campground stayed so clean!)

But now our recreation program is done for the summer.   Sigh.

While Tami, Debbi and Bryant are busy planning the theme weekends for 2009, you can still enjoy some quiet fall camping, you know!  Cool, crisp nights, the call of the loon, friends toasting marshmallows with friends . . .

Fall camping can be a lot of fun!

Maxwell Moose here with all my friends . . .

We had a great time today!

There were egg and water games in the playing field . . . we made lobsters and lobster bouys at arts and crafts. Then we headed down to the playing field where Debbi (far right) and Bryant were shooting off water ballons with help from our friend Linda.

They shot them low, for the little ones

and higher for the bigger kids!

Look how wet you get~

If you catch one without it hitting the ground or breaking, you get a free ice cream! If you don’t believe me, ask these guys!

Great job you two!

Heeeeeey! Bryant! What are you up to??

As if they weren’t wet enough already!!

At 7:30 tonight everyone gathered at the office for a light parade around the campground!

What a whole lotta flashing and blinking and bright colors! Wicked cool.

The good news is, the fun isn’t over yet! Most of my little buddies are staying until Monday, so we have another whole day of fun stuff planned for Sunday too!

Mighty Moose here!

What a super fantastic weekend! Debbie and Bryant made Get Away Hydro Boats, hero vehicles with coffee clay, capes, masks and helmets too! We found the missing store treasure, and tested hero water skills at the lake.

Heros were found in every corner of the campground! Here’s Bumble Bee from the Transformers

Super B!

and Super Princess

Hero’s were tested to see if they could tie up their villians super tight

They were asked to run faster than a speeding bullet

jump higher than the tallest building

and perform daring feats

Some showed off moves that had even Cat Woman jealous!

When Flash’s arch enemies, The Rogues, appeared

our super heros attacked back with water balloons and won! Poland Spring Campground was safe for all campers once again.

We celebrated with a victory hayride!

Here’s the Poland Spring Campground Justice League

On Saturday night Paul from Mad Science performed his Spin, Pop, Boom show!

As our camper families checked out today, they all told us what a great time they had this weekend!

A big shout out to Heart Girl, Super Brody, Super Sleuths, and all the Super Hero’s who showed off their moves to me, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Cat Woman!

We all had an amazing time!

Come back and see us real soon . . .

Whoa!  Halloween the second time around was just as good as the first!

This time, Debbie and Bryant planned some Halloween games in the field, a pool tournament, horseshoe tournament, water balloon slingshot, a nature walk through the freaky forest, making monster jugs and a

Witch’s Stew Eating contest!

We had many eager participants, young

and “slightly older” too!

Everyone had a pretty good time, but I think they all needed a good shower afterward!

6:30PM Saturday was the Witching Hour!   Family by family, they arrived at the office

There were Batman’s and brides, chickens and goblins, fishermen and farmers!

Finally it was time for Alex to give the Trick or Treating rules

Then they were off while Tami, Debbie, Alex and Bryant set up for the Halloween party!  We had two different ring tosses, water target practice, darts

tattoos, a bean bag toss and Witch Kabobs!  Yum!

There was plenty of laughter to go around and lots of precious moments

but

sadly

Halloween Week is over.

There’s no time to pout though . . . we’ve got to plan for Super Hero Tryout Weekend!!!

You should have seeeeeen all the kids who showed up for trick or treating!

There were Barbie’s, cowboys, ghouls, witches, fairies, super heros, goblins, ghosts, dancers, and more:

After trick or treating the kids and I went back to the store for a Halloween Party! We played all kinds of games like Pin The Nose on the Jack-o-lantern, Fishing for Spiders and a sponge toss

The line to put your face in the clown was just as long as the line to toss the sponges!

Here’s Bryant showing off his favorite prizes

And look who I found wandering around the party . . .

The Burger King Man! Tami thought he was kind of creepy looking . . .but I said, “Gee Tami, have you looked in the mirror lately?

Then I ran away before she could yell at me!

Tami told these three they were a couple weekends too early:

I wonder if they’d let me borrow their costumes for Super Hero Weekend? I want to be

da-da-daaaaaah -

Suuuuu-per

Moose!’

(Psssst? Do Superman and Spiderman reeeeeeeally have orange vampire teeth? I’ve got to get me some of those!)

After the party Dave and his gathering of ghouls scared campers silly in the haunted house for just over an hour!! Tami and I could hear the screams from the office. We didn’t exactly get pictures of that - we were kind of, sort of, hiding in the back room of the store. Maybe we’ll be brave enough next Saturday ’cause we’re doing Halloween all over again!

On Sunday afternoon, Bryant and Alex’s Shakespeare in the Park troupe performed MacBeth. It was awesome!

The final fight scene was so intense, Tami forgot to take pictures!!

We were really lucky to have them perform right in our own playing field. We hope they “break a leg” at their remaining performances in the Poland area . . .

I think I might try out for next year’s troupe ’cause they look like they’re having a lot of fun. Do you think they’ll need a moose for Mid Summer Night’s Dream?

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.”

I’m a little behind in my posting, time has flown these last couple of weeks!

Here’s some photos from Chinese New Year Weekend . . . notice the cool dragon hats!

This little guy can’t be bothered to look at the camera . . . he wants to get on the hayride!

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

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!