Maxx's Maine Camping Blog

Adventurer Weekend 2010

Wow!

What a great weekend!!

There was Bocci, bubbles, bug catchers and bug races!

There was Knot Tying, paper plane flying and paper cup making contests.

We tried our hand a lasso-ing

showed off our adventurer racing skills

and then lobbed some waterballoon bombs at targets!

there was even a clued treasure hunt with an archaeological dig for buried treasure at the end.

007 and Indiana Jones, move over!  There’s some new Adventurers on the loose -

and they’re wicked good at it!

I had so much fun hanging out with my camping buddies

and giving high fives

and pretending to be a secret agent spy and adventurer

with our magnifying glasses

that I almost didn’t hear David say,

“Only one more hayride after this one.”

“You mean, one more hayride today, right?”  I asked.

“Nope.” David shook his head.  “Next weekend will be the last hayrides of the season.”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!   The summer just started!”

“‘Fraid not, buddy.  Next weekend is Labor Day.   Don’t worry, there’s still campers for a few more weeks  . . . you can go kayaking with Paula, fishing with Ben and Emily or play horseshoes with Mike . . . or even get a manhunt game started with Kate, Sam, Kayla and Matt.  There’s just no hayrides or arts and crafts. or bubble play.  Debbie and Bryant have to go back to school.”

Ack!

I ran over to Debbie and Alex

and I ran over to Bryant too

“It’s true,” Debbie said.  “Sorry, big guy.”

Bryant said, “But you know Maxx, Debbie and I have picked all our favorite stuff and loaded it into Labor Day Weekend for you and your friends.”

*sniffle*  “Like what?” I asked, scuffing my hoof in the dirt.

Debbie hugged me.  “Liiiiike, a Red, White and Blue Labor Day bike parade, and we’ll make noise makers and hats for it.  There’s the waterballoon slingshot, watermelon seed spitting, egg games . . . ”

“Don’t forget relay races in the pool,” Bryant added, “capture the flag, storytime and a Ping Pong Tournament.”

“Tell him the best part!” Alex said.  “Tell him what’s happening Saturday night!”

“WHAT?”

All together they said, “Candy Bar Bingo!”

“COOL!’

“I can’t wait!”

Halloween Too – 2010

Oh no!

I can’t decide which Halloween was better . . .

Halloween One or Halloween Too!

I mean – they were the same  . . . but different!

Both had arts and crafts and jewelry making . . .

and both had the waterballoon slingshot . . .

and a scavenger hunt

and horseshoes.

But Halloween Too had a Watermelon Innards Eating Contest

instead of the Witch’s Stew Eating contest.

And we had a Mummy Making Contest

instead of Halloween Games on the playground.

Both had wicked scary Haunted Houses.  ***shudder**

They were soooooo scary, that Tami locked herself in the store when the screaming started, and she wouldn’t come out until they were done!

I think she was afraid of going in and coming out looking like Alex and Bryant

but really?   Did she even look in a mirror all weekend?

I’m surprised that cute little devil standing next to her didn’t run from the park, screaming AAaaaahhhh- It’s a witch!!

We had some amazing volunteers again for our Costume Party.

Some were the same as Halloween One aaaaaand

(you guessed it)

some were different!

Tami gave the same boring-blah-blah-blah-please-be-safe speech . . .

made us pose for this Halloween Too Photo

then we all took off in opposite directions to Trick or Treat!

That was the same.

The carnival games were very different though!

We had a wet sponge toss

and a ring-the-duck toss

and lots of other cool games too!

There were very different costumes

Hmmmm – I’ve never seen THAT employee before.  He must be a relative of Tami’s.

There was even a different snack!

Frosting on Pretzels . . . Mmmmmmm

But you know what WAS the same?

The most important thing of all?

My camping buddies and I had

A

BLAST!!

Thanks for coming!!

Halloween Weekend 1 – 2010

Mwaaaaaah-ha-ha-ha!

It is “I” Maxwell Moose!  I have coooome   tooooo

tell you all about our Halloween Weekend!

What?  Did you think I was going to suck your blood or something?

I can’t believe how many kids we had here.this past weekend!  Whoa! Everywhere I turned, there were kids.

Kids to the left of me,

kids on the right!

Wow!

We had loads of fun too!

There were Arts and Crafts every day, Story Time, and horseshoes.

There was the waterballoon slingshot and four tables of Jewelry Making

Awww!  Look what these guys made . . .

for their ladies.

There were Halloween Games on the playground with witches brooms

and a scavenger hunt too.

This was all lots and lots of fun!  But I really, really wanted to get to the main event!  You know -

Trick or treating!

But Tami said we had to wait till 6:30.

“Go and play,” she said.

She’s always telling me to go and play. Sheesh!

So I went on down to the Witch’s brew eating contest, hoping to fill my belly .  Nobody told me I’d have to eat it with my hands behind my back!

Yikes!  It took hours to get it out of my fur . . .

I wonder how long it took them to get that spaghetti sauce off their faces??

Finally, all the trick or treaters started showing up at the office

And there soooooo many of them!

Do you think Tami would let us go trick or treat, though??

Nooooooo!

She got up on her little-itty-bitty  box and gave us the ruuuules . . .

But all I heard was “blah, blah, blah, candy, blah, don’t knock on doors, blah-”

I bet that’s what the rest of the crowd heard too!

Can’t you see them thinking  . . . “CANDY!  Give me candy! I neeeeeed CANDY!”

Finally – Tami stopped blah, blah, blahing and told us to “Go . . . Have fun!”

So we did!  We trick or treated until the costume party started -

and what a party it was.

there were lots of games like eyeball golf, spider ring tossing and the 7-11 game.

There were some . . . um  . . . innnn-teresting characters too!

I begged and pleaded with the gamers to let me play games  too

But they told me I  had to talk to Tami first.

Tami grabbed by trick or treat bag and said I had to pay a toll to play the games.

A TOLL??!!

“Does everyone has to pay a toll?” I asked.

“Nope,” she said, patting my nose.  “They all get to play for free all day, every day.  YOU have to give me five pieces of candy from your trick or treat bag, big guy.  Per game.”

She’s sooooo mean!

There were snacks too.  Like skewers of Witch’s Warts, Monster Boogers, Blood clots, Eyeballs, and Human Flesh . . .

They were wicked yummy.

I want to give a big shout out to our amazing party crew . . .

plus Kate Smith with her cool spider ring toss – who isn’t shown here, I’m sorry to say – unless she came to the party dressed up as a ghost.  Yeah – I think I see her there behind Bryant!

We couldn’t have done it without you guys!

You’re the bestest!

Thanks!

Now don’t feel too sad, if you missed out on this weekend.

‘Cause we’re doin’ it all over again . . .

Next Weekend!!

Halloween 2!!

I wonder what I’ll dress up as this time . . .

Monstrous Team Raft Building

Hey everyone!  Maxx here

I just had to show you the pics from one of our awesome Halloween events – Monstrous Raft Building!

First, we gave everyone trash bags, milk jugs, and duct tape

Then they built their rafts anyway they wanted.

After putting on life jackets for safety

it was time to test them out!

Would they hold the kids weight?

Would they sink?

Nope!  They worked!

They really, really floated!!

They even held more weight than the kids thought they would!

Once we knew they were sea worthy,

we raced them!

What a load of fun!!!   There were some pretty creative floats too.  Great job everyone!

Afterwards, some of the kids wanted to see just how many people their float could hold

It looks like a lot to me!

Check in tomorrow so I can tell you all about our AMAZING Halloween Weekend!  It was a blast . . . and guess what?

We’re doing it all over again this coming weekend!  The haunted house, the costume party, the trick or treating!

Everything!

Again!

Cool huh??

Medieval Weekend 2010

Oh my goodness!!

I was so busy trying to pick out a halloween costume, that I forgot to post some pictures from Medieval Weekend!

Ack!

Once upon a time, there was a King

(that’s me . . . see the crown?)

and he ruled kind of wisely over Poland Spring Campground.  The Moose King was in charge of all the fun stuff like

sword playing, and jousting with noodles and treasure hunting and viking ship races and scavenger hunts . . .

(gasp, gasp, gasp)

sword and shield making at arts and crafts, medieval games, waterballoon slingshot . . .

(gasp, gasp, gasp)

boat building and racing . . .

and a porridge eating contest

and lots more too!

His subjects would come to bow down before him . . .

ah  . . . well . . . okay, so they didn’t exactly BOW . . .

But they did high five!

And we had a lot of fun!

The Red Knight and the Blue Knight showed up again.   Those two . . . forever arguing.

This time, it was all about  . . .

are you sitting down???

Googly bands.

Yes.  Googly Bands.

A CROWN googly band, to be exact.

Sigh.

So the crowd took sides to cheer them on!

and the battle began for the right to . . . ahem . . .

wear the purple googly crown.

They fought hard and long, but only one could win.

In a brilliant and final move, the Red Knight tripped the Blue Knight, pushed him down into the hay with his foot, and sword poised . . . he declared himself the winner!

Well fought, Red Knight.  Well fought.

So now, we’re all decorated for Halloween!!

What do you think of my costume?

We’re having two . . . TWO! . . . Halloweens, one this weekend and one next.

so you can still get in on the fun!

Call today!!!

Fiesta Weekend 2010

Fiesta Weekend was so much fun!

We had all our usual recreation, plus sombrero making

and hayrides

There was this HUUUUUUUUGE Fiesta Party in the playing field too!

Debbie made her famous Sopaipillas – Tami had to tell me they were fried dough – and the line for them was really, really, long too!

We had the bouncy house out!  I never get tired of the bouncy house.

My little camping buddies and I tried to win prizes at the dart game

and Musical Jumping Beans

and the Ring Toss too!

When I did all of those games, I tried the Quarter Game and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

I tried to get Alex to give me a tattoo, but she just laughed at me and said it’d never stick to my fur.

But the very, very best thing at the party . . . the one that I couldn’t wait to do . . .

Pinatas!!!!

We whacked at them, and whacked at them, and whacked at them, until they cracked open

and we’ could get our hands on all the yummy candy inside!

The Fiesta party was soooo much fun, and lots of parents stopped Tami to tell her how awesome a time their kids were having, so I asked her if we could do Fiesta Weekend all over again THIS weekend.

But she said, “Maax!?  Don’t you want to have Medieval Weekend?  With the jousting?  Making your own shields and swords and princess hats?  What about the duel between the Red Knight and the Blue Knight?  And the viking ship races?”

Well, I DO love Fiesta . . . but I really, really, really  love Medieval too!

Hmmmmm, where did I put my jousting noodle?

Two Lights State Park

Alex, Dave and Tami wanted to get some family time in last week .  . . they wanted to rest and recuperate from the busy-ness of the campground.

So they left me here at the campground to take charge of things

“Suuuuuuure!” I said.  “Go have a good time!” I said. “I’ve got every little thing under control!!”

Tami only looked back once with her “you-better-behave-or-you’ll-be-in-so much-trouble”  looks as they grabbed their chairs and books and went to  Two Lights State Park.

If I’d known they were going to  Two Lights State Park , I would have joined them!   It’s all rocky coastline with amazing views of Casco Bay and the Atlantic.  There’s tidal pools to explore and you can climb the rocks until you can’t climb anymore!  Sometimes we bring a picnic lunch and spend the day; they have picnic tables  with   stationary grills, a hiking trail, and a playground too.

Tami says those are all great reasons to go to Two Lights.  But they aren’t HER reasons -

she goes for the breath taking view and the soothing sound of waves crashing over the rocks.

She’s so boring, isn’t she???

Still, she said her bare feet itched to climb down and explore the shoreline.  So she got Alex to take her nose out of her book for awhile 

so she could join her.

Isn’t it great there??

When Tami got back, I told her everything went very, very smoothly.

She doesn’t have to know about that one little, itsy, bitsy problem thingy . . . the one Paula had to rescue me from

It’s our secret, okay?

the Poland Spring Campground Justice League!

Wow!  I’ve never seen soooooo many super heroes here at Poland Spring Campground!

There were Supermans, Spidermans, Wonder Womans, Power Rangers, Super Girls, Iron Mans and many, many more!

Every where you turned, there were Super Heroes galore!!

and they all came together (after making masks and capes at Arts and Crafts) for Super Hero Try Outs!

They leaped tall buildings in a single bound

showed off their fancy footwork

and their ability to squeeze in and out of tight spots

Then, the evil villains came out of their lair

and our Justice League banded together

to show those evil-doers what we were made of!

Once again, Poland Spring Campground was safe for campers everywhere!

Whew!  I don’t know about Tami.  But I was worried there for a minute.

We had paddle boat building,  bocci, horseshoes, story time, lessons on how to tie up a villain

jewelry making, a scavenger hunt, movies, super hero training and hayrides too!

Feeling sad you couldn’t make it this time?  Well, we still have lots of Theme Weekends left you know.  Fiesta Weekend, 2 Halloweens, Adventurer Weekend and Medieval too!   Take your pick and give us a call!  We’d love to see you!

Fort Williams and the Portland Headlight

Last week, Tami, David and the kids escaped for the day to one of their very favorite places, the Portland Headlight in Fort Williams Park.  There’s so much room to run around there with wide open fields made just to play catch or fly a kite.  Tami says the views of the ocean really help her to relax.

There’s a hiking path winding along the rocky coastline

right to the Portland Headlight – the most photographed lighthouse in Maine

You can take tours of the Lighthouse for a fee . . .  climb on the abandoned fort on the other side of the park or stick your feet in the ocean.

And you know what?  After they hung out there, they went to the Old Port and took a ferry ride around Portland Harbor and THEEEEEEN, they went to dinner after that!

Do you think they asked me??  Nooooooo.

Oh well.  I suppose my antlers would have taken up the whole back seat anyway!

Christmas In July 2010

What a Merry Christmas we had!

There was so much cool stuff to do, like the Santa Dress Up game, snowball hunts, reindeer races, sparkling jewelry making, horseshoes, kickball, elf hat making and sleigh making – I didn’t know where to start first!!

but my camping buddies sure did!  They were every where! And you know what they all kept asking?

When’s Santa coming?  When’s SANTA coming?  WHEN’S SANTA COMING???

FIIIIIIII-nally, he got here

and the Christmas party started!

Aren’t those cute elf hats!  And I bet those pretzel sticks with frosting taste good too.

We played lots of cool carnival games and won prizes while everyone got a chance to talk to Santa

Then came the best-est part.  What we’d all been waiting for  . . .

all weekend long . . .

presents!!

I got one too!  Santa gave me Hot Rod Hamster!

It’s written by Tami’s friend, Cindy Lord and illustrated by Derek Anderson.  It’s sooooo cool!  I took it to story time on Sunday morning and all my little buddies liked it too.

Now I have to go find my cape . . . ’cause it’s time to turn into

Duh-da-daaaaaaa!

Mighty Moose!!!