Maxx's Maine Camping Blog

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 . . .

Upcoming Camping Weekends

Hey everyone!

Now that we have that Clean Up Weekend out of the way, why not try Mother’s Day Weekend May 7th to the 9th??  We’ll make Mother’s Day presents at Arts and Crafts, and on Sunday morning, David puts together an awesome Mother’s Day Breakfast . . . and it’s free .  . . as long as one family member helps cook, clean or serve.

And it can’t be Mom!  (nice try!)

Or you could come stay with us May 14 – 16 when we take out the bouncy house!    I’m gonna find a way inside this year!  You just watch!

2009 Recreation

Maxwell here!

Guess what??

The 2009 Calendar of Events is on the website!!

Guess what else?  C’mon, guess!!

Bryant

Debbie

and Tami

(um . . . Tami’s on the left)

have goofed around . . . spent long, crazy hours cooking up a new . . . theme . . . weekend!

Adventurer Weekend!!

Think Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and 007!   Details are still being researched, but they plan to have a clued treasure search, boat races, a knot tying contest and a bug hunt/race.

Christmas and Halloween Weekends stayed on their usual dates, but take note that Super Hero Weekend was moved to July 31st – August 2nd and Medieval Weekend to August 21st – 23rd.

If you want to see what we do for a particular theme, just click the appropriate tag on the right and it will take you right to the post for that weekend.

Tami and Alex are hard at work getting all the reservations made in 2008, onto the 2009 computer program.  They’ll be sending out the deposit request notices early next week.

We started taking reservations January 5th, and the phone began ringing right at 9am!  That’s a very good sign we’re in for a very busy summer.  So don’t fall asleep on the job

book your favorite weekend early!  Or you might end up like this guy

Maxwell Posts More on Halloween 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?

Clean Up Weekend

What a fabulous crew we had this weekend!

It all started Thursday, when Dave gave the boy scouts a lesson in planting trees . .  . 

Then on Friday, 55 campers rolled in to participate in our annual Clean Up Weekend.  It’s free, in exchange for approximately five hours raking sites and planting trees on Saturday.  We met some new campers, and welcomed back some regulars who’ve been helping us for 8+ years now.

The big day was overcast . . . and   brrrrrrrrr   chilly!  But everyone was out and about by 8am, eager to get going!

We fed the hungry workers

Then they got to work!

Believe it or not, we actually had a couple sites with snow and ice under the leaves!

Here’s  a couple before pictures

the main street

and site 1.

And here’s what they looked liked after . . .

What a difference!  132 sites raked, as well as the roads, playground, fire circle, around the pool and the game room!  What used to take me a full month, raking every day, is now accomplished in a few hours thanks to these energetic campers.

But they weren’t done. Oh, no!   I then gave out about forty trees to happy, smiling faces like these

I can’t tell you how it warms my heart to see so many kids (and adults) eager to plant trees off the sides of their sites.  It’s such a wonderful, important thing they do . . . replacing young trees that are inevitably damaged during the course of a camping season.

Thanks so much to all our helpers this weekend! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Maxwell Posts for Tami

Tami and Ben have been sick with the flu for a week. So, I trudged through the snow to check in on them.

“Maxwell,” Tami said between coughs, “I need you to do me a favor.”

“Sure! Anything!” I put my hand . . . um, hoof . . . over my heart. “Your wish is my command. Clean the bathrooms? Answer the phones? Play with Ben? Take Cookie for a walk?”

“I need you to blog for me. There’s been no new posts since the 11th. My customers will think I’ve given up on it already.”

“Blog? Me?” I paced back and forth in front of her, scratching my antlers. “But, but, Tami . . . what’ll I say? What’ll I do? Who’s gonna want to read a moose post?”

“Your fans would, sweetie.” Tami patted my head and kissed my nose right before she sneezed, once, twice, three times. Flopping back on the couch and covering up with a blanket, she mumbled, “Write about what you do best, Maxwell. Fun and games.”

Yeah! I can do that!

Recreation is one of the best things about Poland Spring Campground! It’s why I hang around. Every day in July and August is loaded with awesome things to do. There’s arts and crafts at least once a day where you make stuff like catapults, boats, candles, princess hats or super cool glitter glasses

We play volleyball, basketball, bocci, horseshoes, relay races, water balloon slingshot, penny hunts, ping pong and pool tournaments for teens, bingo, flag football. We have ice cream making once a week. Pool games. Hayrides! Bingo! Jewelry making! Bubble play! Trash Bag Theater! Story time with moose feed!

You can see a sample of our recreation schedule here, on our website.

Every Monday night we have candy bar bingo. Tuesday has free pony rides

Thursday night brings popcorn over the campfire with scary stories told by the kids.

We theme every weekend too!

Pirate Weekend was new last year and an instant hit!

Here’s a scene from a skit Alexz wrote called Who Wants to Be A Pirate. Bryant and JMoney showed all the pirate campers how it’s done and then swore them in by reciting the pirate code.

Medieval weekend is always a lot of fun too! Jousting with noodles, Viking ship races, and a porridge eating contest are just a few of the awesome things you’ll find on our schedule that weekend.

Let’s not forget Christmas in July

Halloween in August

or Fiesta Weekend with a big South of the Border Party, donkey rides on Ricco Suave, pinatas and the bouncy house

But you know what I can’t wait for this year? Our brand new theme -

Super Hero Tryouts Weekend!

Who are you going to be? I think I’m going to dress up as . . . da-da-DAH . . .

Super Moose!

Shhhhh! Don’t tell anybody, but I’ve been practicing my jumping and running so I can try out at the silly Olympic events. Tami says there’s gonna be a toilet paper tie up contest and water balloon target practice too! There’s so many cool weekends, I can never choose just one favorite. But I think Super Hero Weekend is going to be top of my list.

What’s your favorite weekend?

Snow and more snow . . .

So what do we do in January when we’re snowed in?

We send out our Think Spring letters with a Calendar of Events to all our repeat customers! We’re trying to coax you into booking early. If you don’t receive one by the end of January and you’d like to, just send me an e-mail with your address through the website and I’ll put one in the mail to you. Or you can see it on our website here.

Pirate Weekend

and Medieval Weekend

were so much fun last year, that we decided to add a new theme.

Are you ready for this?

Super Hero Tryout Weekend!

It’ll be August 22 – 24. We’re encouraging the kids to bring their superhero outfits and tryout at our silly Olympic events: run faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings, water balloon target practice and toilet paper tie up. Mad Science will perform their Spin, Pop Boom show on Saturday night!