A Long Saturday

Yesterday ended up being a long day, activity-filled from beginning to end.

Our first activity was going to the Camp Lewis Day Camp preview with the Cub Scout pack. We were to meet at York at 8 AM; we slept in until about 7:30, so we were really rushing to get out of the house, but we did make it. We arrived at Camp Lewis by 8:30, registered, and started going around to the activities. First was BB gun shooting, then archery, then (as Alex did some crafts and such) standing around the outdoor fireplace. It was a cold morning! Again, Alex asked if he can have a bow and arrow. I'm pretty sure he's going to get one for Christmas.

About 11:00 we left Camp Lewis and went to Pomeroy Farms to get our pumpkin. We had never been to Pomeroy Farms, and Alex wanted to go to Bi-Zi Farms again instead, but we forced him to try something new. We had fun at Pomeroy Farms. It is quite different from Bi-Zi Farms . . . better in some ways, lot as good in others. First, Pomeroy does not have a corn maze or pumpkin catapult. Alex was not happy about the catapult, but we appeased him about the Corn Maze by promising that we would take him to one in November. Another good thing about Bi-Zi is that they might charge more for admission, but everything is included – the maze, any pumpkin you can carry out of the field, even a warm drink. Admission to Pomeroy is a little less, but they charge extra for a pumpkin ($1 - $8, depending on the size), a warm drink ($1 for a smallish paper cup), and making a scarecrow ($8). Although Bi-Zi has a larger pumpkin patch, Pomeroy has a better pumpkin patch. When wandering through the Bi-Zi field, there is no doubt that you are looking at pumpkins that grew right there . . . many are rotted or otherwise unfit, so that you have to walk around quite a bit to find a really good pumpkin. At Pomeroy, every pumpkin is good, and there are a lot of pumpkins. In fact, I wonder if Pomeroy doesn't have a stock of pumpkins that they scatter through their field. The Pomeroy hay ride is more interesting. The road wanders for ½ mile or more through woods and fields, with scarecrow scenes around every corner. Pomeroy has a few animals, and had a country band and magician for entertainment. The magician, Professor Bamboozle, was quite good. After watching his ½ hour show one time, Alex decided to stick around and watch part of it again; we finally had to MAKE him leave!

After leaving Pomeroy Farms, we stopped at Izzy's for lunch and visited the Parrot Perch in Hazel Dell. The parrots there are quite interesting . . . there are about a dozen of them that are free to roam the store. Many of them talk. In the back, they have some baby parrots, still with their grey baby feathers.

Finally, we began looking for Alex's Halloween Costume. He wanted to be a skeleton when we began. His problem with that is the Karate school's Halloween party on Friday, where no scary costumes are allowed, so he would have to forgo the mask. We offered to paint his face like a skeleton for that party. After looking at quite a few skeleton costumes, he changed his mind and wanted to be a Star Wars Clone Trooper. Again, he tried on many costumes – they all either did not fit, or were pretty cheesy. Finally, he decided he wanted to be a Zombie Knight. It took a LOT of looking and coaxing, but we finally decided on a Crusader Knight costume, added a sword (of course), and bought some makeup to make his face into a green zombie face. Now we need to alter the costume (the face of the chain mail does not fit around his head) and figure out how to paint his face as a zombie. My first try this morning had him looking more like the Wicked Witch of the West.