Arrr!

About 6 weeks ago, I went to a gas station.  To fill up with gas.  There are few gas stations here that I've come across that have pay-at-the-pump.  It's mostly annoying.  But, on this particular day, it worked out for my welfare.  I went inside to pay.  On the shelf by the window was a flyer for a pirate festival in Gananoque coming up.  I took the flyer.  I made a mental note.  The flyer touted a Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator, Shrek & Fiona, and lots of swashbuckling activities.  Sounds great for my little hooligans.

So today was finally the day.  The weekend of the pirate festival is here!  I have been on the festival website a number of times to figure out the timing of everything since today was the only day we could go.  Tomorrow we have a soccer tournament all day and Sunday is well, Sunday.  Not pirate day.

Gan is about 25 minutes away.  Activities were to be underway at noon.  We arrived with uncommon promptness at 11:50am.  Who are we?

Unfortunately, in all of my perusing of the website, I did not notice (and I still believe it was not listed) a price for this event.  I saw prices for the boat cruises, which we weren't planning on doing, but nothing for the festival itself.  We were pretty shocked upon arrival to find out it was $10 per adult and $5 per kid.  Logan was free.  $30.  It was an all weekend pass that allowed you to get into all the shows and music performances, etc, but if you're only coming for 2 hours for your kids to play in the kid zone, then $30 is pretty steep.  It almost put a damper on our day.

We walked the area for a while.  Checked out the lighthouse, and then decided to talk with the girls at the desk.  Tyler explained that we were only staying for 2 hours and just wanted to do the fun kids games.  Could we just pay for admission for the kids?  They agreed.  Phew!  I did not want to deal with that disappointment on the way home.  (Mine).

The kids had a great time.  Hanging in the gallows:

Pirate activities, which included throwing a ball through a pirate shark's mouth, golf (very pirate-y), digging for treasure

Throwing a ball through a pirate parrots board, carrying an eye on a spoon while wearing a patch, digging out the letters to spell pirate in a bucket, and walking the plank.

The kids also got balloon-things (not animals - a sword, a flower and a hat), had a picnic lunch and checked out the cannons.

Oh, and we did get a picture with Captain Jack!

Then we sat and listened to Cap'n Tor play some music which included 'Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for me', 'Follow the Leader' (from Peter Pan) and some other tunes we didn't know.

Then they asked for one of the kids to volunteer their mother to help with something.  My kids were kind enough to volunteer me.

The kids took turns throwing a ball at a picture of 'Island Mama'.  Every time the velcro ball stuck to the picture, I would have to put on that article of costume.  Until I was dressed like 'Island Mama'.  Then they handed out drums and I danced a shook around with all the kids.  It's a good thing I'm such a good sport.

It was pretty fun...and crazy hot under that costume!

Now we're home and ready to relax a bit before going for dinner at our friend's house for Elder Goodman's birthday and then I'm off to a RS Pool Party tonight while Tyler and the kids play in the pool at Hales house.  It's a pretty full day, but that's how we like it, since we're counting down the days for Grandma and Bumpa and Alison and the kids to get here.  The fuller the better.

I should probably clean my house a bit.  Another day.

Oh, and the day started off on a great note...with Logan going poo on the potty!  He got a sucker for his good work.  I can see the light!