Whoopie Pie Festival

Saturday the kids and I went to the Whoopie Pie Festival in Lancaster, PA.  I don't know many years this festival has been going on, or why I've not heard about it sooner, but I couldn't pass up a day devoted to this delicious treat.  My poor hubby had to work and missed out on all the deliciousness.  We ate all of our Whoopie Pies before we got home so he never got to taste how good they were.  Guess that means we'll be going back next year.

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In case you're wondering what a Whoopie Pie is, it's a popular Lancaster County dessert, kind of like a mini cake the size of a hamburger.  They come in all kinds of flavors too.  

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I'm finding that the best time to go to activities is just after lunchtime, when most of the families with little kids are heading home for lunch and to put their little ones down for a nap.  Although my little guy still takes a nap, he is OK to skip one every now and again.  We got there right about 1pm and didn't have to wait in any lines.

Besides buying Whoopie Pies, there were fun activities for the kids.  Even better was that a lot of it was free!

Here my two youngest are on a Whoopie Pie treasure hunt.  Mini Whoopie Pies (about the size of cookie) were wrapped in foil for the kids to find.  It was pretty easy for them to find, and they were allowed a maximum of 5 Whoopie Pies each.  And if you found a Whoopie Pie wrapped in a gold foil, you won an extra prize.  This was a free activity.  3 out of 4 of my kids participated in this so we came away with 15 mini Whoopie Pies.  Of course the kids (and I) had to start eating them right away.

Other activities included a free Whoopie Pie race and a prize for the fasted team.  This involved going around certain obstacles and performing various tasks such as spinning around with your head on a baseball bat.  You raced in teams of two and since none of my kids wanted to do this with me, we had to pass.  

There was also a Whoopie Pie launch.  This was $2 for 3 launches and a prize given to the person who came closest to hitting the target.  My kids didn't want to do this one either, I think they just wanted to eat Whoopie Pies.

Checkers was a fun game to play.  At $2 per person and you got to keep all the Whoopie Pie checker pieces, it was a great deal.  When you got 'kinged' the gals working the booth would add half a Whoopie Pie to the top of your piece.  So in the end we had over 2 dozen Whoopie Pies to eat. 

While the girls were playing a serious game of checkers, the boys had fun at the pond watching the ducks and skipping stones.  My oldest son doesn't like crowds (it's an autism thing) and since there were about 6 checkers games going on at once, it was a bit too crowded for him.  Then there's my younger son who loves food and just wanted to eat all the Whoopie Pie checker pieces, so having them go off together worked out perfectly.  And since it wasn't very crowded overall, I could easily keep an eye on them.

There was a make your own Whoopie Pie station and for $2 you could put together your own creation.  Everyone was given the same supplies:  chocolate cakes, vanilla cream and a baggie of toppings such as mini candies and gummies.  My kids had fun making their own Whoopie Pies but I was hoping for more variety/flavors to choose from.

  

At the far end of the field was a barn with geese and two tables with more free kids activities.

Once again we split up, this time the boys checked out the geese while the girls did the activities.

The Lancaster Science Factory was there showing the kids how to make slime.  There was also a local art studio (Zole Art Factory) there letting the kids paint necklace pendants.  

And just so you don't think this event was just for the kids.  Various crafters had tents set up to display and sell their wares.  

Home decor, jewelry, candles, pet supplies and women's accessories were some of the wares available to purchase.  I saw these cute wooden pumpkin blocks and think I could DIY this myself.  

Besides crafts there was lots of food for sale like burgers and chicken.  All in all, we only stayed for about two hours which was perfect for my kids attention spans. We didn't stay for the Whoopie Pie eating contest, my son who previously said he'd do it, decided not to.  It was a shame because I think he really could have had a chance at winning.  I mean that boy can eat and eat and eat.  

We ended out adventure by walking past the world's largest Whoopie Pie. 

Anyone else ever been to a Whoopie Pie festival?  I know Lancaster isn't the only town to host one.  

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A Visit to the Butterfly House

Last month we went to Dreamscapes Watergardens in Lebanon PA.

We didn't go there to buy a pond for your backyard, but rather to check out their Butterfly House - Metamorphosis.

According to their website, "Home to hundreds of Pennsylvania Native Butterflies, Metamorphosis Butterfly House features the four stages of butterfly development(egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly) in a unique educational ecosystem.  You might just be lucky enough to see the transformation take place!"  

While we didn't see any transformations during our tour of the Butterfly House, the kids enjoyed seeing all the butterflies and trying to catch them on their feeding sticks.

The cost of the Butterfly House was $6 for adults and $3 for children.  You could also buy feeding sticks for $1 each.  I found a coupon which allowed us to get a free feeding stick with each paid admission.  If you go, I recommend getting a feeding stick.  The kids loved trying to get butterflies to land on their sticks.  This made the experience more interactive and fun.

After all the butterfly pictures, you'll see pictures of the waterscapes and kids play area.  All in all, it was a very fun afternoon and I recommend going there.

The different stages of the butterfly cycle:  egg, caterpillar and chrysalis.

I even had a butterfly land on me!

And since this was a watergarden center, there were fountains and ponds to check out as well as some landscape decorations.

A moss covered deer.

This bench was $500 and the one behind it was $1100.

Lily ponds.

Fountains.

There was also a large kids play area that the kids loved playing at.  We made an afternoon of our visit, even packed a lunch and ate at the picnic area while we were there.  

That green fenced in area was home to "Porkchop" the pig.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed the play area.

A large chalkboard wall to write on was fun.

The swing area was so much fun for them that they didn't want to leave.

They enjoyed this swing so much, I'm thinking of getting one for our basement.

We decided to bring some of the fun home with us so we bought a caterpillar habitat.  

 There's our little caterpillar.  

This post has enough pictures already, so I'll write about our caterpillar turned butterfly in another post.  

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An Elephant Museum?

Last week, we happened to be on a little road trip to drop my oldest daughter off at camp and ran across this little roadside attraction.  After dropping her off, the two youngest kids and I just had to check it out.

We walked around the garden area outside for quite a bit before entering the museum/store.  My younger daughter thought it was so much fun to see all the statues and silly decorations.

My son just loves cars, so of course he had to get into this one parked right next to a deer named Jon.

Climbing the "Stairway to Nowhere"

The path between the trees made me think of Hansel and Gretel on their way to Grandmother's house.  Well, except for the fact that the trees were decorated with hats and shoes.

My son also had to try out this boat.  Don't know why there's a kid's potty next to it, but it made us laugh.

Here's a candy coated elephant for you.

After enjoying all the sights outside, we finally ventured inside to check out the museum.

There must have been a million different types of elephant figures and memorabilia. 

There was also tons of candy.  Loose pieces of hard candy as well as all different flavors of fudge. 

So, has anyone else stopped by this funny little roadside attraction?

What did you think of it?

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