two things happened recently that have sparked childhood memories...the first was a couple of weeks ago when my friend tara and family came for another weekend visit. this time it was the whole crew, so we were up for some gaming (guitar hero, of course!) but we also had our inaugural playing of bumper pool.
it wasn't REALLY my inaugural time playing...i've played bumper pool on that table hundreds of times...only it was always in my grandparents' house. and now it's mine. and it seemed like the perfect time to have a little tournament. tara and her husband played. their children played. we all played each other. even lilly and maya gave it a shot. it was a great afternoon activity and i'm looking forward to giving my kids the same kind of memories with that table that i had...we just need some cousins and friends to share it with, too!
and the next childhood memory coming to life through my kids? the ever popular school carnival. i remember my school carnivals well. the cake walk was always in the kindergarten room - Mrs. Landis' room - and it just so happens that Mrs. Landis now lives just three doors down from my parents - another blissfully retired teacher. i never did win in that cake walk.
anyway. school carnivals were GREAT! i remember spending time during the day making our classroom available for gaming (putting everything away, pushing desks to the side, covering shelves with that enormous paper that comes on the rolls...) i imagine, really, that carnival night is not a favorite of the teachers...hoping and praying that the hundreds of people that will be filing through your room for ring toss will not disturb your very organized system.
friday night was carnival night. we'd arranged for a sitter (thanks, grandmom!) for molly and porter so that we (aka jason and i) could take the girls for a night of fun. i think jason planned it (being that a school carnival probably ranks as a top ten worse nightmare for my anti-social husband)...he came home sick on friday afternoon. jason is never sick. i'm constantly telling him to use a sick day, and he never does. so when he showed up at home at 1:30 in the afternoon, i knew it wasn't good. he woke up right when i was leaving to take the girls to the carnival.
and it starts...waiting in line to buy tickets. i was generous in my ticket buying, knowing i had two girls with games to play and we were eating 'dinner' - all payable with the ever popular ticket. just about every room had an activity. the dark cardboard maze didnt' work so well for maya, but she made out like a bandit in the potty toss (which lilly wanted to be sure to go to because her teacher was working that - you throw toilet paper into a toilet seat!) most of the games were tossing related - ping pong balls into milk jugs, ring toss, computer toss where you throw a CD into a cardboard cut out of a computer - extra points if you get it into the cd drive as opposed to the screen. the girls got their faces painted. they also decided to sink the wad on a craft activity, as opposed to a game (guaranteeing themselves a 'prize') they each spent TEN TICKETS on a decorate a hat project:
maya was very diligent and easily took three times as long to get her hat just right...right up til the end when she spelled her name backwards.
we ate dinner - nachos, soda and cotton candy - like i suppose you could get any better than that for my girls? i think not. they each won some prize tickets in their toss games which they traded in in the prize center for batons and various other 'oriental trading company' products. i bid on a couple of items in the silent auction, and i think i actually won some, but the girls were too pooped from all that potty tossing to stay around for the auction winner announcements.
they sort of had a cake walk at this carnival...it was called 'bake walk', and appeared to be cupcakes and cookie plates. they also had a munchie march, where i saw someone walk out with a full size bag of doritos. knowing that we would be eating cotton candy later, i directed the children away from the other junk food based games.
can't wait to fight the crowds again next year, all in the name of PTA fundraising.
otherwise, the 'big kids' spent their beach time today flying kites and finding shells. molly spent her time RUNNING.
we had fun, though we're hoping for a bit more warmth in the coming days!
