Ahhhhh Fall, back to school time. The time of year where leaves fall off the trees and money flies out of your wallet as schools ramp up their PTA fundraising efforts to provide for our students what the government has cut out. I don't even have to say how long it has been since I have been involved in an elementary school, but I did know that wrapping paper sales started early, and membership in the PTA is a big deal. I felt so supportive of the education of our children as I happily signed up for the PTA, wrote a donation check, roped both sets of grandparents into buying wrapping paper and signed up to be a volunteer in the PTA Fall Carnival at Claire's school - dubbed "Eaglefest." Besides volunteering at the actual carnival, pleading letters were sent home to support other areas - like sending in blown out eggshells or baked goods. I signed up to provide 3 dozen of my baked good finest, all individually wrapped and ready to be sold. I couldn't help but pat myself on the back for being such an involved parent.
After sneaking out of work early on Friday to make it to my 5:00 - 5:30 volunteer shift at the "Silly String" booth (whaaaat.....???) we packed up the family to head over to the school for the carnival. I figured the girls would like it - sure there would be a couple bounce houses and some food to keep them entertained while I did volunteer booth duty and my chocolate chip blondie bars were being sold. Slight underestimation on my part, the "carnival" rivaled the state fair with pony rides, choo choo train and several fair style rides - two spinning/make-your-stomach-churn rides and the big swing ride. I couldn't believe the size of this elementary school gig.
I checked into the volunteer table and Jason and the girls went out to scope out the ponies. The Silly String booth was down near the pony area, and I saw exactly what my job was going to be. For a mere 6 tickets (the exact amount of tickets also charged for a Chick Fil A sandwich, meaning a LOT of tickets) kids could purchase a can of silly string and blast it all over their friends, the ground and them selves. And that stuff was everywhere. In my 30 minutes of duty, I must have sold 500 cans of the stuff. We must have been the most popular booth in the whole fair. I was starting to wonder if anyone would have any tickets left for my blondies! After my 30 minute shift, I walked to the other side of the carnival to meet with with Jason and the girls down in the inflatable slide area - Claire's favorites. No sign of them. I walked back to the pony area... no sign of them. After giving them a call, Jason says they are in line for the 2nd time on the giant swing ride. I couldn't believe Claire would be so brave - I guess in part because she caught up with gal pal Abigail from her class and we all know that bravery triples when you have a buddy to pressure into things. The girls sailed around on the swings with big smiles and Jason tells me that the two already went on one of the spinning rides - kind of like the Teacup ride on steroids - and no one threw up or cried. Impressive! Claire and Abigail bolt off the swings and I hear one exclaim "let's go on THAT one!" pointing to the one Jason dubbed the Cookie Tosser 5000. It was a double sided, stand up ride that rotated while spinning the giant carts - both around and up and down, meaning you would be completely horizontal to the ground while 40 feet in the air and fast. Really fast. Almost a sure thing that someone would toss their cookies while on that thing. Screams were continuously coming from that ride from 5th graders and their older siblings. Claire and Abigail get in line, shorter then everyone else in line by about 2 heads.
After sneaking out of work early on Friday to make it to my 5:00 - 5:30 volunteer shift at the "Silly String" booth (whaaaat.....???) we packed up the family to head over to the school for the carnival. I figured the girls would like it - sure there would be a couple bounce houses and some food to keep them entertained while I did volunteer booth duty and my chocolate chip blondie bars were being sold. Slight underestimation on my part, the "carnival" rivaled the state fair with pony rides, choo choo train and several fair style rides - two spinning/make-your-stomach-churn rides and the big swing ride. I couldn't believe the size of this elementary school gig.
I checked into the volunteer table and Jason and the girls went out to scope out the ponies. The Silly String booth was down near the pony area, and I saw exactly what my job was going to be. For a mere 6 tickets (the exact amount of tickets also charged for a Chick Fil A sandwich, meaning a LOT of tickets) kids could purchase a can of silly string and blast it all over their friends, the ground and them selves. And that stuff was everywhere. In my 30 minutes of duty, I must have sold 500 cans of the stuff. We must have been the most popular booth in the whole fair. I was starting to wonder if anyone would have any tickets left for my blondies! After my 30 minute shift, I walked to the other side of the carnival to meet with with Jason and the girls down in the inflatable slide area - Claire's favorites. No sign of them. I walked back to the pony area... no sign of them. After giving them a call, Jason says they are in line for the 2nd time on the giant swing ride. I couldn't believe Claire would be so brave - I guess in part because she caught up with gal pal Abigail from her class and we all know that bravery triples when you have a buddy to pressure into things. The girls sailed around on the swings with big smiles and Jason tells me that the two already went on one of the spinning rides - kind of like the Teacup ride on steroids - and no one threw up or cried. Impressive! Claire and Abigail bolt off the swings and I hear one exclaim "let's go on THAT one!" pointing to the one Jason dubbed the Cookie Tosser 5000. It was a double sided, stand up ride that rotated while spinning the giant carts - both around and up and down, meaning you would be completely horizontal to the ground while 40 feet in the air and fast. Really fast. Almost a sure thing that someone would toss their cookies while on that thing. Screams were continuously coming from that ride from 5th graders and their older siblings. Claire and Abigail get in line, shorter then everyone else in line by about 2 heads.
I tried to talk them out of it, then gave up when I surely figured the ride operator would toss them for being short. It was a stand up ride after all, and these kids barely could reach the containment chain. They had a good 15 minutes in line to watch the screamers and think about the consequences of their choice, but in the end they made it on the ride. Everyone was all smiles, until the speed ramped up. I tried not to laugh because it really wasn't funny. But we stood there with Abigail's parents as we watched our first borns sail around on the Cookie Tosser in their matching hot pink "Stephenson's Spectacular Frogs" class t-shirts. They scrunched down their heads into their necks and just stared at each other with a look that knew the end was near. The ride duration wasn't that long, but long enough for their entire 5 years of life to flash before their eyes. Finally, it was over. Except the other side of the ride was unloaded first and Claire and Abigail were stuck in the horizontal position 40 feet in the air. Finally, Claire's frozen look defrosted and she started crying.
Yep, that's them - the 2 short ones in the upper right
oh boy our fall fast is in a couple weeks...wonder if it will have a rival for the cookie tosser!
ReplyDeleteClaire is WonderWoman! Brave! (Crazy) and from now on, whenever she's a little skiddish, you can reminder her of how brave she was and how scared YOU were!!!!
ReplyDeleteYikes.
Aunt Jean, total scardycat