Church Carnival 2013

Around this household, when the carnival-is-coming sign is erected on our church lawn in early September, the excitement begins. Everything is measured by "how many days until the carnival?" Even our two-year-old wrote a little ditty about the carnival coming.

Mary and I made lemonade the day before to take with our picnic lunch.

I felt like I was packing up for a small army to ready us for Carnival Day.

This year I got smart and gave each child a baggie with his or her name on it to contain game tickets and tokens earned--later to be traded in for rinky dink little prizes.

We paid for the children's rides and we brought our own food; the children paid for their games with chore-money.

We maneuvered around the carnival with the double jog stroller hauling Joseph, the cooler, my back pack, and all our water bottles.

Margaret's first and only ride was on the airplanes. She and another two-year-old began crying, so we had to stop the ride and take them off.

Margaret looking very concerned before the tears began flowing.

Mary on the bouncy house

John on the bouncy house

Mary on the inflatable slide

Margaret and John on the inflatable slide:
Margaret claimed she had fun but she did not choose to do it more than once!

John and Mary riding on the swings

Eating our picnic lunch in the cool air conditioning near the bake sale and silent auction

Later the bigger kids wanted to ride the airplanes, so Margaret said she wanted to try again.

Mary smiling, Margaret concerned

Margaret began asking to get off the ride, so Mary reached back and held her hand for the rest of the go-round.

Snow cones!

Bean bag toss

Sledgehammer the frog into the bucket

Animal balloons

The weather was hot today, around ninety degrees, so the children began overheating. When Margaret crawled into my arms and said she didn't feel good, we realized it was time to cool them off and get them home. This time of year is so unpredictable: Sometimes at the time of the carnival, it's been positively chilly and we've worn sweaters and hats!

The children had so much fun and are already calculating how long till next year's carnival!