School Carnival

Patrick and Anthony are galavanting in the Northeast today (Patrick will have to post about that later), so I'm a single mom for the weekend. The little ones had their big school carnival today. They only have this carnival once every two years, so it's a big deal and a big fundraiser for their school. I was volunteering at 4:25pm-5:15pm, so we left the house even before Alex got home from school. I bought a wristband for each child for $10 apiece and $20 in tickets for food and some games and activities that cost extra.

Natalie was hanging out with one of her best friends, Margot. I was volunteering with Margot's mom, so Natalie took care of Eric for a bit. That included getting him something to eat, since the food was in the cafeteria, far away from where I was. I was a little nervous about letting her do that, but lots of people knew her and a few less people knew me, so I figured that someone would let me know if she and Eric needed anything.

After I finished volunteering, I relieved Natalie of her "Eric duties". She and Margot had matching hats on that they had won in a game. They both had their hair "colored", meaning that there was a "Hair Flair" booth where they got the ends of their hair sprayed with different colored hair spray. Natalie, of course, chose red. She later found me and handed me a Beanie Baby type of stuffed animal--a Triceratops named Topper, which she wanted me to give to Eric. The rest of the time I saw her running around with Margot and another friend from our neighborhood, Paige.

Eric seemed a little lost, at first. Even when we were first driving to the carnival, he kept talking about how he was going to look for his "best friend Christopher" so they could play together. He didn't really know what to do until he found Christopher. The only problem was that Christopher is a little more energetic than Eric, which meant that he didn't stick with Eric. He kept running around all over the place. There were so many people that it was hard to keep track of him, so we lost him and found him a couple more times before they finally stuck together for the rest of the carnival. After that, Eric was clearly having a lot more fun. They played on the swings and playscape. They raced on one of the big inflatable obstacle courses and bounced in the bouncy house. They spent the most time at the "Egg Scramble" game where they had to balance a large plastic egg on a large plastic spoon. They did that one over and over again, each time claiming a prize from the prize box. Eric got a couple of hard candies, some little stampers, and a plastic spider. Christopher's mom was following him around like I was following Eric around. We were both getting tired following the little boys around.

Oh--I almost forgot to tell this one story. Before we found Christopher, Eric went to the "Dig for Worms" booth. This was his class booth, so he probably gravitated there because his teacher was there. Basically, they covered a gummy worm in whipped cream and the kids were supposed to get past the whipped cream to the gummy worm without using their hands. Eric refused to put his face in the whipped cream. Actually, he didn't want ANY whipped cream. He only wanted the gummy worm. His teacher laughed when she realized this, and she helped him get the whipped cream off. She also gave him a hug and told him that she was glad he made it to school today after being sick for four days this week. We love her.

Eric went to bed in my bed tonight, with Topper the Triceratops. I'm hoping he'll sleep well. I know I will.