24 March 2017
855
R. Linda:
Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to any more kiddie fundraisers, but this wasn't exactly a fundraiser, though I lost three bucks on attending. My eldest came home all excited he was running a carnival booth. It was math week, and the school was putting on a math carnival, where the children ran booths where you had to figure out the math to win a prize. Seems simple in and out and home we go, and an hour of yelling kiddos was better than the four and a half I had on the pizza and movie excursion.
I said, yes, I'd love to attend. Yeah, I know I didn't give it much thought, I was thinking an hour of children silently trying to figure out math equations, counting on fingers or worse, calculating on their cell phones at each booth and it wouldn't be so noisy or hyper as there were no soft drinks and candy. Well, I was wrong and it was too soon after the Monday night fiasco to attend another. I need to recuperate at least a week not a few days to steel meself for the next chaotic kiddie show.
The eldest had stayed after school to set up his math booth so the rest of us piled in the car (me Mam being the only holdout, but we dragged her along kicking and screaming anyway, poor soul), and arrived at the designated hour 6 p.m. Getting out of the car was fine, we met other parents we knew and inside we all went thinking easy-peasy one hour and we were out. Well, as soon as I opened the school door to let everyone through (yes, I was the doorman yet again), I could hear the shouting of excited kiddos and out of the corner of my eye, some were running about chasing each other. Oh boy, here we go AGAIN.
Once inside we found it rather crowded which surprised me, but it was nice for the kids running the carnival to have a good turnout. Parents were standing around in groups chatting, small wee ones including our youngest chasing around, the middle one with friends visiting the math booths and yelling out any answer that came to their heads, and general chaos ensued.
The supervising teachers were dressed as clowns so recognising the ones I knew was a bit difficult. The kiddos running the booths seemed to not care if their contestants got the answer right or wrong, they were enjoying being in charge. We went up on the stage that overlooked the floor where all the booths were to find there was a refreshment stand with candy and popcorn for sale and a few additional booths being run by two teachers in clown disguise.
All of my brood had me buy them cotton candy and I didn't want to because I was taking them out for dinner after and didn't want to feed them pure sugar and wire them up any more than they already were. But to keep them from acting up in front of everyone I caved. I know pushover me.
The fact is that the wee one (when he doesn't get his way) becomes his alter-ego, Georgie and OMG. Georgie was a cousin of me wife's. He was the cutest little angel as a child and one look at that tow-head with those big blue eyes and you'd think choir music would waft through the air. BUT Georgie was anything but angelic, he was a demon in disguise, dressed in a guise you'd never think could be so disruptive. He ran away at the tender age of ten (I think I told you this story) and took a railroad car to another town. Yup, me youngest has inherited the Georgie gene he has. And the last thing I wanted was Georgie in a restaurant.
Well, the wee one ran directly into a preschool buddy and they bummed heads causing the buddy to howl at the top of his lungs and mine to run away and hide. We found him behind a heavy-set clown and had to console him that it was an accident and though he wasn't hurt, his friend was feeling the blow and would be fine . . . eventually. The middle one Guido, had a fistful of tickets and where he got them I have no clue as he is not the mathematical whiz his older brother is. We couldn't sort that out as he was not forthcoming until he later told us he had collected all the tickets that others had dropped on the floor. So at the end of the night, he was the big winner of the single prize offered for the most tickets gathered for answering correctly at each both. I tell ya, that Guido is going to be something else when he gets older!
The eldest, O'Hare, was very happy with the booth running but a bit annoyed we didn't come over to play his game. We were told it was for the kiddos only, otherwise, we would have. As it was we didn't get to speak with him because he was busy running the game. Who knew? So all of us except Guido and the wee head banger were in the doggy house. Oh, and Mam had the excuse she didn't have her glasses and couldn't see. Right, O'Hare's booth had huge round circles and multiplication, division, addition and subtraction signs that you'd have to be totally blind not to see. But he believed her. She's as bad as Guido telling him she came over but she couldn't see!
Here are a few shots of the carnival:
855
R. Linda:
Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to any more kiddie fundraisers, but this wasn't exactly a fundraiser, though I lost three bucks on attending. My eldest came home all excited he was running a carnival booth. It was math week, and the school was putting on a math carnival, where the children ran booths where you had to figure out the math to win a prize. Seems simple in and out and home we go, and an hour of yelling kiddos was better than the four and a half I had on the pizza and movie excursion.
I said, yes, I'd love to attend. Yeah, I know I didn't give it much thought, I was thinking an hour of children silently trying to figure out math equations, counting on fingers or worse, calculating on their cell phones at each booth and it wouldn't be so noisy or hyper as there were no soft drinks and candy. Well, I was wrong and it was too soon after the Monday night fiasco to attend another. I need to recuperate at least a week not a few days to steel meself for the next chaotic kiddie show.
The eldest had stayed after school to set up his math booth so the rest of us piled in the car (me Mam being the only holdout, but we dragged her along kicking and screaming anyway, poor soul), and arrived at the designated hour 6 p.m. Getting out of the car was fine, we met other parents we knew and inside we all went thinking easy-peasy one hour and we were out. Well, as soon as I opened the school door to let everyone through (yes, I was the doorman yet again), I could hear the shouting of excited kiddos and out of the corner of my eye, some were running about chasing each other. Oh boy, here we go AGAIN.
Once inside we found it rather crowded which surprised me, but it was nice for the kids running the carnival to have a good turnout. Parents were standing around in groups chatting, small wee ones including our youngest chasing around, the middle one with friends visiting the math booths and yelling out any answer that came to their heads, and general chaos ensued.
The supervising teachers were dressed as clowns so recognising the ones I knew was a bit difficult. The kiddos running the booths seemed to not care if their contestants got the answer right or wrong, they were enjoying being in charge. We went up on the stage that overlooked the floor where all the booths were to find there was a refreshment stand with candy and popcorn for sale and a few additional booths being run by two teachers in clown disguise.
All of my brood had me buy them cotton candy and I didn't want to because I was taking them out for dinner after and didn't want to feed them pure sugar and wire them up any more than they already were. But to keep them from acting up in front of everyone I caved. I know pushover me.
The fact is that the wee one (when he doesn't get his way) becomes his alter-ego, Georgie and OMG. Georgie was a cousin of me wife's. He was the cutest little angel as a child and one look at that tow-head with those big blue eyes and you'd think choir music would waft through the air. BUT Georgie was anything but angelic, he was a demon in disguise, dressed in a guise you'd never think could be so disruptive. He ran away at the tender age of ten (I think I told you this story) and took a railroad car to another town. Yup, me youngest has inherited the Georgie gene he has. And the last thing I wanted was Georgie in a restaurant.
Well, the wee one ran directly into a preschool buddy and they bummed heads causing the buddy to howl at the top of his lungs and mine to run away and hide. We found him behind a heavy-set clown and had to console him that it was an accident and though he wasn't hurt, his friend was feeling the blow and would be fine . . . eventually. The middle one Guido, had a fistful of tickets and where he got them I have no clue as he is not the mathematical whiz his older brother is. We couldn't sort that out as he was not forthcoming until he later told us he had collected all the tickets that others had dropped on the floor. So at the end of the night, he was the big winner of the single prize offered for the most tickets gathered for answering correctly at each both. I tell ya, that Guido is going to be something else when he gets older!
The eldest, O'Hare, was very happy with the booth running but a bit annoyed we didn't come over to play his game. We were told it was for the kiddos only, otherwise, we would have. As it was we didn't get to speak with him because he was busy running the game. Who knew? So all of us except Guido and the wee head banger were in the doggy house. Oh, and Mam had the excuse she didn't have her glasses and couldn't see. Right, O'Hare's booth had huge round circles and multiplication, division, addition and subtraction signs that you'd have to be totally blind not to see. But he believed her. She's as bad as Guido telling him she came over but she couldn't see!
Here are a few shots of the carnival:
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| The upper stage where we were 'hiding' |
 |
| Nearing the end |
Afterwards, and promptly at 7 p.m. we headed out of Noise Central and got into the car with two tired kiddos, the eldest and the youngest along with Mam and headed out to the small town over for dinner at a place that reminds me of an Irish pub but is a small corner eatery across from the river. Here is a lovely picture of the river dam.
 |
| Picturesque huh? |
So because O'Hare had eaten pizza at school he wasn't hungry but he'd have dessert. This started a ruckus of sorts with his two younger siblings not wanting proper dinner but ice cream sundaes on a cold North Pole night. Their mother told them if they ate their dinner then they could have dessert. We ordered and it looked quite weird all of us with dinner plates and the eldest with the biggest ice cream sundae I'd ever seen. This caused a patron on her way out to stop at our table and ask him if there was a special occasion like maybe his birthday that he was getting ice cream and not eating his dinner. Oh boy. Tonya (who had a mouthful of salad) took exception I could see as she turned to look at the "intruder and self-proclaimed dinner police." I cut in quickly because I could see the wind-up coming and well, we didn't need a scene. I jovially informed the dinner policewoman that he'd already eaten so that was that and off she went. By that time Tonya had swallowed her bite and could have made a challenge about nosey parkers not minding their business, but I was fast and was able to nip that in the bud. She sat there steaming over it, I tell ya!
The bit that made me night though happened as we were placing orders. Tonya had stopped at a table to talk to someone she knew while we decided to order drinks and crayons before ordering food. But she was taking so long and Mam was at her wit's end trying to entertain the kiddos that I went ahead and started to order their food at least, and I was glad I did that because the waitress food police was in attendance and if Tonya didn't like the patron's noticing what O'Hare was eating she wouldn't have been too thrilled with our waitress.
"What would you like?" The waitress asked O'Hare.
"A sweet tooth sundae, three scoops of vanilla ice cream, caramel topping, nuts with whipped cream and a cherry."
"No, I mean for dinner what would you like to order?" She said.
He explained he had already eaten and no, he didn't want an appetiser, could he just have the sundae, please. Well, ok but if he changed his mind, etc., etc., etc. He did know that a hardy dinner would help a growing boy like himself. Yudda, yadda, yadda!
"And what will you have?" She asked Guido after the healthy eating lecture.
"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll . . . "
"Really dere?" Mam said to him exasperated. "Dere be grilled cheese like ya like, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza."
"I'll have . . ., I'll have . . . uhhhhhh," Guido said looking at the ceiling and not the menu.
"Grilled cheese, he'll have da grilled cheese sandwich wit French fries," Mam said frustrated.
"Is that what you want?" I asked him.
"Yup." He said unfazed.
"And the little guy here, what would you like?" The waitress asked.
And the best part of me night was his answer.
"A banana."
Yup, an ice cream sundae, a grilled cheese sannie and a banana.
Gabe
Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved
The bit that made me night though happened as we were placing orders. Tonya had stopped at a table to talk to someone she knew while we decided to order drinks and crayons before ordering food. But she was taking so long and Mam was at her wit's end trying to entertain the kiddos that I went ahead and started to order their food at least, and I was glad I did that because the waitress food police was in attendance and if Tonya didn't like the patron's noticing what O'Hare was eating she wouldn't have been too thrilled with our waitress.
"What would you like?" The waitress asked O'Hare.
"A sweet tooth sundae, three scoops of vanilla ice cream, caramel topping, nuts with whipped cream and a cherry."
"No, I mean for dinner what would you like to order?" She said.
He explained he had already eaten and no, he didn't want an appetiser, could he just have the sundae, please. Well, ok but if he changed his mind, etc., etc., etc. He did know that a hardy dinner would help a growing boy like himself. Yudda, yadda, yadda!
"And what will you have?" She asked Guido after the healthy eating lecture.
"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll . . . "
"Really dere?" Mam said to him exasperated. "Dere be grilled cheese like ya like, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza."
"I'll have . . ., I'll have . . . uhhhhhh," Guido said looking at the ceiling and not the menu.
"Grilled cheese, he'll have da grilled cheese sandwich wit French fries," Mam said frustrated.
"Is that what you want?" I asked him.
"Yup." He said unfazed.
"And the little guy here, what would you like?" The waitress asked.
And the best part of me night was his answer.
"A banana."
Yup, an ice cream sundae, a grilled cheese sannie and a banana.
Gabe
Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved
