Carnival!

Our kids' school's parent company (or whatever that's called) is celebrating 20 years this year, and so they had a carnival for families in all of their charter schools. It was one of the least well publicized events our school has ever held, and i had no idea what to expect, and we almost didn't go, because... there was a fairly decent chance that it might be really lame. In fact, Houston chose not to go.

So we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a pretty fun event! They had those giant inflatable hamster balls, and those inflatable balls that you strap on and then bang into each other with. There were free hot dogs and drinks and ice cream.

And then there were actual carnival-type things too. We stood in line for about 45 minutes for the kids to do the bungee-trampoline thing. I think that they use a different number of bungee cords depending on how big you are, and the guy in charge of Katrina guessed wrong or something, because she just couldn't jump very high at ALL. Just before her turn was up, he put her a little bit higher, and she jumped twice...and then he got her down. She came out of the fence and burst into tears. She was so, so, so sad and disappointed.

Zane, on the other hand, flew. Just before he started jumping, i was thinking, "I wonder if i should be more concerned about the safety of this thing...?" and then one of his bungee cords snapped, and he flung off to the side and landed gently on the concrete. The guy was all, "Huh. That almost never happens!" Zane jumped and jumped and loved it. He and Katrina are approximately the same size, but he was able to jump about 3 times higher than she was, and she was trying way harder.

After that ride, while Katrina was still sobbing into my side, Zane went on a ride that looked like something that i imagine would fit in very well in Hell. Four people strapped themselves into a circle, and then a guy spun them around and around and around really fast for a really long time. Like...upside down, right side up, upside down, etc. It was horrifying, but Zane thought it was awesome.

And then we ran into Katrina's best friend and her family, and the kids all went on one of those rides that goes in a circle really fast and then stops and goes backwards around the same circle. They all loved it. It was Katrina's favorite part of the night.

And then we left, and the kids never even knew that there were fireworks later, because i'm a meanie and just didn't want to stick around that long. And it was plenty fun as it was.