Black Diamond Elementary School Carnival

This small town carnival was listed in the newspaper and since it was 5 miles away, I could afford the gas to get there. Adults and children 3 and under free and kids were $10 so Eden was the only one I had to pay for. We took along Eden's friend, Jenae as well. Trying to get 4 young children through a deafening crowd proved to be the most difficult part of the evening. We played tossing games, rode the train, bounced on the inflatable playland, were riveted with the magic show and ate 25 cent cotton candy. They did a magnificent job and my kids just ate it up.

Just as the magic show got started, the magician was making a balloon animal and Olivia got so excited and let out this scream that got his attention. He immediately was taken with her outburst and gave her the lucky rabbit balloon. Olivia didn't even know what had happened, she just assumed he was making it for her. She was so excited and pretened to blow it up herself every now and then. She carried it around until the head popped and then she would have nothing to do with it.
Eden was really taken with the magician and played right into his hands. She was shocked and amazed at his ability to make balls disappear and ropes tie themselves. You can see in everybody's face that whatever the magician was doing was unbelievable. Most of the tricks were ridiculously easy to follow but he did one that I still can't explain and now I can't sleep at night. How did he do it?
I would say one of the highlights was the train ride. It just chugged around the baseball diamond but the kids thought it was awesome. We could have easily stayed on it all evening if there wasn't a line.
The inflatable playland was impressive but I sent the three oldest up and only 2 came down. Five minutes later and after sending Jenae back up to find Indy, turns out he could't find the courage to go down the big slide. I had two older girls just grab him and come down. He just jumped into my arms and burst into tears. He felt so abandoned and he needed a good "scared" cry.
Leave it to Olivia to pick her favorite attraction of the evening...the stairs. She ran down the opposite ramp and thought she was in heaven.

The cotton candy was a highlight and thankfully they had 4 different colors and so it all worked out. They were not too sure about the idea of eating "quilt batting" but they got the hang of it. Eventually it led us to the bathroom to do a round of hand-washing. That stuff is like super glue when mixed with slobber!!

It was such a fun 2 hours that I appreciated. Thank goodness for small town excitement. They each came home with a bag of toys and candy. What more could a mom ask for?