Recently we went to a school carnival for my nephew Isaac's elementary school. It turned out to be so fun! We've been to a Carnival and a book fair for my niece Evie in the past too, and we've always had a blast! Lily has so much fun going round to the different jumpy houses and booths, and this last carnival actually had real rides for little kids. It's fun for us to see our little one enjoying herself so much, and fun talking and hanging out with family and friends in a different and much livelier setting than we usually get to...food, free live entertainment... I have to give this advice to parents of young kids - if you get invited to a school carnival, Go! It's fun for the whole family, pretty inexpensive, and the money you do spend goes to help the school - what could be better!?
I think we probably spent around $10 at Isaac's carnival, which included a huge Hawaiian shaved ice and a bunch of rides for Lily, and even one for Mike - a very fat spinning one I opted out of. I was so nervous to send Lily on the first ride all by herself! Most of the rides there were designed for the kids, so we didn't meet the weight and height requirements. I thought Lily would freak out on the Frog Hopper and be stuck up there crying until it was over. She's only 3, and she freaks out if we ask her to walk down the hall to wash her hands in the bathroom by herself! I think having gone to Disneyland beforehand helped, and having her cousin Isaac riding beside her. The only thing she was upset about was not getting the pink frog seat at first, and she switched with Isaac so that was all good. I think she ended up enjoying the ride more than he did!
I almost cried watching her happy little face laughing and laughing as the ride went up and down. It was so hard to let her go up there on her own, but so worth it. I was so proud of my brave adventurous little girl, and glad she was having so much fun!
Lily, Isaac, and Audrey all three got to ride a miniature Ferris wheel. It was the one ride Audrey was big enough to go on. She wanted to go on all of them - she was so cute! She did the cutest little happy dance after getting off the ride.
I couldn't really get a good picture because the cars were all caged in to protect the kids, but it was so fun seeing Audrey's little feet sticking out off the seat and their mostly happy faces going round and round. The guy manning the controls spun it around for a really long time, and you could see Isaac anticipating it stopping and ready for it to several times, but it just kept going, and going.
They are in the blue car, you can kind of see the expressions on their faces at different points.
This is really just the tail end of the happy dance so you don't get the full effect - still cute though.
The swings were free, and a new adventure in the dark!
Lily's first ride all by herself - no parents or cousins riding along:
Waving to Dad! So so fun. :)
