Kids Carnival

Friday we had a mini carnival with the kids. 

We spent parts of Wednesday and Thursday preparing for the big day.  On Wednesday, I made balloon-paper-mache-yarn thingy-ma-bobs.  Feliciana was so confused as to what we were doing and asked Noelle who was paying for the project.  I think she thought I was being ridiculous.  And maybe I was, but I had fun and so did the kids!  They turned out great too.

On Thursday, Noelle put together an activity making masks with everyone.  Boy, did they love all the feathers, pipe cleaners and glue!  They do not understand the concept of taking just what you need for your mask...or maybe they do and they think they need it all...  We would cut out the mask for them and then they were in charge of decorating.  The problem is, when we do anything like this, they always want theirs just like mine.  They want me to make their everything for them.  It's flattering, but I just started saying no, you need to make your own.  They got over it quick, I think.

 

We celebrated with juice first.  I brought a bunch of GreatValue drink mixes so I mixed up some Pink Lemonade for them for lunch.  Sadly, we couldn’t drink it because I just used water from the sink…but it was a treat for them!  

We followed that with facepainting.  They loved having their faces painted and some of them thought of very creative things to be.  Three wanted to be Spiderman (we each did one of those) a few of the boys wanted to be Power Rangers (what the heck do they look like again?!), and most of the girls wanted butterflies, flowers, hearts and stars.  Katerine wanted to paint me after everyone else was done and I decided to be the girl with the stripes from the kids book about the girl who loves Lima beans but won’t eat them.  Anyone remember that book?  They have it here and I love reading it with them whenever I have the chance.

The boys have been bringing water guns and balloons to the center for days so we thought we’d give them a taste of their own medicine.  After face painting we called all of the girls inside, leaving the boys alone outside.  The girls were THRILLED when they saw the huge bucket of balloons.  We loaded them up and attacked!  Of course, this turned into a huge water fight with buckets and anything else that would hold water.  I ended up sitting most of it out with a little boy who’d gotten wet and then scared.  I can’t say I was super heartbroken that I didn’t get soaked haha

At one point I went inside to check on something and saw Feliciana and Merchola running up the stairs.  When I asked what they were doing they told me to hurry up there with them.  They were laughing and had mischievous little grins on their faces.  We ran all the way to the third floor.  Feliciana grabbed the hose up there and ran to the edge while Merchola went to the faucet, ready to turn it on at any moment.  We waited for some kids to come near us and then BAM they got soaked from above, totally caught off guard.  It was hilarious to see Feliciana and Merchola laughing so hard at themselves and having a great time with the kids.

By this point, half of the boys had their shirts off along with one of the little girls.  They were running around laughing and screaming and enjoying finally being able to get each other wet without us yelling at them.

 Of course, you can’t have that much fun and not have someone get hurt…..  One of the little boys was standing on the ledge of the sidewalk and fell down into the garden below on his back.  It all turned out okay and he should just be a little sore.