Halloween carnival
The ward halloween carnival was scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm. We had to show up with 4 costumed children and a pot of chili. This meant that preparations had to begin as soon as we got up. Mostly the morning preparations amounted to warning the kids that they’d have to do homework right after school, but warnings avoid tantrums. The homework was done with dispatch and the costuming began. Kiki had an elaborately upswept hairstyle with curls & glittering hairspray. So did Gleek. Kiki had ice crystal makeup. So did Gleek. All of that took more than an hour to manage. Fortunately Link could throw on his sharkboy costume and spike his own hair. Patches was happy to throw on a Link costume left over from a sibling. I was able to throw on a cloak & dress. Howard wore his cloak and a tunic. And so we arrived.
I herded the children from their over-excited running around and made them all sit and eat. They each had a bowl of chili. Gleek took a mandatory 5 bites and then helped herself to donuts from the dessert table. Kiki ate some and then pleaded she wasn’t hungry could she just go? I’ve really no idea if Link ate any healthy food at all, I wasn’t paying attention. Patches took one look at his bowl of chili, then shoved it out of the way so he could get at the candy corns that were strewn decoratively across the table. The candy corns had a chaser of tootsie rolls. That was followed by a donut, a cookie, and some jelly beans. By that time his system had reached a sort of wide-eyed over-stimulated sugar shock. He hung pretty close to me all evening. There were lots of scary looking people wandering around.
After dinner was the carnival. The teens run simple carnival games for the littler kids. Everyone has fun. Kiki, Link, & Gleek all ran gleefully from one game to the next trying to accumulate as many goodies as possible. Patches had different priorities. He’d be happy to play a game, but as soon as he had the prize candy in his hand he was not interested in doing anything else until that candy was completely consumed. As the carnival wound down I became aware that Gleek had reached the sugar-crash part of the evening where everything is cause for panic/tears. There is no reasoning with children in that state. It was time to take them home, but we ended up staying for the shadow play. (two teens behind a sheet and back lit by a spotlight pretend to take unlikely objects from someones stomach.) After that we were ready to go home when a pinata was announced. Kiki heard, Gleek didn’t, so I quickly herded Gleek & Patches out the door while Kiki & Link stayed with Howard to take a swing at the pinata.
Tomorrow is another school day. I expect rampant crankiness, but we’ll weather it. This halloween carnival is one of the highlights of the year and I’m glad we got to go.