Carnival Time

Friday was our Summer Reading Kick-Off Carnival. I went in to work at noon. I met with Suzanne briefly when I first arrived, just to do a bit of check-in. We talked mostly about Little Tykes and decided that we are going to plan and execute the first program together and then I'll be on my own after that. It made me feel a little more at ease to do it this way, and also to have her let me know that she has more of an idea of what they're expecting from us than I do. Other than that, we both agreed that things seemed to be going fine so far.

I had a little bit of time to get started on the Youth Bio project before Carnival preparation got fully underway. Jaymi went over the details with me one more time (and I'll probably have to ask her to show me the cataloging bit again once I get around to that part) and I set to work peeling many, many, many very stubborn labels.

We started prepping for the carnival around two - setting up tents and tables, getting all the supplies ready at each table, putting together equipment, getting food cooking, etc. My main task became blowing up balloons. Because I have "expertise" - I work part-time at a party store right now and have probably inflated more balloons in the last eight months than most people inflate in their lifetimes. So I got to do that for a while and it ended up being rather frustrating. The room we were working in - their programming room - has vaulted ceilings, so I couldn't just let the inflated balloons go until we needed to gather them. And of course everyone was doing their own part to get ready so I was really on my own. I ended up having to tie the balloons loosely in one spot and then a Teen Council member gathered them in bunches to decorate the tables outside. I must admit, I'm starting to get a bit sick of balloons. Thankfully, I got to take my lunch break in the midst of the balloon frenzy and imparted my helium knowledge to Jaymi.

After lunch (well, dinner), it was pretty much Kick-Off time! I got set at the front table, known as "Carnival Registration." This mostly entailed providing all the kids with their "passports" for the carnival and explaining how they worked. The passport had all the different activities on it with boxes to mark off as the kids completed them. Some of the things they only got to do once - like the food items and face painting - and others they could do as much as they wanted. My only criticism with this part of the carnival is that our table was not in the best location - most people were approaching the carnival from a different angle than our table was facing and didn't notice us so we basically had to try to snag patrons as they attempted to sneak past.

Anyway, the first carnival lasted for an hour and was for kids up to grade six - and we ran out of passports! Suzanne had printed 125, so that means we had more than that many kids show up, which is great. We had to dip into the young adult versions of the passports (they were slightly different from the kids'). After the first half hour, action at our end kind of died down so we got to look around and see how things were going for the other booths. There was a duck pond, dunk tank (featuring Suzanne), bounce house, food (including hot dogs, popcorn, juice, cotton candy, and popsicles), Snakehead Ed, balloon dartboard, lollipop tree, face painting and climbing wall. And of course a table was set up for Summer Reading registration. We only really had a direct view of the climbing wall and dunk tank, but those were definitely two of the most popular attractions. However, a number of people told us that the line for Summer Reading registration was longer than the line for anything else!

We closed up that carnival - which was a tricky thing to attempt as many kids were in line for various activities and were not thrilled about having to leave. We only had a half hour to try to get all those people out and things picked up a bit before the teenager carnival began. But we managed. The second carnival was a totally different vibe. There were much fewer people there and the most popular attraction, besides the dunk tank (which apparently everyone loved), was a magician (he was only there for the second carnival). So, this was more of a relaxing end to the day than the craziness the first carnival had been. I should mention that this was all happening outside in 85 degree direct sunlight so that might have contributed to some craziness. Like I said, this was a much calmer carnival and was over quickly. We picked everything up, except for all the rented equipment, and that was the end of our day. The real clean-up came Saturday (which I was not there for) when Suzanne had to attempt to find places for all the leftovers and such.

I think it was a pretty successful day and I'm excited to see things now that it's really in full swing!