They have such cute candy decorations everywhere, along the sidewalks, in the trees and little road signs with “sweet” sayings, so cute!
They had live music, and this guy was SO funny! He was singing songs that made me think of weird al, just fun crazy kid songs ya know. He was such a trooper. NO one ever appreciates people like this ya know. He’s up there singing his heart out, no one stopping by or clapping, but he still tries to keep our spirits up. But it’s always more fun to JOIN the fun I say. So I tried to sing along out loud, bouncing to the beat, and clapped and shouted and hooted him on for support. I wanted to shack his hand before we left to tell him thanks and how I enjoyed his music so much but he disappeared in the crowd later when they switched musicians and I missed the chance.
This is the next guy. He was ok. He sat down though and addressed the crowd to join in a lot – kind of makes you feel guilty ya know. But he offered small musical toys for the kids to play along with, and that made it really fun for the kids. Amanda got to play with a tambourine and bells and Derick and I sang along to the songs we knew. Derick still got picked on by the singer though for “not singing!” – whatever. The other guy was way better. More laid back and more fun than thins guy. But it was still fun.
They had a gingerbread contest! All made my companies in the community. You could vote for your favorite one. The first one here is my personal favorite one. It’s Bethlehem, very big, and very cool!
This was a one of those blow up castles with a maze inside. I always feel very VERY nerves about leaving a child to go into these things. Amanda kind of was nerves about going inside too, but she kind of got pulled/pushed in by all the other excited kids. She came out a little latter out the same door, so I don’t know if she went in at all or what. At least she didn’t get STUCK in there crying! That’s my greatest fear! Having a kid STUCK and crying and NOT being able to get to her to “save her”. I would hate for her to get into a position like that and think that I didn’t save her cause I didn’t’ love her. I know… save it for the shrink and not the blog. Got it. MOVING ON!
This was a weird cool thing. it’s like a giant version of those little cheap toys you might find in your cereal as a kid. (why don’t they give out cool toys in cereal anymore by the way?) it’s a maze that’s bunkered to the ground and you have to work as a team and lift the sides of it to get the ball to the middle.
This is a plinko game (my FAVORITE “Price is Right” game!!) – just so you know all these games were set up just for you to come by and have fun with, it wasn’t really in order to hand out prizes or anything like that, but I was ok with that. It was just simple fun.
I could have done a better job painting one of these up. Its’ one of those put your face thru the hole and take a picture boards, but the holes weren’t in “insert replaced face here” type of spots, they were just random holes on the board, so it’s wasn’t as cute and fun as it could have been, but Amanda MADE it cute and fun!
I don’t remember what’s this called. I know there’s some old-timer yelling the name of this game right now at the computer screen. We even have this game I just can’t remember. Anyhow you pull the sticks and the balls fall. Yeah, I got a little worried when Amanda was showing me these iron sticks at my EYE level! But luckily no one got hurt.
The kids got to build walls and igloos out of ice blocks. Sadly other kids kept running to Amanda’s very measly pile and STEAL her blocks! Even the blocks that she just laid on her tower! Uh! So rude! Where were these kids parents? I had to knell by her and sweetly coo them away “oh, no no no, she’s using these” over and over and over again. Seriously, WHERE were their parents and WHY didn’t they step in?
We built a reindeer candy cane – a holiday must
This was one of our favorite things (probably Amanda’s favorite part), you got a block of ice and there was a candy inside and the kids would have to throw it at the ground repeatedly in order to break the ice up and get the candy out. The candy was ruined so we thru it out, but it was so much FUN to have supervised mayhem like that! You can actually SEE the ice busting up in some of these pictures. So fun!
And of cores we were all looking forward to riding the safari marry-go-round. I’ve never seen a “Safari theme” marry-go-round. It was fun. They had hippos, monkeys, horses, zebras and giraffes. I’ve decided when I have my pumpkin patch someday, we’re going to have a BIG beautiful marry-go-round right in the middle of the pumpkin patch. Wouldn’t that be fun!? In the fall you would come out to my pumpkin patch, pick out a pumpkin and then ride the marry-go-round? You can get more fall-magical than that.
This is “Doug the Great!” another one of those great guys who’s made their life all about entertaining kids but never gets the appreciation they deserve. He came right over to us. Probably cause I was cheering him on during his shows. He had a backpack that played music while she juggled and spun things in the air. And then when his act was done. I was the only one in the crowd of people who jumped and clapped and yelled “WOO-HOO! YEAH DOUG THE GREAT!” he addressed the crowd and gestured to me saying “I have a fan!”. We chatted for a sec and He gave Amanda a high-five. I really HIGH-five, she had to jump to reach him! It was sweet that he gave us special attention. And he told me thanks for cheering him on, “it’s nice to be appreciated” he said. I really do appreciate sweet people like these guys.
We didn’t get to do this, the line was too long. But it was a cute idea; it’s a gingerbread house that’s pulled by a truck! Derick thought it was lame, but I thought it was cute!
Amanda and I saw frosty! he was quickly walking away with some teen-escorts so Amanda and I chased him down and have him a hug.
And the kids got to meet Santa and Mrs. Clause!
As you can see, it was a really fun time for the kids and it was FREE! (only a toonie for the marry-go-round... thats $2) I’m very happy we came!
