Picnic Fun

Last weekend we made it to the St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (SMMA) Parish picnic.  We figured with Ava registered to attend kindergarten there this fall, we should get out and try to meet some other families.  The girls were so excited to ride the rides and play games.  The little elephants were a hit...

 They enjoyed the cars...

 We were off to a great start.  Then Dan convinced Ava to try the GIANT slide.  She was SO nervous, but she tried to put on a brave face.  I should have posted a picture of how big this slide was, but I focused on the expressions instead.  At the top...

 At the bottom...She appears to be nervous, but ok, however, as soon as she hit my arms she broke into tears and was shaking with fear and relief.  On one hand she was proud of herself for trying, but on the other hand she was so glad it was over and wanted to stay far away from the slide from then on.

 We changed things up after the slide and decided to grab some lunch and do some face painting.

 Ava was excited to see a booth where you could win a fish, so, in honor of the fish she was sure she was going home with, she chose a red fish for her face.

 And of course, monkey see, monkey do....

 Ella chose a pink fish.  Speaking of the fish, it cost $5 for a bucket of balls to throw at the fish bowls.  Ava was confident she would win, but Dan and I weren't as confident.  So Dan paid a bit more and bought a fish, Ava was unaware of this and was still given a bucket of balls to throw with Ella.  She showed us and actually got two balls in!! So at the end of the day we went home with three fish!!!  A lesson for all who have never won a carnival fish....before playing the game and risk being proud owners of a new fish, be prepared to explain death.  Even though we bought food and thought we handled the fish just fine, two days later all three had perished.  Ella could care less, but Ava reacted as though she lost a close family member.  We had some long conversations that day about death, people vs. fish, and heaven.

 Moving on, after our break we went back over to the rides where the girls revisited a small "jungle gym" they played on earlier without a problem.  I say with out a problem, because this time did not go so well for Ella.  They were suppose to climb the net, cross a small rope bridge, go down a short twisty slide and end in a ball pit.  For some reason Ella made it to the slide then decided to hold on to the side of the slide which caused her to get stuck, till she let go and fell to the bottom and started screaming.  Dan hopped the side and lifted her out.  As soon as she calmed down she wanted to do it again so she could play in the balls.  We warned her she must go down the slide and NOT hold on, she said "ok".  So she took off again up the rope...

 And here she is being carried back down by the carnival worker.  She made it to the top of the slide and just stood there screaming refusing to go down.  Needless to say Ella was then banned from going up again!  I think she must have been getting tired, she usually never has an issue with slides?

 We now needed to steer clear of the slide for Ava and the jungle gym for Ella, so we moved over to the ferris wheel.  Ella took some convincing, but the girls both agreed to go on it with me.  Here we go...

 They loved it!!  They even loved putting their hands up like it was a roller coaster.  We were the only ones with our hands up, but they had so much fun.  It was a little hard to get Ella in the pictures since her head was right where the bar was.

 The ferris wheel was by far their favorite ride and we rode it many times.

 I'm not sure how but before we left Dan managed to convince Ella to go down the GIANT slide with him.  Here they are at the top...

 Half way down...can you see the look of terror?

 And at the bottom...there was no break down for Ella, but she had no desire to do it again.

 Instead, Ella wanted to ride the cars one more time.

I know it's out of order but here is a shot of the slide...Dan and Ella are on the right heading up to the top. We were very impressed and proud of Ava's bravery!!

We were at the picnic for a good part of the day and Dan took the girls back later that evening for the firework show.  It was a LONG fun filled day and we look forward to next years picnic.

(If you're wondering where little Gavin was in all these pictures, he was back home with G-ma F.  It would not have been the same fun relaxing day with a nine month old. One quick Gavin update...he started some sort of inch worm movement about 3 weeks ago and last week he finally started crawling.  He crawls very slow, so if he is in a hurry he drops back down and does the "inch worm".)