Carnival

Our town is holding a carnival this upcoming weekend, and the girls are wild with excitement about it.  The big event will be held at the High School, and will feature all sorts of rides and games.  We even saw some of the attractions yesterday, as Ethan and the kids dropped me off at my summer band rehearsal on their way home from a swim meet.  I tried to point the attractions out to the kids to no avail; I don't know if it's water in their ears or just a spastic attention span, but both children become selectively hard of hearing at times.

ME: It looks like they started setting up for the carnival already.
KIDS: (silence)

Thirty seconds later

JULIA: Oh, Mommy!  Look, they started setting up for the carnival!
ME: I know, honey.  I just told you that.

Thirty seconds later

MADELEINE: Huh?  What?  Did they start setting up for the carnival or something?

Clearly, these kids are destined to be rocket scientists with their powers of observation.

At any rate, apparently having three days worth of carnival in town isn't quite enough, because the girls have decided to make their OWN carnival at home, too.  They refer to this carnival as "the arcade," and they are busy designing home-made games and attractions.

A few of the finished pieces include:

This skill-based ball-rolling game.  Julia designed this one, explaining to me that in order to win a prize, a contestant must roll the ball down the cardboard plank and get it to land in a designated spot at the end of the plank.  I'm not totally confident that either kid will actually be able to execute this to perfection.

This fortune-teller booth, designed by Madeleine.  There was actually a lot of drama surrounding the design.  Madeleine finally agreed to my concession that she simply leave fortunes in the box for arcade-goers to pick at random.  The initial concept was going to be a lot more complicated:

MADELEINE: Mommy!  I can't find the scissors!
ME: What do you need scissors for?
MADELEINE: I need to make a HEAD-SHAPED HOLE in a cardboard box that my head can poke through!
ME: Honey, I'm not sure that will be very comfortable for you.
MADELEINE: But MOMMY!  I *need* to be there so I can tell people their FORTUNES!
ME: Why can't you just sit behind the box?
MADELEINE: Mommy!  That would just be like, if I was sitting behind this CHAIR or something.  (placing herself behind a dining room chair.)  Can you even see me?
ME: Yes.
MADELEINE: No!  Mommy, if you were sitting on ANOTHER chair, you wouldn't be able to see me!
ME: Then why don't you just write the fortunes down instead of telling them to people?
MADELEINE: I don't really LIKE writing things. I like DRAWING things!

So she drew a picture on each fortune.  That adds even more mystery to the whole process.  It's like tarot cards!  One must decipher the meaning behind the illustration on each piece of paper.  Does the picture spell good fortune, or does it spell doom?  (Knowing Madeleine's artistic style, I'm gonna go ahead and guess doom.)


And then there is this awesome PRIZE Box, containing all sorts of homemade prizes inside:

What might I get for a prize if I win the ball-rolling game?  It could be one of several homemade paper fans, or a Rainbow Loom bracelet, or even a doll-sized pillow that Julia stuffed and stapled together because she doesn't know how to sew.  I for one am excited to see how I do when I attend the Rowe Household Arcade!