August 18th--The carnival

The end of the summer reading program at the San Leandro Public Library is a really nifty carnival for the kids. They get 10 tickets to play at least 20 different carnival games, with cute little toys for all. There are two bouncy houses for all-out jumping pleasure (for 1 ticket), a free small petting zoo, free balloon animals, a pony ride (for, yes, 1 ticket), cotton candy or an icee pop, as much popcorn as they like, a lunch with a hot dog and a bag of chips, and live entertainment.

All that fun just for reading 10 books and writing book reports about them. Oh, and they got little prizes with the points earned from reading, too. Now, I'm not generally in favor of bribing kids to do something that should just be enjoyable, but notice how my standards slip confronted with all of this free fun. They read 10 books on any given day, so I suppose rewarding them for 10 a summer isn't too big of a deal. Right?

Anyway, this Saturday was the big day. We went early, as it gets incredibly crowded as the day goes on. After a rousing bounce in the bouncy house for Erik, we played a few carnival games. Then I was ready to brave the line for the balloon animals. Both boys were so excited that they managed to wait quite calmly for 15 minutes. After considering it for awhile, Erik decided he wanted a yellow monkey climbing up a pink tree. Anders wasn't quite as particular, but also wanted a monkey in a tree.





After the balloon animals, we stood in line to get Erik cotton candy. It was the first time he'd ever had it, and he loved it. Then we decided it was time for lunch. As we were finishing our lunch, Erik heard them announce that a magic show was going to be starting in 15 minutes. He immediately went over and snagged two front row seats for us, and carefully protected the empty seat for Anders and me.

The magician performing was Norman Ng. Erik was front and center, and his eagerness earned him the privilege of being the first kid picked to "help" Norman. He loved it!




I was surprised to read on his website that Norman does a lot of college magic shows, and doesn't exclusively do magic shows for children, because he sure had a great rapport with the kids, and he was quite funny. Both Erik and Anders loved the whole show.

After the show and one more trip to the bouncy house for Erik, we needed to head home. The boys were content with our day, and we managed to not use the majority of our tickets (meaning fewer little toys to take home. Yay!) so we passed them on to friends.

Here's to reading!