Carnival!

I love going to carnivals. The lights and colors and people and food and sounds. I love all of it.

Our town has a yearly firemen's carnival. They have a cake booth where you can win delicious home baked goods. I've never won.

I'm not lucky.

Some people are very lucky. I saw many people walking away with multiple cake boxes. One woman had three boxes and her husband had two. They won five cakes. Ridiculous.

I can't even win one.

We tried to go Friday night but it started spitting just as we were driving to the carnival. We parked the car and walked around for a {very} little while. We found J. He was manning the recruitment table.

He loves that. 

He gets to talk to all the little kids and give them tours of the big fire trucks. They're supposed to be talking to the parents about joining the fire department but that never works out. The parents just bring their kids over to see the fire truck and get a junior firefighter badge sticker.

The kids, not the parents.

It started raining within ten minutes of our arrival so we skedaddled under the  cake booth tent and watched that for a little while.

We saw two of J's friends and said hello. They were manning the cake booth so they couldn't talk to us. They were very busy handing out cakes to everyone but me.

Can you tell I'm obsessed with taking pics of the Ferris wheel?

Here's J talking to a little guy. He said they all like to push the buttons and wonder what all the equipment is used for. Some of them don't want to get out. Their parents make them. They get tired of waiting for the little ones and want to get carnival food.

J and little man O. 

J was so excited to have his pic taken with the little man. He can't wait for O to grow up a little bit so he can sit in the truck and press all the buttons.

K and her sweet boy. He's such a smiley boy.

I don't think he's ever cranky. He loved the carnival. He was especially interested when his momma and daddy were eating french fries. He watched them like a hawk.

I think he knows he's missing something.

Be still my heart. I love this pic so much.

The Man is absolutely besotted with this little one.

So am I.

Those eyes.

We got in line to wait for baked potatoes. It was a very long line and took a very long time to get to the front. I was very hungry. I had a small lunch knowing I was going to be eating carnival food for dinner.

I got up to the front of the line and ordered a vegetarian potato with broccoli, cheese, and sour cream and chives. My mouth was watering.

"It'll be 15 minutes before the potatoes are ready," says the food hawker. 

What? I'm hungry now. I shook my head and stomped off a bit, perturbed at how long I had to wait to find out they were out of potatoes. The Man followed me, smartly not saying anything. 

I headed straight to the french fries. 

We found the french fry line and got into it. Only it wasn't the real line. It was an offshoot that someone started. Another someone pointed us to the end of the {mile long} line behind him.

Gulp.

We got in that line right behind K and B and little man O . And waited. And waited. And waited.

A group of teenage girls came along and tried to cut in front of K and B. 

B was having none of that. He maneuvered the stroller like a pro, pushing them out of line and giving them the stink eye.

"Packs of teenage girls are trouble," says K.

Ha! says I. You were once a teenage girl, hanging out with your friends at this carnival. "Not like that," she said.

I laughed at how grown up she sounded, muttering about teenagers. Your attitude changes once you become a parent.

We enjoyed our french fries and the strawberry hot fudge sundae we got on our way out.

A wonderful night for a wonderful cause.