Per my out of town’s wife command to blog about the Estabrook carnival, here are some pictures and comments. Though yesterday was about much more than the annual Estabrook Elementary carnival; oh, so much more than that…
Annette has been in California since Wednesday for a conference, so it’s been just me and Will around here and it’s pretty much going to be like that until Sunday night. I know Annette’s had a lot of fun out in LA, and while we miss her of course, we’re actually having fun of sorts, too.
Thursday was Will’s last soccer practice of the season (his last game is today– more photos etc. to come of that), and the coach asked parents to come to practice ready to play. Considering the fact that I’ve never played soccer before and I was playing against of eight-year-olds, I think I was able to move my fat-assed body around the field pretty well. And it’s something we should have been doing all year– the kids played harder than ever, I think because of the motivation to beat the parents.
Yesterday, Friday, was the last day of school. It started with a rocket launch in the morning. Will knew that as a kid I had done some stuff with model rockets, and so he wanted me to come. Long story short: some faculty from EMU came and did a demo with tiny but still impressive Estes rockets. I hadn’t really been a part of rocket launch in about 25 or 28 years, but what struck me was the “current” model rocket technology is pretty much identical to what I used way back when– same engines, same launch pad, same igniters, same quick and dramatic effect. Go figure.
Anyway, school was out early, so we went out for a special lunch typical of all rising fourth graders, I assume: we had sushi at Yotsuba.
And then, of course, the capper of the greatest day ever, the Estabrook Carnival.
To be honest, I have loathed the carnival in the past, and still kinda found it unpleasant this year. But since Will is older (yes, a year makes a big difference at this stage), he doesn’t require a whole lot of supervision. So I spent much of my time chatting with friends and/or the parents of Will’s friends, including my friend and work colleague Jim K. who “volunteered” to work the carnival this year. (Interestingly, he was “bumped” from his presumed role at the duck pond to the much more lame job of supervising the shooting of basketballs in the gym.)
Highlights included the minigolf (pictured above); a win at the cakewalk (and where Will seemed to exhibit some of the characteristics of gambling addiction since he kept going back and wanting it more after each loss); a less than successful climb on the wall thing, and an exciting water war with friend Gage. For me, the moment that kind of summed it up was Will’s mishap in the “Water War,” captured here as a 2.3 MB mov file. You gotta love a kid who loves having a water balloon blow up in his face….
Ah, that’s better! . . . off to conference . . . Anet