When I took the children to the library the Tuesday before last Saturday, they noticed a new playground under construction at the park next to the library. They asked to go and see what was happening. The playground wasn't yet finished, but a big sign said that the ribbon cutting ceremony would be on Saturday (Ted Stevens Day) and there would be all kinds of food and fun--ice cream sundaes and salmonburgers, a jousting pit, and the cool new playground to play on. The trio were captivated with idea of attending the grand opening, so we put it on the calendar and asked Matt to have the children home from their campout in the early afternoon.
The opening event was from noon to 3PM and we made it over there at 2PM. The playground was not open--they had not finished it yet. (I wasn't surprised because when we saw it on Tuesday, it didn't look like it would be finished in just three more days.) The children were disappointed, but there was other fun to be had so we went searching for it. We found the ice cream sundaes and there was no line! Viva was the only one who took one. Jake said he didn't like that kind of ice cream, but then he ate part of Viva's sundae.
We went looking for the jousting pit. What is a jousting pit? I don't think they had one. They did have a big bouncy house obstacle course the children stood in line for fifteen minutes to run through. Lincoln only made it to the first section and came back out. I snagged a couple of hot dogs for us to eat. Viva refused a hot dog because I hadn't put catsup and mustard on it. (That required muscling my way to the condiment table.)
The boys were interested in trying out the bucking salmon, but the lines were too long. Viva really, really wanted to have her face painted, so Kara took her, Lincoln, and Evan to stand in line while I took Bentley and Jake to find some water and explore. The boys shot some hoops at a military booth and climbed in a fire engine. We returned to check on the rest of our group. The line hadn't really moved, but as it was past 2:30PM the ones in charge of the face painting booth said they'd paint everyone's face that was in line, but no one else could join the line. Ha! What did they know? Jake and Bentley joined Viva and another six children joined the lady in front of us. I sent Kara home with Evan and Lincoln and the rest of us waited in line. And waited. The face painters were not fast. It was going to be an hour before we got to the front of the line. I decided to try bribery. I asked Viva what it would take to get her to abandon the line. She suggested her own face painting kit. SOLD!
We went over to the library next and checked out some books. You can never have too many reading options. Then we went over to the Mini Maker Faire which was taking place on the library lawn. It is a "gathering of crafters, engineers, and tinkerers". Kids were free, but I had to pay, so I asked the children if they really wanted to check it out? They all did, so we asked the ladies at the front to watch our library books and we made the round of booths. This was Alaska's first Maker Faire. There weren't that many booths (it was labeled a mini Maker Faire). We saw the flame spitting salmon sculpture, the cardboard Eiffel Tower, the guy selling a gizmo to keep your sunglasses safely stuck on your baseball hat (he said they'd ordered 50,000 of them, so I hope they sell!), some quilters, a booth of PVC marshmallow guns, and other booths. Viva stopped to hammer a nail at the woodworkers booth, but I couldn't interest the boys in stopping at the blacksmith's booth. How often can you meet a blacksmith!? I tried the medieval castle angle, but they were in a rush to get to the balloon artist booth.
We stood in line there for fifteen to twenty minutes and the kids got some fun balloons. The boys, of course, wanted balloon swords.
It didn't seem like we were out that long, but on Sunday I was sporting a sunburn on my chest from my t-shirt's low neckline. I can't remember the last time I got a sunburn. It's just WRONG! Bentley was complaining while we were out that it was too hot and he was going to get sunburned (he didn't) and that he hated hot weather. It was all that waiting in line that did me in. I hate lines!
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