The Fair! The Fair!

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the founding of our school, so to celebrate we held a fair today in the school grounds. As usual, it was only a handful of the school community who bothered to pitch in and help (no surprises there), but it was a big success!

I was organising the Adopt-a-Teddy stall. We have been collecting donations of pre-loved teddy bears for the past few months, and then I brought them home, washed them if needed and gave each of them a name. In the end we had close to 100.

Working on a stall meant that I was there for the whole day, from about 9 until 3.30. The kids came up to the school with me to help me set up, then they were busting to get out there and see what was on offer. They each had an arm band that gave them unlimited rides on the amusements all day, which was quite good value, as each ride cost $5 for one go, and the arm bands were $22 each. Well, Simon and Ruby got their money's worth, Declan managed to twist his ankle on his third ride, the jumping castle, at 10.30am and I had to carry him to the first aid tent. The mum staffing the first aid is a local doctor and I think she was quite excited to have something to do. So then Dex had to spend the rest of the time sitting with me, with his foot strapped and iced. Simon brought him a raspberry spider which improved his spirits. Later, when Brett arrived, he decided he would like to be carried the 18 miles to the cup and saucer ride and have a go on that. At the end of it he was retching, so that was the end of that.

Simon, on the other hand had the best day of his actual, entire life. With money buring a hole in his pocket and an Unlimited Ride Pass on his wrist, he was quite the man about town. At one point I saw him driving jauntily across the oval in a mini jeep, one hand on the wheel. Every hour or so he would pop back to the teddy bear stall to say hi, usually with some food item in hand.

Ruby spent a good length of time in the Farmyard Nursery, feeding baby goats their bottles, brushing the backs of piglets and chasing ducks about. She went on the cup and saucer ride with 3 of her giggling friends, had a lucky dip (financed by Nanna and Granddad) and decorated a cup cake with a lot of icing and lollies.

Brett took the kids home after lunch (Declan had to be carried dramatically to the car), and I stayed on thee finish the day. In the end we sold about 2/3s of the bears, which was pretty good. I helped pack up and then came home for a well needed cup of tea. Declan's foot had improved by then, and he was able to hobble around. He's slightly disappointed that he won't need to wear his bandage to school tomorrow...