Spring Fling

Last Friday, my school hosted its annual Spring Fling. It's basically a small-scale carnival, that is the biggest fundraiser of the school year. There are bouncey houses, a big slide, a few little rides (Including the strawberries that go round and round like the Tilt-a-Whirl and Teacups at Disney World, to which I promptly looked at Addie Kate and told her, "never, ever." If she wants to go on that, she'll have to ride with her daddy!), fair type food (and food from our business sponsors, Chick-fil-A, Wedgy's Pizza, and Brewsters ice cream), a roped off area for "String Fling" (silly string), and lots and lots more.

I again, thought it was going to be one of those places where I needed to just make an appearance, and again, I was wrong! We had a great time! My mom was up to keep Addie for us for the day. I know she enjoyed seeing Addie having fun with the big kids!

We started out just walking around, seeing what all there was to offer (Oh, yeah, and we forgot a stroller, nice.). We ran into my principal who was there with her granson that is 1 month older than Addie Kate. He is just the cutest thing. Addie really liked him, and he'd just smile at her and put his little head down shyly. Precious. My principal says that we need to go ahead and draw up the marriage papers.

While we were walking around we found a little pinwheel. Addie quickly learned that the wind made it spin, and would just hold it up in the air and point it at us, smiling and giggling. I love watching her enjoy the small things in life. Especially when she was around all that chaos, she enjoyed the pinwheel.

Finally, we went to buy some tickets. We knew Addie Kate would want to go down the big slide and possibly ride the little caterpillar train. I took her down the slide two times. She loved it, as usual!

Waiting in line for the slide:

Climbing up - this is always the fun part for me!

And here we go:

Weeee!

(Some of my students were in the background cheering me on - I don't think they could believe a teacher went down the slide - that's why my thumb is up cheesily at the end!)**

After the slide, we took her to the little caterpillar train. I asked the crotchedy old lady that was running the thing if I could ride with her, and she said no, that it was 10 and under. I was ready to just leave when a teacher that I work with asked if I wanted Addie Kate to sit with her niece. I didn't think she'd do it, but sure enough, I put her in the little car and she was fine! She just sat there and waited patiently for it to start moving. When it did start going, I ran to the other side of the tunnel, and saw her coming out. She had a sweet, little, curious smile on her face, kind of saying that she didn't really know what was going on, but that she was enjoying it! I was in shock and so very proud of my girl! When it was over, Tommy and I just looked at each other and said, "She's growing up." What a bittersweet statement.

The little girl in the car in front of her was screaming the whole time - that's what I thought my child would be doing! (Remember the post about the little train in our house that she freaked out about? But she rode this? Ha!)

Waiting patiently, like such a big girl! Love her little foot propped up there!

She has just recently started to cross her arms - cracks us up! I guess it's just comfortable!

Here she goes!

After her little train ride, we walked around some more, seeing what else there was and visiting with people. Addie and her daddy enjoyed some pizza, but then we went to Sabroso's for dinner! We really ended up enjoying ourselves. The weather was great, and it was so fun to enjoy these things as a family!