Please excuse my absence lately. It was quite a week last week and I’m still recovering. Between house guests and a big family to-do and the school carnival, I hardly know which way is up. On Sunday the house guests and the family to-do and the school carnival all came together in a whirling, swirling, perfectly sunny day of sno-cones, lollipops, and cake walks.
There were many Watsons on hand to help populate and energize the school carnival, and I will be forever grateful to my cousin and uncle who pitched in to help run the Lollipop Game. It’s been two days and my barking slogans are still running through my head: one ticket gets you two tries, everyone’s a winner at the lollipop game, worst case scenario is you end up with two lollipops, the lollipop game- where everyone’s a winner, there’s no skill involved – anyone can play the lollipop game. The thing about the Lollipop Game is you get to see which kids will become gamblers. Some kids pay their ticket, pick their lollipops and, if they get a dot on the bottom of one, happily pick another lollipop and then move on to another “game.” But the Lollipop Game really gets under some kids skins. They come back again and again, trying to game the board, hoping to decipher where the precious dotted lollipops are, working to figure out my strategy in arranging the board. (For the record, my strategy was complete and total randomness. I had a mix of dotted and plain lollipops and would mix them together and stick them in the board.) We started out with one lollipop out of five having a dot, but it was so fun when the kids got a dotted lollipop that my cousin started moving the ratio towards the 1 to 3 area, so kids were walking away with six or seven lollipops at a time.
My own family did very well at the Cake Walk. The very first winner was my Aunt Nancy. The second winner? Ernest. That’s the cake he chose above. The parents who bring the cakes know that the kids cannot resist a candy-laden cake and decorate accordingly. I called the parents who made this one out on their use of old Valentine’s Day candy – I was super impressed at the chutzpah required to do that.
I’m now thinking of heading up the carnival committee next fall. Please, dear readers, either talk me out of it or give me suggestions for fun and cheap games/events for a lively and profitable school carnival. What – besides the ever-popular Cake Walk – are your favorite carnival games?
Kate | 27-Oct-09 at 10:05 am | Permalink
Ha, did someone snitch two candy hearts from that cake? There are suspicious bare spots in the frosting.
It sounds so fun! If you run the carnival, I promise we will come next year.
Angela | 27-Oct-09 at 11:47 am | Permalink
Dunking Machine with the principal in the hot (cold) seat!
Kendra S | 27-Oct-09 at 2:41 pm | Permalink
I used to love any game that involved fishing. But a super easy one that for some reason gets em every time is that one where you hide candy in flour and let kids blow on it. They get to keep what they uncover. Totally messy but cheap and hilarious.
Molly Watson | 27-Oct-09 at 2:57 pm | Permalink
Kate – yes, someone did attack the cake before we brought it home. Since he had won the cake, I felt it was a fair move.
Angela – an oldie but a goodie… perhaps I should start working on the principal *now*
Kendra – that sounds so messy I can hardly stand to think about it, but I love it. Can you describe it some more – what is everything in? how much flour?
Jim Berigan | 31-Oct-09 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
Hi Molly- You have a great website. I have some free articles I’ve written on school carnivals on my website. Please feel free to check them out. I wish you the best with your event!
Paula | 12-Nov-09 at 1:14 am | Permalink
As cake is I always want a slice but if its my cake that I have won I will lunge at it!