The elementary school had a carnival with lots of outdoor games. My son's favorite was the giant inflatable obstacle course.
Finishing his run!
We had a Cub Scout pack meeting early in the month where my son received his Roaring Laughter belt loop. They played games and practiced being courteous.
Awards and Handshakes
Uno with manners
We went to a local playground that changed since we were last there. Climbing was fun!
Looking over
Twisty climbing
I play the Mystic Vale app on my phone once a day and managed to have the closest game ever. If the score is the same, the first tie breaker is number of Level 3 advancements (on the left of the score), the second tie breaker is number of Level 2 vale cards (on the right of the score). It was almost a three-way tie!
Not a picture of cute kids, alas...
We went to Fairland Regional Park to find some geocaches and found some other interesting things too, like a scummy lake and a pile of snow (in late May!).
Algae!
Looks better from over here
Fun by the creek
Making a snowball
Don't drop the ball!
The park has an indoor ice-skating rink, so we assumed the snow was scrapings from the Zamboni.
We (the parents) had our Summer Showcase performance at That's Dancing which was a lot of fun. The theme was Tinseltown, so a lot of the performances featured classic movie songs or music. We had a tango to El Sheik de Arabia (maybe from a classic western?) and Psy and Suga's That That, which has a very theatrical video.
The Howard County Library System hosted its HiTech STEAM Carnival at their East Columbia Branch this year (2019 for all you far future readers). STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. The library sponsors lots of HiTech classes for students during the summer. Many of their projects were on display at the carnival, showing how science and math applies to everyday activities, especially fun summer festivities.
East Columbia Branch of the library
The carnival was more impressive than it looks here
Our first activity was riding on a miniature train that drove around the carnival. It was fun and relaxing and required very little effort on our part, mostly waving to the attendees as we passed by.
Train
A fun ride
A large catapult let kids hurl dodge balls faster and higher than ever before! It demonstrated force, inertia, and trajectory. It also made for nice videos...
A basketball-like challenge had my kids tossing different balls (beach balls, basket balls, etc.) into a high and wide net. The difference of weight made it trickier than we thought it would be.
She shoots, she scores!
A nearby arcade featured old-fashioned games like Pac-Man with controllers created by students.
This invisible Pac-Man is really hard!
The other arcade attraction was the classic carnival racing game. Players had to roll a ball into a hole to move their horse forward. The ball rolled back to a return and had to be sunk again to keep the horse going. Eight or ten successful sinks into holes meant victory.
Horse racing!
Another classic carnival game is hitting ducks. Normally players throw a baseball or something of the sort. This game had a twist--players flew drones to knock down a duck. Using a keyboard to control the drone was a challenging but my kids soon got the hang of it.
Flying a drone
Hoping to crash!
A racetrack was set up for remote control cars built by students. Players tried for fastest times or raced each other (which I guess is a variant of "fastest time" racing).
Ten80 Car Race
The biological sciences were also represented...by worms! One display had kids digging in dirt to find different kinds of worms. Worms are great because they are a key component of the bio-degrading process.
I gotta find what?
Starting to search
Found one
A jar of black swallowtail caterpillars
What child can resist this sign?
One not very scientific activity (but very fun) was an inflatable golf course. My kids played through six holes.
Starting off
Waiting for her turn
Another exercise of practical physics was corn hole.
Concentrating on his selection
Getting down to business
The carnival also had food on offer. The kids got slushies from the Kona Ice truck while my wife and I split a muffin from a bakery.
Relaxing in the shade
The students also made a fun skee-ball game with golf balls. This game was another one that took some practice before it became easier to get the ball in the hole.
Go ball, go!
Catching air
Catching more air
My youngest did the periodic table challenge. Kids drew a card with one of the elements listed on it and then tried to throw a bean bag onto that element on a giant periodic table.
Getting tickets for success
Next door was a pinball game created by library students.
Fighting on the side of the Avengers
Across the way, a rollercoaster let children see how kinetic energy is used to send the cars flying around the track at breakneck speeds.
The roller coaster
My youngest wrapped up his day by playing a giant chess game. He teamed up with another random boy to play against an older and more experienced player. Sadly, they did not win.
Giant chess
My other two children wrapped up their day by turning in their tickets to make slime out of glue and borax (and some food coloring).
Paste to slime in little time
The carnival was a lot of fun and we'd go back again. Hopefully there will be another one next summer!
Forest Ridge Elementary School had its annual spring carnival, which is irresistible to our children. Well, mostly irresistible. As we walked in, we saw some food trucks. We had just come from our godson's First Communion lunch and were full up on food. We were not hungry at all.
The food trucks getting business from other people
The star attractions of the carnival were the inflatable obstacle courses and race track. We spent a long time enjoying those.
Inflatable attractions!
First, they tried the race track. Blown up horses have to bounce along a plastic sheet from the starting gate to the finish line. Whoever can bounce the best (which includes going straight forward) wins.
And they're off!
Winning by a hand
A lone rider
A lone winner
I thought the obstacle course would be too challenging for the pre-scholar but he wanted to go anyway. He ran against his big brother. Big brother naturally won, but my youngest was able to finish the course without any help, so it was definitely a victory for him.
Brothers almost neck and neck
Big brother in the lead
Little brother facing a big challenge
About to slide down
He made it to the end!
The older children went back inside for the carnival games. The youngest tried out the last bouncy castle, which was another short obstacle course. Unfortunately, he could not get up the ladder/staircase inside. I cheered him on. Each attempt resulted in sliding down the side. When the time was up, he was supposed to get out. I argued with him about going backward through the course. That's when it happened. The gas powering the generator that powered the air pump ran out. So the air pump stopped. And the inflatable started to deflate. The operator went in to get him. The moment was scary. We all managed to stay calm and everything turned out alright in the end. My son was a little upset but physically fine.
The collapsed inflatable (after my son got out)
We went inside to see what the other kids were up to and try out some carnival games.
Bowling
Putting
Using extra strokes
Fishing
Hitting the spot
Each game cost one checkmark on the kid's play card. Once the card was all checked off, the card was turned in at the prize table. Picking something out was like a bonus carnival game.
Having a ball choosing a ball
The carnival was exciting and fun. The kids tried the cake walk but didn't win. That's fine because we wound up with leftover First Communion cake which has lasted us for quite a while.
The gym slowly emptying out
We are enjoying the signs of summer coming. This carnival is one of the first.
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