I can barely keep my eyes open and every muscle from head to toe hurts right now. You'd think I'd just completed a weight training session because I can barely lift my arms high enough to type on this keyboard. My back cringes with every move. My calves cramp with every step. My feet... oh my feet. What's brought about all of this pain and suffering? The Punahou Carnival.
Two days of hauling around white elephant finds, dozens of malasadas, tubs of portugese bean soup, bags of corn on the cob, chicken plates, teriburgers, and gyros, a useless umbrella, my 25 lb purse (I still can't figure out why it's always so heavy), and the hand of a 3 year old in the rain and mud. Was it fun? Absolutely!!! Of course, I'm thankful that I'm not a huge mango chutney fanatic and accepted a long time ago that green thumbs I have not because attempting to tote around a couple of plants and a case of chutney would've been the death of me.
The adventure began yesterday with meeting Kimberly and Griffin at the White Elephant Tent. Arwen was in school, so this was my time to dig deep into the bargain heap and do some shopping. I must admit that the selection this year was a bit disappointing compared to last year, where Kimberly, Adrianna, and I found some big play sets, activity desks, and a rocker - all like new and priced at a steal. However, getting there early still paid off as I managed to walk away with a large bag of assorted deals including Pampered Chef cookware and some Quercetti Jungle Gear toys (like the ones they have at school) for Arwen. After a quick sweep by all the food tents, I trudged through the rain, arms hanging low with all of my loot, back to my car, which I am convinced was parked at the furthest possible point from where I began.
I returned with Arwen to find that Kimberly and Griffin were STILL THERE! They'd found their second wind and Adrianna with her family were on their way to meet us. The rain continued with breaks to get the girls faces painted, a few rides, and of course...more food. Once the rain started coming at a steady flow, we called it quits. One last pass through the White Elephant tent turned up a like new My Little Pony game for Arwen and then another arms full trudge back to the car, which seemed even further away than the last time even though I was technically parked closer.
Woke up this morning to Arwen begging to go back to the carnival. I still had a sheet of ride coupons and some scripts left, so why not? We picked up my 10 year old niece, Staci and head back to Punahou. We met up with Kimberly and her family again. Apparently they hadn't had their carnvial fill yet either. The sun was actually shining this time, but in lieu of the rain, there was the rain aftermath...MUD and lots of it. It was so bad that many just abandoned their shoes and let the muck squish through their toes. I wanted to get a picture of this mess, but opted to keep my camera clean and dry buried deep in my purse this time. More face painting, a few more rides, and of course... more food. I still had some scripts and ride coupons left, but the rain was really coming down, so we made a quick pass through the books section of the White Elephant tent, found three books for each of the girls, collected more bags of food to take home on our way out, and then handed off our extra
ride coupons and scripts to a woman standing in line with her two kids. Two separate people had done the same for me upon arriving at the carnival today, so I figured I'd just pay it forward. We then sloshed back to the car soaked, tired, muddy, and already looking forward to coming back next year.
