carrying that radio proudly out of the fair, i felt so grown up.
last night, olivia and i went to a local catholic church's festival (sidebar here: where in the Bible does it say to hold festivals? it must be in there somewhere because i have never met a catholic church that doesn't have them.).
catholic church festivals, i have found, vary widely in their appeal. some go all out, with local bands, upscale food, and high-end silent auctions. some barely deserve the title "festival," unless you consider one plastic baby pool with toy ducks floating around in it and all you do is reach in and grab one and you get a prize to be a festival.
(even the youngest kid in the whole wide world knows that's a dud of a festival.)
but, most catholic church festivals fall somewhere in between, with a bouncy house or two, some bingo, maybe a dunking booth, probably a raffle, and lots of good "fair food." that's the kind of festival last night's festival was. and, from a kid's point of view, that's the best kind.........good enough to have decent prizes but not so good that it over-appeals to adults.
olivia tried her hand at several of the games (she has a mean pitching arm, as evidenced by her nailing the "throw-three-basketballs-and-if-you-get-one-of-them-through-the-hoop-you-win" game.
she didn't fare so well on the bean bag toss game, but of course, that gig was rigged.
:)
she skipped and danced and cartwheeled her way through the festival, went up to the various costumed characters who were strolling the grounds and gave them giant hugs, tried to high five the guy on stilts (you try doin' that!), and licked the mustard off her hamburger and left the rest, uneaten.
she had a ball.
and so did i.
just before we left, we spotted an artist doing caricatures, and olivia wanted hers done.
the guy who did her caricature was nice as pie and he didn't mind a bit that olivia kept wiggling around and asking if he was done yet.
but, when he handed us the finished product, olivia took one look at it and said, full of pride, "grammy! look how grown up i just got!" and indeed, the picture did make olivia look older than the 4 1/2-year old that she is.
as we walked out of the festival and to our car, olivia clutched her caricature and held her head up high, proud and feeling so grown up.
just how transistor radios make 7-year olds feel, too.
