Sugar-coated fun

We participated in an Ann Arbor school tradition last night, an end-of-year ice cream social.


Or, in Alex's case, a pizza-soda-cotton-candy-ice-cream social.


I had vision of a few simple games plus happy volunteers dishing out bowls of real ice cream, maybe with bunch of toppings to choose from. Mm... multiple flavors of ice cream, perhaps. Maybe some waffle cones.

The reality was a wee bit different, in so many ways. I'm glad we went, and the boys had such a wonderful time, but there were a lot of big "rides," you know, those blow-up, moon-walk sort of things, and a big blow-up-slide. And lots of loud music playing. A dunk tank for the fifth graders (and the principal, for which she deserves massive amounts of credit). Ice cream bars and Popsicles, instead of my romantic vision of fresh scooped ice cream.

Jameson had a wonderful time at the bubble station, and was really loathe to leave, except that there were toy ducks in a little pool to play with, and a push-up Popsicle to try. (we quickly went back to the bubbles, which meanwhile had filled up, and he was annoyed at all these other kids playing with HIS bubbles) Alex had his sights set on big things, so I stayed with Jameson while Stefan took him over to those big-boy (and big-girl) slides and moon-walk and what-not.

And then, just when we were about to leave--my shift helping at the sand-box game was nearly up--the skies opened up and a huge deluge of rain and thunder came down. I helped as best I could on the game I was working on, and then all four of us made a wild dash to the car. Which, for me, was actually one of the highlights of the evening!! We all arrived breathless and soaked and yet happy as can be.

So while it didn't stand up to my simple vision of an ice cream social, I was glad that we went, for I had an opportunity to connect with the mothers of a few of Alex's classmates, and the boys just had SO SO SO much fun with the games and the sugary food. But with the amount of sugar Alex put away--and his crankiness the next morning--I'm thrilled that they only come once a year.