Bouncy Slides

So, we had a picnic & concert.

Picnic was good! Our grill masters at South Plains know what they are doing when it comes to making burgers. I don't eat beef unless it is cooked by someone else (I just do not like cooking it), so church picnics are about the only time I have burgers. We had some issues with the mayonnaise (both me & the nice young man ahead of me picked up bottles that were still sealed, leading to several minutes of struggling to get the seal off, then the woman behind me dripped water all over my burger bun trying to get herself some mayo), and I opened three coolers before I found the water, and most of the shade was already taken by the time we got there. However, minor inconveniences aside, it was good food and we had some nice fellowship with our friends.

After the first band and before the second, I went to explore the bouncy castles we had set up, to see if I was allowed to try them. There was no weight or age limit posted, so I went ahead up a rather tall slide. I also took a little friend with me-- a little girl, who was probably around two, was there with her grandmother who was not willing to try the bouncy slide. So, the two of us went up & then down again.

And that was when the fun started. The slide had been having some toppling issues, and one of the kids enlightened me that it was because several kids had climbed up to the very top at once and were trying to bring it down. Plus, those couple of minutes I was there was enough for me to discover there was a lot of shoving and no waiting in line for this slide. So, concerned as I was for the children's safety, I took over as the responsible adult, got them into line, made them take turns and only go up one at a time, and thus ensured that I would spend the rest of the evening at the foot of this slide.

Another of the bouncy creations was also a slide, only smaller and wider, and one of the kids had gotten the bright idea to dump bottled water on it. Which was the cue for all the kids to dump on bottled water. I thought it was a waste, but as the kids had to keep returning to the picnic area for more bottles, I felt sure that sooner or later a parent would intervene. It turned out to be later rather than sooner, as it happened.

Apparently the concert was not wonderful, so I didn't miss out on much. The kids were pretty fun, anyway, and I kept having to rescue the very small ones when the older ones got too rowdy. I'm always a bit leery of picking up kids who don't know me, but tonight I made a lot of exceptions to my own rule. Plus, I got to meet a mum when her little girl said "Mama!" a few times until I decided that I really had better find her mum and return her.

So, my verdict? We should have picnics more often, and skip the concerts.