Monday, October 17, 2011

Simple Joy ~ The School Book Fair

The school book fair happened last week. It was a big couple of days in our house. The little people were jumping out of bed with joy in the wee hours of the morning proclaiming, "The book fair is today. It runs for the next three days. It starts as soon as the bell rings after school. When is that? How many hours until school lets out? Is it soon? Is it soon?" Honestly, I have never seen three little people so excited about books. At least not the three little people who live in my house.

A few interesting things unfolded last week around said book fair:

Most importantly ~ My entire house was cleaned "marine style" late Monday night by three people under three feet tall in an attempt to earn dollars for spending at the fair. They did well. And I woke up to a sparkling clean house. I was one happy mama.

Most gratefully ~ We made it in and out of the fair without any whining, complaining or throwing ourselves on the ground. (While it is typical for the youngsters to take to these tactics to try and get what they want, it is more common for me to fall victim to these methods whenever I take this triad into a retail setting, any retail setting. There are days shopping the aisles of Target when throwing myself on the ground seems a reasonable solution to the chaos unfolding around me the moment we roll by the toy aisle.)

Most hysterically ~ My husband was absolutely flabbergasted when he learned that the children took their own money into the book fair and bought books to take home. It wan't the fact that they took responsibility and earned money for their purchases that was shocking to him. Instead, it was the fact that at the book fair, students could actually purchase the books. He recalled his experience with school book fairs as a child—each kid got a free book to take home. And that was that. To which I replied with a puzzled look, "True, but the idea is that you would come back later that day with your parents and BUY more books. It's always a fundraiser for the school." "Oh my gosh", he gasped, "I wonder if my mom knew that?" We joked about this harsh realization for the better half of last week.

The thing I loved most about the book fair showing up at our local school—the cuteness that resulted. They were all helping each other read their books.

3-D glasses and all.

Even if the glasses weren't on quite right, it was the sentiment that brought joy to my heart.

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