Saturday 31 October 2009

Things That Matter Most

Yesterday afternoon was the PTA "Country Fair" fundraiser. There was a silent auction, cake walk, ring toss games, candy hunts in haystacks as well as a chance to guess how many popped corn kernals were in a large jar. Whomever guessed closest would win the popcorn AND the $20 bill tucked inside. Each of my kids paid 50 cents to take a turn, recording their guess before wandering off to find friends, buy snow cones, eat candy and in general, contribute to the chaos. Logan complained several times that he wanted to eat that popcorn, not understanding the whole concept of throwing money away for a good cause. Hannah scored 2 liters of A&W root beer in the ring toss (which then became my responsibility to lug around), Logan's buddy won a cake in the cake walk, but Logan's victories were all rewarded with bite size candy--to his bitter dismay.

Just before the Fair came to a close, the winner of the costume contest was announced (Hannah was insulted when her name wasn't called) followed by the popcorn guessing winner (drum roll please). There, in front of all those parents, children, and teachers, LOGAN'S name was called! His guess was 400 and the actual amount of popped corn was 407.

Logan was lifted up to claim his prize and when the judges handed over the coveted jar, he realized he was finally being given the longed for popcorn. The lid was immediately ripped off as Logan stuffed his mouth with the long denied snack. The $20 was not even on the radar!

We got home that night and celebrated by watching an X-Men cartoon and eating popcorn for dinner. I'll have to take the discarded twenty and save it for another day.