Skip to main content

It’s SOOPER funfair day…! :-)))

bakesale 2007-01-01 125Thanks to a couple of dedicated mamas, our first (of many, I hope) neighbourhood funfair took place at a small local park very close to our house.

I ran a Kosher Bake Sale table, selling buns, muffins, brownies and Ted’s famous Triscuit mini-pizzas, and surpassed all of my wildest expectations, selling just about every baked thing I brought to the park. 

I was glad there was a kosher presence at the funfair – that’s why I volunteered to do it.  They were asking people to contribute 10% of their profits to cover the park permit and expenses, but I gave a little more than that, plus I paid Elisheva something for her tremendous and cheerful assistance all afternoon.  (you can see her behind our table in the photo above:  she’s the one in the white ballcap and long pink skirt)

My plant sale went a little less well, but I did sell a few potted daylilies and tomatoes.  Forgot to write the varieties on the pots and they got all mixed up – oops!

The mamas running the event were SO organized:  the table was all set up and waiting, with a tablecloth even, when we got there.  All I had to do was plunk our stuff down and start selling okay, we did end up bringing our own folding chairs from home).  They had a nice variety of booths, including henna, face painting, some lovely shirts and skirts, jewellery, comics, and (right next to us) hair accessories.

Face painting for the littles:

bakesale 2007-01-01 074  bakesale 2007-01-01 134

I’m SO happy Naomi’s gotten past her fear-of-face-painting stage.  Gavriel Zev seems to have never had one, though last summer we mostly settled for having his hand painted because I feared he’d be too squirmy to sit through a full face-paint session.

Of course, despite recent fearmongering, no neighbourhood event would be complete without a bouncy castle:

bakesale 2007-01-01 091bakesale 2007-01-01 087

Facepainting was free, but they had to get a $1 handstamp for the bouncy castle, games, etc.  Very worthwhile, I think.

Oh - there was also a terrific – if brief – concert by my sister Abigail and her friend Shira, as well as other music throughout the event.  They were supposed to have a more sophisticated grown-up concert at 8 this evening, but thunderstorms came up and rained them out.

Tug of war for all ages!  Big men vs little kids (a very close one; the kids are weak but HEAVY); teenagers vs… hmm… I don’t remember what this one was, but YM, now castless, enjoyed himself.

bakesale 2007-01-01 118 bakesale 2007-01-01 123 

bakesale 2007-01-01 128But mostly, what I did was stand around all afternoon selling bread.  My sister Sara has lately been selling her bakery’s artisan breads at a local farmers’ market, and says in some ways it’s her dream job:  sitting in the park, talking to strangers about bread.  She’s right (in small doses, I think). 

It’s amazing:  baked goods are PROPS.  I know all these people from the neighbourhood, but I’m so socially awkward that I can’t usually manage a normal conversation, just stand around and stare and not know what to talk about. 

Why didn’t I realize this before?   If you have a table full of delicious muffins (“only 50 cents each,” or, as I joked but everybody took me seriously, “special; 2 for $1”!), you’re automatically POPULAR!  People come up to you and strike up conversation… sometimes, they even feel they must buy something because they know you a little bit.  They talk to you about bread, the weather, the funfair.  (more about my bread here!)

I think I’m going to walk around all the time with a tray of muffins; get one of those wearable trays that fit around my neck like old movie-theatre or baseball-game snack-sellers.  “Yup – fresh today!”  “Nope – no dairy!”  “Sure, they’re zero calories!” (nudge nudge)

Either that, or I’ll go to bed tonight dreaming of our next neighbourhood funfair.  Kudos to Ellie and Catherine, the mamas who arranged it.  If you live anywhere near here (the newly named Arlington Village), get yourself to the next two on July 25 and August 29!  Oh, or check out updates at their new blog here.

Comments

Post a Comment

I love your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a