My Rainbow Freckle Cookie! Kids Arts & Craft at Carriageworks Children's Festival (SUPER LONG BLOG POST! with lack of photos)

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warning: EXTREME TEXT ZONE. please skip to here or here if you require a food photo fix before proceeding

'Sorry little boy, that's MY cardboard.'

Nothing transforms you into a Mister Selfish Monster faster than looking after a kids craft workshop. We spent an afternoon teaching kids how to make beetles, butterflies and other creepy crawlies using cardboard. Or at least that was the job description - I spent most of my time chasing crayons, and smacking hands as they reached for the pile of coloured cardboard

Still, after a while I started to get the hang of things, and found myself parroting reliable sentences like

'hello miss! would you like to make a bug bracelet?'

'what colour would you like your bug to be?'

'Sorry guys, we're all out of blue cardboard. and orange. And yellow. Yeah there's only pink left... (I said this to one poor little boy and his face took on quite a disgusted look)

'No more glittery sequins for you! Come back when you run out please'

'here Mum, you hold the scissors'

'Everyone step back from the cardboard please :)'

'There are no more glue sticks. sorry'

'Hi, if you stick out your wrist I will make sure your cardboard bracelet fits!'

as well as, 'you're a good kid, aren't you? And you're going to put all those crayons back in their proper places, aren't you?' (they usually smile and nod proudly)

and, 'Don't touch that cardboard!'

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Some of the kids were really cute too. There was one little girl with big grey eyes who kept coming back to the supplies table to look for rogue crayons and help me sort them back into their correct colour compartments. And everytime she found a red crayon in the blue box she'd say in a really surprised way, 'Ooh look a red crayon. that's not supposed to be THERE! I'm going to put you back where you belong' and then she would look at me and grin expectantly. haha I praised that kid to high heaven =] I know you shouldn't pick favourites with kids but I totally did (you would have too)

I remember there was this one little boy with black hair who drew a big black fruitbat for his bracelet. Our table only had bug templates, so most kids just went with what was there. Even when I was making my display bracelet, I took the cheap way out and traced a worm template (because worms are as easy as you can get) instead of drawing up a new one (....a new worm?) So it was only natural that I paid special attention to the little genius kids who drew their own treefrogs, monkeys, rainclouds (yep) and well, FRUITBATS.

And what colour would you like for your bracelet? I asked him.

He looked up at me with a huge megawatt smile and oh look, there goes my heart trickling down my jeans into a puddle of golden goo. I noticed he had two gaps in his teeth when he smiled too.... SO ADORABLE.

Anyway he didn't say anything so I continued,
'There is pink, and uh -'

'I want Black!' he announced loudly.

'Uh, there's no -' I started. His face fell.
That is to say, I changed tack hastily, here's our last sheet of white paper! And here you take this black crayon, I stuck a crayon in his hand, and you can make black paper!

The megawatt smile returned and he ran off waving his black crayon in the air
...and all was right with the world

Haha I am a sucker for smiley little kids

At this point the boyfriend sends a text that goes something like
"haha you sound like you're having fun with the kids BACK OFF LITTLE PUNKS SHE'S MINE"
to which I of course reply
"SORRY MATE i have already fallen for a little guy with missing teeth we're getting married in december"
and the reply
"HAH so what i'll just win you back off him!"
lool there was more but can't remember the rest

Actually all the kids were great, it was only some of the parents that could get bratty. There was one big, frizzy-haired mum who took about twenty crayons (angryface!) for her kid to colour in ONE BUG. and then after I finished making the bracelet for her son she hurriedly shoves all the crayons in my hand and runs off shouting 'can you do those for me there's a darling, We have to go to a show!'

Nah but most of the parents and grandparents were lovely. I don't think I've ever been smiled at and appreciated so much in one day. and just for teaching them how to cut out bug shapes! hehe I'm going to start teaching everyone I know how to cut out bug shapes. Yes I am.

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Lunch break happened at the Carriageworks Cafe, where in honour of the festival there were special kids lunch packs on sale! I got the 'Goin' Dotty' lunch pack, where for five fifty you get a vegemite-butter sandwich (wtf butter with vegemite), an apple juice popper (omg primary school days) and a big RAINBOW FRECKLE COOKIE =D

Yay special Kids Lunch Pack! my cookie is the size of my sandwich

I say cookie because that's what they called it but it was more like a round slab of milk chocolate. Milk chocolate isn't really my thing but the novelty value of eating a "FRECKLE COOKIE" with heaps of rainbow hundreds and thousands on it was too much. Perfect food for a children's festival=]

When you volunteer as a floater, that means you get shuttled around to different sections... so apart from the bug section I also rendezvoused at the 'Sustainable Towns' table (where kids make eco-friendly cardboard houses, complete with water tanks and solar panels fashioned from bubble warp) and a digital photography workshop (learn how to take pictures of the ceiling, take pictures of your friend, and We forced one kid to stand next to an arch window for fifteen minutes so everyone could practise taking silhouette photos. haha until I felt sorry for her and sacrificed myself to stand in her place so she could try taking photos too)

It just sucked that my bag was locked away in the giant metal cage for most of the day, so I couldn't take any photos of the adorable kids. Although I'm not entirely sure taking random photos of the children wouldn't have seen me sent home in a large white van with 'pedophile' stamped on my forehead

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Carriageworks Children's Festival
5-17th October 2009 (school holidays)
Majority of festival is free! except for some activities like MasterChef cooking, yay
http://www.sydneychildrensfestival.com