We went to our first carnival of the carnival season yesterday (and I think it's going to be a LONG carnival season).  We had 75 minutes total for the carnival experience which included drive time to and from Bedford.   I prepped Hannah by explaining Luke needed to get home in time for his nap but promised her 3 rides and cotton candy.  Honestly, I think we could have gotten away with just the cotton candy and she would have been happy.  We ran into the carnival and the first thing Hannah had to do was... the bathroom.  There went 15 minutes especially because the bathroom was inside the school and she needed to look around (in the hallways, in the classrooms, at all the artwork, etc).  Now we really had to run from one ride to the next.  It's not easy for a 4 year old to stay focused with all of the games, food, people, rides, music, etc.  But she did great.  First ride - little cars.  She got to ride her car alone which was fun but it was too slow, "boring" she said.  Next ride, dinosaur spinning ride.  Made me want to vomit watching her and Tim on this one but at least she didn't look like she was going to fall asleep.  Third ride - elephant flying ride.  I did this one with her.  Up and down, round and round.  I'm still spinning.   Last ride - ferris wheel.  I. Was. Terrified.  I had to pretend I wasn't nervous so she would stay calm but holy shit... we were HIGH!  Couldn't have ended soon enough for me... I think I might have actually screamed at one point since the kids in front of us (below us) looked up at me like whose the lame mommy...  thank god, time was up.  We sprinted to the cotton candy station, picked up the goods and were out of there.  And we had one sticky faced, blue mouthed, HAPPY little girl.