Fun Had by All at the Spring Fayre

Homemade ice cream from Delaval's, a little pizza, coffee, and ice cream
shop by the seafront. Best pizza in town! And I hadn't tried their ice cream til the fayre.
It was yummy.

On Saturday, we attended the Spring Fayre for Merrit's school. My second attempt at scone-baking was brilliant. This time, I got the oven temp right and the results were fab. I was a tad worried that because I only had 1 ounce of frozen, shaved butter instead of 1 1/2 ounces, they wouldn't be good, but I used vegetable oil to make up the difference without any problem. They didn't have quite the rise that they would have otherwise had, but the flavor was nice and buttery! (See how I'm working in those British adjectives like "brilliant" and "fab"? They really do say them here!)

So, yep, this American was representin' at the loaded-up table of scones baked by English mums!

The spring fayre was great! We all had an awesome time. As a fundraiser, I think it was a big success. Everything cost a little something, but not much.  For instance, admission was 50 pence (or 50p). There was a bouncy castle for a pound, an inflatable slide for 50p, and a few other small activities for kids to do (Guess how many jelly beans in the jar for 20p, etc.). And face painting of course. And a costume contest.

5 minutes on the slide for 1 pound per kid.

Ollie is so brave. He held his own with much bigger kids.
Fearless, that one.

Inside, there were tables set up where local shopkeepers were selling items and food. I think a lot of the shops and restaurants and booth-owners had donated the proceeds of, or at the very least the profits from, their booths.

We bought and shared some Indian onion bhajis for 1 pound (think hush puppies but made from onions). And the boys shared a Sticky Toffee Muffin that I bought for 1 pound.

30p for these cute little cupcakes.

Merrit wondered if the glitter was edible.
How cute is this flag?!

Ollie chowed down on his half-muffin.

One area of the school had a large rummage sale, where parents had donated toys; all were selling for between 20p and 1 pound. It was super crowded in there, and we don't need anything like that, so we didn't go in to browse.

Out on the Astroturf field, there was a cool obstacle course set up. (in the background)

The boys playing on The Timber Trail, a permanent feature of the playground.
Sort of like a low, kid-friendly ropes course.

I bet the silent auction raised a lot of money. I bid on a Mom's Relaxation Package (massage, pedicure, manicure, bottle of wine) but didn't win. There were other cool packages. Like a golf package, a few different family outing packages, and kids packages.

I heard from a mom at the school that, all told, the school raised about £5,000 (about $8,200). That's awesome.

The boys on the rock climbing wall.

Merit with one of his friends from class, Jai.

The coolest part of the whole thing, I think, is that people had fun. No one was guilted into buying anything that they didn't want. Nothing was overpriced. And it was a community-wide effort. And that was the school's main fundraiser for the year.

Why don't American schools do this type of thing instead of sending the kids door to door selling tins of popcorn and scented candles?

You room moms and PTA volunteers, can you shed some light on this? I'm so curious. Since we weren't really "in" the school system back home--we homeschooled--maybe there's something I'm missing...? Not trying to hate. Just sayin'.

In any case, I'm glad my donated scones were sold--and eaten--for a good cause!

Not bad...for an American.