Great expectations

That is what I had today. Great expectations. I planned to take the kids to the neighboring towns Rodeo Week events. Today was the penny scramble, stick horse races, bounce houses, rock wall climbing, dunk tanks, and other fun events. I thought for sure Macey would love the penny scramble. I talked it up to her and she seemed all ready to do it. Parker wanted to watch, since he was too old to do it, and also check out the firefighters booth. Molly wanted to check out the boys... When we got there Macey got so excited about the bounce house and snow cone machine that she said she didn't want to do the penny scramble. I took her over by the penny scramble and talked it up again. I got her excited about it and then the announcer says they are doing the stick race first. That did not go over well. She whined and trampled flowers. Parker cringed because Macey was upset. He buried his head and said he wanted to go. I tried to distract her but it wasn't helping. I asked Molly to take her to get a snow cone while we waited. That sounded good to her. They went to get them and they weren't ready to sell yet. Uggg! She came back even more cranky and only wanted to play on the bounce houses. With Parker getting upset about her being upset, and getting annoyed with people saying Hi to him, I decided to just go. I let them bounce a minute but it was obvious that no one was going to have much of a good time with all the crankiness. Molly wanted to leave also because the cranky kids were embarrasing her. Ah, the problems of a teen. When we got home you would have thought they had a blast. They were so happy. Macey even took the time to unravel a whole pack of dental floss. I had expectations of fun but I guess my expectations are not usually going to be met with 3 very different kids and ages. Next time I'm just going to think and say, "We'll see what happens". We'll try again next year. I added to pics from the evening. One is of the 3 kids waiting for the penny scramble and the second is Macey picking up leaves and putting them in her bag as she waited, lol.