Every couple of years we have a carnival in our little village. It is the complete opposite of the one in Zurich, in that all the rides and offerings are old school. For example, there is this game where the kids hold a fire house and try to knock out the “flames” in a burning apartment building.
So cute, and the little kids love it. But in order for the game to work, there has to be a parent who is willing to stand and pump the water the entire time the child is shooting.
I was always glad my kids felt like they were a bit too old for that game. Talk about sore arms!
There is also a bouncy house. Sometimes they control the number of kids inside at one time, sometimes they don’t. There is always at least one kid who gets hurt, and several more who have a great time
New this year, and not in keeping with the theme, was a mechanical bull ride. Several of the girls’ friends rode it, but Sarah and Sophie were too afraid of getting really hurt. The kids were flying pretty far when they fell off!
More our speed was the wheelbarrow races. I think the kids all ran at least 3 races each, if not more. The school principal, Mr. Langenegger, was in charge, along with Noah’s teacher, Mrs. Wolfer.
There was also a kind of treasure hunt. The kids were given an area to search in, and they had to count how many stars they found in that area. Then they came back and told the teachers how many they had found. If it was the correct number, the timer was turned off, if not, they had to go back and keep looking. 
Noah and Alexandra found all the stars pretty quickly, but thought they were missing one, and so kept looking and looking without coming back. So they won the prize for the longest time. 🙂
The kids could also try their out their lassoing skills, only instead of an animal, it was a wooden post. Alexandra was successful almost right off the bat, but it was almost impossible for Sarah.
The kids all spun the Luck Wheel, sponsored by the library. The prize you could win was a book, but not everyone landed on the lucky spot. However, Alexandra won a book, and she was super excited when she was finally able to read it all by herself! Took a while until her German skills were up to par, but she made it!
This swing has been part of the Aeugst Chilbi for years and years. Just before this year’s carnival, volunteers painted it all nice, and replaced any parts that were getting worn or were already broken. There was talk of having to just throw it away, but some of the old timers rallied together to save it. Should be good for at least another 30 years now. The man taking the tickets for the swing didn’t think the girls were going up high enough, so he decided to help them out. They were not happy about it, as they were purposely staying low so as to not fall out. I heard all about it when they got off. 🙂
There is also always a game similar to a dunk tank, but without the water. Two people sit on high bars across from each other and throw bean bags at a target. If you hit the target first, the other person falls down on to mats. It’s very popular, but unfortunately, someone got really hurt while we were there. 
She had been sitting on the bar, but with her feet wrapped around the metal supports. So when she got knocked off, her leg got clamped in between the bar and the metal. There was a loud snap, that many people heard, a scream, and then she fell. They had to call the paramedics, and she was in a lot of pain, and very, very scared. Didn’t want them to touch her or move her at all because it hurt so bad. Eventually they shot her full of something that knocked her out, and then they were able to load her up in the ambulance and take her to the hospital. As soon as they left, the bars went back up and people immediately started playing again. That is just the Swiss attitude, one that I actually like, if you get it’s usually your own fault, and that risk is understood and inherent before you even participate. No one else’s fun should be spoiled because you didn’t sit on the bar correctly.
Of course, it just solidified in my kids that their choice not to participate was the correct one. Instead, we all headed back over to the relative safety of the bouncy house.
And by this time the kids had done enough. We gifted the few remaining punches on our tickets to a couple of Sophie’s friends who were still going strong, and headed home.