by Rebecca
19. January 2016 20:44
Estero is a colonial that previously was one of the rougher days in that the kids were extremely rowdy. It is the colonial that we were most protective when taking clowns, especially my grandmother, in years past because props would disappear or the clowns would be picked on a lot. However, today was different (and not just because it is my first time in the field without being a clown in 15 or 16 years.
The day started off slow with a few kids wanting face painting – mostly because playdough was available as a craft (which with this age group, it was much more fun to play with playdough then sit still for face painting – lol). At one point I left to help another team and returned to find that Caitlyn (another team member) had started painting a boy who wanted about every design stencil I had available and was running out of arm, leg, and face space for paint. I think there might have even been a stomach lion at one point. He could not get enough face paint.
As the day progressed it turned more into a steady stream, but still calm as kids waited and I explained in broken Spanish that kids without any paint or only 1 design needed to go before kids who had several. My favorite part is always face painting or doing anything clown related for more than just kids – for abuelas and mamas. Their eyes always shine when they are allowed to have the face paint too. Several mothers brought their infants over. It’s always difficult to face paint kids 2 and under but I learned yesterday making funny faces and sound effects keeps them engaged. Well, distracted might be a better word. They are so focused on trying to figure out what’s up with your face and the noises that they forget about the paint.
It was also a great experience training other people on the team to face paint. Caitlyn had done face painting last year – but it was fun showing Nancy and Krishna what I was doing. The funny part is that after Krishna took over for Nancy, I continued to translate what the kids wanted from Spanish to English. Krishna had lived here for a couple years so she’s fluent in Spanish and couldn’t figure out why I kept translating. Lol.
One of my favorite girls came up to me at the beginning and when I would ask her what she would like painted, she would say playdough in Spanish, which kinda sounds like the word banana. So I kept asking if she really wanted a banana painted on her face. Finally someone explained that she wanted the playdough more than the face painting. After we had wrapped up the face painting, I was hanging out with Aunt Sharon at the fingernail painting station and she came up to have another color added to her nails. I placed her in my lap and kissed her cheek which made her giggle. I love making her laugh and so kept making sound effects as I was painting her nails.
