The rest of the story

Every year at Josh's work party, the company buys prizes for all the kids and all the adults. They call the kids names one at a time, and they can go pick their prize. The adults also have a drawing, but the prizes are picked before the name. (As is evident by Josh's prize of $15 to a tanning salon.) Anyway, we got to the park an hour early because Josh had to help set up for the party. The kids all started scouting out the prize table. Anna kept going back all evening. Tyler was excited about the toy snakes. Emma wanted some of the cotton candy. I explained to them that they might not get what they want. Their names might be among the last called and the prizes they hoped for might be gone. Well, Anna's name was the second one called. She had been listening intently to all the introduction, so when her name was called, she didn't have to be told twice. She took off running to the front. She was dodging people's feet here and there and made it to the front before Josh even realized her name had been called. The boss had asked parents to help their kids so they didn't take too long choosing. Anna was back in her seat with her prize before we could catch up to her. She was so excited to get her Barbie. It came in a sand bucket with a shovel. I wish I could capture her quiet determination and her excitement. She hadn't voiced to me that she knew what she wanted. It was exciting for me to see it all unfold. Tyler, however, was not so lucky. The snakes were gone by the time he got up there. That was pretty sad. We might be spending a dollar on a toy snake.