Oh behold the Fall Festival at Eagle Crest Elementary.

Tonight, Berlin's school held its annual Fall Festival - a carnival complete with bounce houses, food, games, dancing, various booths and of course, a cake walk. After we made the rounds, we decided to conclude our Fall Festival festivities with this time-honored festival affair. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with the cake walk, it's very simple. Numbers are placed on the floor in a large circular pattern. Each child begins by standing on a number. When the music starts, they all begin walking from number to number in clockwise fashion. When the music stops, they stop. Then, a number is drawn from a hat and whoever is left standing on that number wins their choice of a cake.

Pretty simple, right? Seems like a great game for really small children, right? Makes sense that said game would be at the Fall Festival in an elementary school, right?

Then you can imagine my confusion as I watched my four-year-old daughter and about 15 other preschoolers walk from number to number alongside a much older, much huskier, much tank toppier, much raspier, much stretch pantier, much louder, much hungrier woman.

At first I thought, "Oh, she's just helping out with the children. But after six rounds with no wins, it was very apparent that she was, in fact, a full fledged contestant and steadfast on getting her a darn cake! As she yelled back and forth to her husband (who, incidentally had a billowy gray beard, coveralls and really bad breath), a very palpable sense of discomfort loomed over the other parents in the room. It would be safe to say there was an elephant in the room (seriously, I swear the pun is not intended).

Unfortunately, after several attempts, Berlin wasn't able to win a cake. But she was a great sport. More importantly, a great life lesson was learned by all.

If you're a rotund woman in your 40's, you might want to sit out the cake walk.