Elder Ambassador Weighs in on first two months

Hello everyone!

My name in Kari Giles and I am the oldest of the six Eagan FunFest Ambassadors. Avery, Reece, Payton, Hannah, Mia and I were all crowned on July 7th and we were excited for what this year had to bring for us! Since our coronation, we have been having a blast! With my first blog as an ambassador, I would like to share with you some of my favorite adventures I’ve had so far with my royal family.

The first experience I’d like to share with you was actually your first event as Eagan ambassadors, which was the Hopkins Raspberry Festival Royalty Coronation. During the car ride to Hopkins, I have to admit was a little nervous. But the nerves quickly faded away as soon as I sat down for the first time in the sparkle section. What an amazing feeling it was! I felt like a celebrity! I sat in the middle of the three youngest ambassadors Mia, Payton, and Hannah...I should have know what I was in for! While we waited for the coronation to begin they pulled me into their game of guessing who would get crowned which was a lot of fun, and then during the current royalty’s slide show Payton started singing so loudly to the songs I think the entire sparkle section must have heard her! Soon Hannah and Mia joined her and even I had to hum along. After the coronation we danced the night away with other royalty and even cheered our own Mr. Congeniality Reece Peters on as he competed in the Miss Congeniality musical chairs contest, the only boy against over twenty girls!

Another one of my favorite events so far was the Minneapolis Aquatennial Queen of the Lakes Coronation. The Queen of the Lakes is a very old and extremely important role, since 1940 three girls have been crowned and every year. Some of the most amazing young women from all over the state of Minnesota come to Minneapolis to become candidates for the Aquatennial. The Eagan Funfest Ambassadors and I had the honor of attending this coronation to support a former Eagan Ambassador, and a very good friend of mine, Elle Gilbert. This year She was one of forty candidates! It was so much fun cheering on a familiar face in the coronation. It was also really cool to watch slide shows of each the forty candidate saying where they are from in Minnesota and hearing each community cheer when they heard their city and their candidate!

The last adventure I’d like to share with all of you was our most most recent event, the St. Paul Park Heritage Days Parade. It was our first parade in our new formal dresses for the ladies and brand new suit and tie for Reece! But we were more excited to ride convertibles for the first time! Avery, Reece, Mia and I all had an amazing time meeting new royalty like Oakdale, and even catching up with our royal friends from Cottage Grove’s Strawberry Fest! Finally it was parade time! We climbed into our convertibles, I was riding in the front in Mike Ferber’s beautiful blue convertible, Reece and Mia behind me in Mia’s grandparents Butch and Donna’s super cool 1953 bright red Ford convertible and last but certainly not least was Avery in Laurie Turner’s midnight blue convertible. As we lined up for the parade the sun even came out from the clouds! I loved putting smiles on everyone’s faces, young and old as I waved to everyone. It’s an amazing feeling when you hear children call out “Mommy! Mommy! Look it’s a princess!” Or “Miss Princess! Over here!” as little girls and boys are jumping up and down to get your attention. The day was full of surprises like backyard ducks, sunshine instead of rain, getting rid of my awful farmer’s tan lines, and even my mother pulling out a needle and thread in the middle of the street to fix Avery’s dress...I swear she’s always prepared for everything!

Thank you all for reading my first blog as an Eagan Funfest Ambassador! I hope you enjoyed my experiences so far. Stay tuned for our next round of blogs coming soon! Thanks again!

Kari Giles

Eagan Funfest Ambassador 2014-2015