I didn't do too much screaming today, but Lucas sure did!
A friend of mine, my boys, and I went up to the school (for the third day in a row, by the way) for their annual Ice Cream Social today. It wasn't quite ice cream weather (and it certainly wasn't dunk tank weather, poor Mr. Yanders!), but it was warm with a nice cool breeze. We paid for our ice cream tickets and instead of eating hot dots first for lunch like I had planned, we just ate ice cream instead. Skipping meals in favor of treats isn't something I usually condone, but I let it slide today. They got the ice cream from a local small business called
The Purple Cow Creamery. Their ice cream is fantastic!
There weren't as many people there as I thought there would have been. Seems like there were more kindergarten families, but we didn't get there right when it started so the first wave might have already left. As soon as we were (mostly) done with our ice cream, Matt ran right over to the playground, and Lucas followed right behind him. I was a little nervous because usually when we go to the playground there aren't many other kids around. It's not Lucas that worried me, it was the safety of everyone around him! My little guy is pretty rough and tumble, and he doesn't have any manners yet. Luckily there were no incidents. At the playground, anyway.
The real fun started when I took Luke away from the slides. I wanted to go wait on line at the bouncy obstacle course. I stood in line with him, took off his shoes, got cut in front of by at least three little kids, and got maybe four people away when I noticed that they had a measuring stick. Not like, a yard stick. More like a piece of plastic pipe with a green tape mark. A "must be this tall to ride" stick. All of this time Luke was crying and carrying on. He didn't want to wait in a line! He didn't want me to take his shoes off! Then, we got so close, and he really *did* want to bounce, and I took him away! More tears, tantruming, and head throwing ensued. And you know what? As I passed the lady holding the stick I realized that it hadn't been on the ground when I first saw it. Duh! So, yes, Luke was plenty tall enough to go through it. So... I took him back to the line and we went through the whole process again. Screaming. Crying. Tantruming. Finally, FINALLY it was his turn. The lady kindly offered to go through with him, or to at least help him over the first wall. Well, he wouldn't have any of that. He wasn't really all that interested in climbing the wall in the first place. He was there to *bounce*. And lady, sorry, but you're not his mommy and he didn't want anything to do with you either. So... in the end I had to pull him back out of the the thing while he recommenced screaming, crying, and tantruming. No one offered me any parenting awards today.
To get his little mind off of the bouncy obstacle course (where Matt spent the next hour, running back in line the moment he got through) I took him over to where there were a pile of hula hoops. Have I mentioned before that this child loves hula hoops? He was finally playing nicely when a boy, maybe second grade, came over with his slightly older sister and mom. Luke didn't want to share at first, but settled down when he saw the boy laying the hoops on the ground and jumping into them one by one. Little Boy didn't like the way Luke kept picking up the hoops though, or the way he tripped over them and moved them out of position. Or the way he didn't jump them in order. The situation kept devolving, with Little Boy throwing himself on the ground and kicking his feet. A classic two year old move, but not quite so acceptable from a second grader. They decided to move on, and I decided to try to get Lucas to take a nap in his stroller. HA!
I was ready to leave, so I hunted Matt down and told him that it was just about time to go. He begged to try to dunk Mr. Yanders (the assistant principal) before we left. So we stood in line for that. Luke was a little calmed down by then, getting snuggly with his blankie, so it was no big deal. While he was on line I saw Samantha's mom. We figured out that we live pretty close to each other, within walking distance! So we agreed to try to get together sometime soon. By the time Matt got his chance at the dunk tank, it wasn't Mr. Yanders, but Ms. Piazza (the principal) sitting on the platform.
Matt did his best, and he even hit the target once! He just wasn't strong enough to activate the lever.
For the most part, I'd say we had a good time. On the way home Matt somehow scratched his leg enough for it to bleed, and he's not good with blood so there was a little panicking. My friend and I got him through it without having to carry him piggy back down the hill. Once we were right outside the door and I was digging for keys, Matt's friend that lives here came over. I told him to be tough about his cut and not whine about it in front of his friend, and he did good. Unfortunately, we learned that his friend is moving away and we're not sure where. Six year olds aren't the best sources of information after all. So Matt is pretty sad about that, but hopeful that he'll be able to see his buddy next year at school.
Two more things, and them I'm done! I saw the chick with the pink hair again. I didn't recognize her at first, because today it was purple.
And this picture, this one right here... I am under strict orders NOT to post it to Facebook. She never said anything about my blog though!
