Amusements

Last week was a doozy!  I was sick with a sinus thing/head cold all week long, Alex came down with a {short-lived} fever on Wednesday after school, Jane came home early from school on Friday after throwing up at recess, and Sophie woke up in the middle of last night burning up with a fever, too.  Yay!!!  Hahaha.  Seriously, though.  I'm just biding my time, waiting for it to pass through every single kid.  Aren't WE a fun bunch?

Despite the various scattered ailments of various children over the weekend, we still managed to make Saturday a special day thanks to Ethan's home cross country meet, and DIVIDEND DAY at the amusement park in the afternoon!  Highlights of Ethan's race include a PR (!!!!) and the rain holding out the entire time we were there, and the only low light was that the junior high boys didn't run until noon -- making our day at the amusement park MUCH shorter than any of the kids would have liked.

After getting back from the meet, we made everyone eat some lunch really quick and then headed out (in two separate cars) to get our amusement on.  And yes, we let Jane go, too, even though she was still technically running a fever off and on all day.  Hashtag we'll just call this a don't judge me parenting moment.  It was 1:30 or 2:00 by the time we got to the park, and I think Scott carried Jane around half the time she was there, but despite her less than stellar health for the day, she was SOOOO excited to finally ride a couple of the "scarier" rides in kiddie land.  I'm not quite sure if the roller coasters were the BEST call for someone who wasn't feeling well, but I never heard her complain.  ;)  Alex surprised all of us by being FAR more adventurous than he was last year, and willingly and excitedly went on a couple of the bigger rides with Grace {still in the kiddie area} and ended up loving them!  I think he was pretty proud of himself.  :)

The rain held off once again throughout the afternoon (and into the evening), and we packed in as much as we could in the couple hours we were all there, before I took off with the younger ones and Scott stayed longer with Ethan and Grace who were excited to finally go over to the "real" rides and catch some thrills.  McDonald's on the way home seemed to make the younger crew happy, as did being able to watch a show or two once we were home before it was time for them to head up to bed.  I know Sophie in particular was pretty upset that she didn't get to stay longer, but she doesn't like the bigger rides, and I knew that Ethan and Grace would have no patience for that, especially since they always want Scott to ride with them, too.  Maybe next year, Sophie.  But then again, maybe not.  We all know MY feelings towards amusement park rides, so perhaps she's just inherited my genes.  Hahaha.  Nevertheless, it's always really fun to see how Dividend Day is the funnest day of the year for these kids.  :)

I thought I'd close with a few more amusements, presenting a series of pictures involving the most entertaining $10 Grace ever spent...

 Wig procured from Amazon

 "Peggy" -- "Foreign exchange student from Australia"

 "Maisie" -- "Foreign exchange student from Quebec"

Thank you and goodnight!