County Fair

One of the big highlights of the year happened last week.  The county fair came to town!

This year the fair sported a new ferris wheel.

And another new ride:  ZERO GRAVITY.

Benny wanted to ride it. But after walking on, he turned around and walked right back off again.  Standing UP during a ride?  No thanks!

We walked around in the (extremely humid, extremely warm) evening air, and nobody was riding anything.  Why?  They wanted to find some friends from school to ride with.  Even though they had not seen their friends all summer, the fair was not going to get underway until they found someone.

This led me to reflect on how quickly things change.  The first few years we lived here, the boys were thrilled to go to the fair.  Together. And ride rides. Together.  If they found a friend, great. But they were just as content to run side by side from ride to ride.

Well.  Those days are over.  Nobody wants to ride rides with their BROTHER!

Lucky for them (because I was getting really annoyed with the stalling) they each found batches of friends.  And everyone broke off and rode rides like crazy.

Benny rode the "Himalaya," and loved it.  In fact, he and his friends rode everything!

They even went back to ZERO GRAVITY.  Turns out Sam was riding it with his friends. Well---between that, and Benny's friends riding the ride--Benny walked on and rode it.  And then rode it again. He loved it!

After hours of hot, sweaty, running around, laughing, pushing, riding and joking, everyone was ready to go home.  Including Mom!

So long, county fair, and see you next year!

Cola Project

This summer has been all about the Black Opps, a video game that the boys are very much into.  It's saved many a rainy afternoon.  Or overly hot afternoon.  Or overly dull afternoon.  In short, they've played it a bunch this year.

Benny just made himself a batch of "Perk A Cola's, " which are items that appear in the Black Opps video game.  Each cola gives the player special powers or perks.  (Speed Cola, for example, makes you reload faster in the game.  Double Tap Root Beer makes your bullets come out faster.) 

Benny thought it would be fun to recreate the colas.  So....he looked on line and sure enough, there was a little tutorial on how to make your own perk a colas.  (For display of course, not for drinking!)

He mixed up the liquids inside to just the right color, then he painted the bottle caps.  Then we printed out the labels and glued them to the bottle.  Presto!  Real life Perk A Cola.

He asked me to put this on my blog so here it is.  He's very proud of his project, and rightly so.

Way to go, Benny!

Wrappin' Up Summer

My goodness, summer went by fast this year. I have to say, this has been a fast and fun summer. I think partly it was because there was a lot of travelling this year--that always makes time fly by!  We got to go on the magical Allure of the Seas with mom, Louise, Danielle and Brittany, and then we also got to go to Virginia for a mini-family reunion for several days.  After that, it was a long trip to Alaska, then a couple of weeks at home, then off for a few days of fun in Tenneessee.  Yep, I'd say we were one spoiled family this year.

But now the time has come to wrap it up and put our eyes back on school.  Everyone goes back one week from today.  Sam will be in seventh grade (and yes, I'm in a panic about it) and Benny will start fifth grade.  Because of some shuffling in the school district, Benny will be going to the former Middle School, which now houses fifth and sixth graders only, instead of remaining one more year in his beloved (and safe) elementary school.  I'm not happy about that at ALL.

Anyway.  Today was the day we went back-to-school-shopping.  We loaded up on pencils, notebooks, paper and crayons.  How I dread the day neither of the boys need crayons anymore.  What's a school year without crayones, scissors, and glue?  Sam has already passed that milemarker---but Benny still needed those things.

And wow--look what we found.  A BEATLES pencil pouch!  Benny was thrilled and lit up like it was a brand new tropy or something.  Such small things can make the "going back to school in a new building with new kids and new faces" thing a whole lot easier to bear.  Thank goodness.

So, one more week of staying up late and sleeping late and lazing the days away.  Soon we'll be up in the dark, off on the school bus in the wee hours of the morning, and in for afternoons of homework and agendas and papers to sign and soccer games to go to.  But it's time. We've had a nice break.

Open house next week.  The boys are excited to see who they have in their classes.  They are all hoping to see some friends!  More on that when the time comes.

In the meantime--get ready for school!