Happy Birthday to Vaughan
Vaughan's birthday was July 28th. If you have been within earshot of him over the last three weeks or so, you will have already known this tidbit. Suffice to say that he has been a little excited over it.
We took him to Sesame Place on Friday afternoon. It's a theme park specifically for Sesame Street aged kids. We managed almost five hours before the thunder and lightening shut down the rides. Five very long, very hot, very boring hours for those of us who don't care for rides all that much. If you don't like rides and you are planning a trip to Sesame Place I have two suggestions: bring a sun umbrella because they seem to prefer blazing sun there, and bring a book or some knitting to occupy the time you will be waiting at a picnic table or along a curb while your husband and son are waiting in line to get on a 60-second ride. Oh, and for the love of god, pack a lunch. The prices at Elmo's Cafe border on obscene!
Otherwise it was a pretty good day. Vaughan had fun, and I suppose that was the point afterall. Sesame Place has a sunny day guarantee wherein they will provide you with free admission for another day if it rains for at least an hour while you are there already. We didn't wait the whole hour so we didn't partake of the guarantee. The good news is that Sesame Place also offers a one-time free admission for military families, so we'd already gotten in for free.
The next day we had a little party in the backyard. We invited the three boys who live behind us whom Vaughan plays with frequently, and the little boy that I was babysitting through last school season, Collin, and his older sister. I don't know why I should be surprised that his mother should invite herself and spend the entire afternoon in our pool without even bothering to bring a present for the birthday boy - but she still never ceases to offend me anew. It was a nice party otherwise, Vaughan and his friends mostly swam, ate pizza and cake with ice cream, opened presents and then swam some more. The rest of the grownups sat around in the shade, knitting, gossiping, drinking Coronas and so forth.
So, my baby is six years old now. He starts first grade in September. We went out and bought the supplies that the school has listed for him - two black marbled notebooks, two double-pocket folders, pencils with erasers and a sharpener, 24 crayons and a backpack to put all that crap in. Actually, his Gramma and Papa got him the backpack - with Lightening McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars. They also bought him a pair of roller blades because he was all psyched up over a hockey camp that our township was offering this month, but it has been cancelled due to a lack of other psyched up kids. They're going to offer it again this winter, which conveniently gives him time to get used to the roller blades.
His big birthday present involved two tadpoles which ended up being much more expensive and involved than ever were the scores of tadpoles that we caught when we were kids! Steve and Joe are their names, and they apparently require their own aquarium, and florescent lighting, and water filter, and live plants, and a themometer, and god knows what else. My tadpoles came from a sticky, nasty gully near our school and they lived in a ratty old wading pool in our frontyard - and if they had gone to school, they probably would have had to walk uphill both ways in a blizzard without shoes. Tadpoles today are just spoiled.
Happy July 31 everyone.
We took him to Sesame Place on Friday afternoon. It's a theme park specifically for Sesame Street aged kids. We managed almost five hours before the thunder and lightening shut down the rides. Five very long, very hot, very boring hours for those of us who don't care for rides all that much. If you don't like rides and you are planning a trip to Sesame Place I have two suggestions: bring a sun umbrella because they seem to prefer blazing sun there, and bring a book or some knitting to occupy the time you will be waiting at a picnic table or along a curb while your husband and son are waiting in line to get on a 60-second ride. Oh, and for the love of god, pack a lunch. The prices at Elmo's Cafe border on obscene!
Otherwise it was a pretty good day. Vaughan had fun, and I suppose that was the point afterall. Sesame Place has a sunny day guarantee wherein they will provide you with free admission for another day if it rains for at least an hour while you are there already. We didn't wait the whole hour so we didn't partake of the guarantee. The good news is that Sesame Place also offers a one-time free admission for military families, so we'd already gotten in for free.
The next day we had a little party in the backyard. We invited the three boys who live behind us whom Vaughan plays with frequently, and the little boy that I was babysitting through last school season, Collin, and his older sister. I don't know why I should be surprised that his mother should invite herself and spend the entire afternoon in our pool without even bothering to bring a present for the birthday boy - but she still never ceases to offend me anew. It was a nice party otherwise, Vaughan and his friends mostly swam, ate pizza and cake with ice cream, opened presents and then swam some more. The rest of the grownups sat around in the shade, knitting, gossiping, drinking Coronas and so forth.
So, my baby is six years old now. He starts first grade in September. We went out and bought the supplies that the school has listed for him - two black marbled notebooks, two double-pocket folders, pencils with erasers and a sharpener, 24 crayons and a backpack to put all that crap in. Actually, his Gramma and Papa got him the backpack - with Lightening McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars. They also bought him a pair of roller blades because he was all psyched up over a hockey camp that our township was offering this month, but it has been cancelled due to a lack of other psyched up kids. They're going to offer it again this winter, which conveniently gives him time to get used to the roller blades.
His big birthday present involved two tadpoles which ended up being much more expensive and involved than ever were the scores of tadpoles that we caught when we were kids! Steve and Joe are their names, and they apparently require their own aquarium, and florescent lighting, and water filter, and live plants, and a themometer, and god knows what else. My tadpoles came from a sticky, nasty gully near our school and they lived in a ratty old wading pool in our frontyard - and if they had gone to school, they probably would have had to walk uphill both ways in a blizzard without shoes. Tadpoles today are just spoiled.
Happy July 31 everyone.
Willowmist
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