Our Hometown Vacation Continues

Well, last week was pretty hot. Not "fry an egg on your sidewalk" hot, but more like humid mixed with a little heat. Today I think I could wring out the air and get a glassful of water. In spite of (or because of, in some cases) the heat, we managed a little family fun. I got the boys out to the park on Thursday and Friday. The poor little guys were too warm on Thursday to play on the equipment, so they had fun under the shade trees instead. We went to a different park on Friday, and they had too much fun exploring a new playset to notice the heat much. I had a caterpillar-type-bug loving on my ankle repeatedly (I must be tasty to caterpillar-type-bugs) so I had to move the bench at least once to get away from the guy! Though I do not dress in girlie clothes, I am a girlie girl when it comes to dirt and bugs! Icky! After the park, I let the boys buy water guns to chase each other in the front yard b/c our backyard is home to several swarms of mosquitoes and we can't put up their pool.

Anyway, we had been hemming and hawing about whether or not to go to Riverfest this year. We finally decided not to and went to a little subdivision having garage sales instead. This supposedly huge neighborhood sale had only four and all of them had clothing that was the wrong sizes for my kids. Matthew did use a bathroom there and left his dollar on their sink, so I guess we used a pay toilet unexpectedly. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to the craft fair at Riverfest. Yup, three children under five, and we did something on the spur of the moment. We're so cool.

We hit McDonald's first for those great $1 large drinks so we had something to sip and then made our way to the park. We actually found parking in the surrounding neighboorhood without too much trouble (even in the shade!) and hiked down to the park. Of course, we had to walk right past all of the carnival rides and I thought I was going to have to put Matthew's eyes back into his head. He still had a lot of birthday money leftover and he knew it, so he wanted to do some rides. Since they weren't open yet, we "convinced" him to go to the craft fair first. The island where the booths were had been underwater in the June flood, but was fine now, so that was nice for them. There were a lot of booths, but nothing much that interested us. There was a homemade soapmaker, but not the kind I use, and no card-making people to steal ideas from. Rob found a few ideas at wood making booths, but Matthew hit the jackpot. He bought himself one of those wooden gun things that makes a loud popping sound when you play with it. He and Ben have had great fun with it (and yes, it is orange, his favorite color.)

We met up with some people from church and talked for a bit. Then we hit the food stands. Many of the local eateries and restaurants have booths, so you can get a good taste of a lot of places you might not normally visit. We had gyros (pronounced yee-ros) and baklava and the boys had corn dogs. Yummy! Rob even found six extra food coupons on the ground which helped with the meal. He's convinced that had he looked hard enough, he could have paid for the whole meal for free. What a scavenger!

After lunch, we hit the rides. Matthew had $14 left, so I was able to get the 15 ticket deal for $13 (just to show how crazy carnival ride prices are) and that got us a total of five rides. Hmm...two boys, five rides.....how to divide evenly? Have Mommy take them on the Ferris Wheel! Matthew loved it, but Ben was a little scared. He sat very still the entire time and informed me at one point that he didn't like it when we go down. He was okay afterwards, but I'm not sure we could have gotten him to go again. The boys then went on a bumble bee ride and Ben hung on for dear life. I think he'd hit his ride limit, but Matthew wanted to go on everything, even the stuff he's way too little for! I have my ride buddy.....when he hits four feet!!

So, we had a great time. Totally impromptu, but great. In the aftermath, however, we discovered the need to keep hats in the car. Rob's poor bald head is still rather red. I tried to get him to wear his Bob the Tomato tie on Sunday, but he wouldn't b/c he was interpreting. Get it, Rob the tomato, Bob the tomato....I'm so silly.

Next vacation destination....the Madison Zoo!