Odds and Ends

Chris took us to dollar days at the state fair the other day. The girls loved the animals--Ellie especially liked the miniature horses and Moira loved the goats, which she called "llamas". The girls rode on the pretend horses in the kids play area:

And sat on the tractor:
And Chris tried out one of the boats:
Not that you can see him in there. Oh wait, yes, that's his elbow. I wish I took a better picture

It was really a fun trip. There was an amazing reptile exhibit, tons of award winning produce, and amazing food displays. One of the vendors gave us a free elephant ear that was too small for them to sell, so the four of us munched on fried dough and cinnamon sugar to beyond our hearts content. Good times. The only downside was that we didn't let E ride on the carousel. Tickets were three dollars each and you had to have a parent ride too if you were under a certain height, plus Moira would have wanted to go to and the line was huge, so I said no. And you know what? She has asked soooooo many times in the past week why she couldn't go on the carousel that I think it might have been worth twelve dollars to sit on a horse that goes up and down around in a circle just so I wouldn't have to explain to her a million times that I am a huge stick in the mud who refuses to pay money to do something that I don't like.

Humph. I am going to be the funnest grandma, huh?

We had preschool at our house this week. I always get a little bit nervous preparing for preschool, but once it starts things are good. Moira had to be in on the action (I think she has just a little bit of a crush on one of the little boys) and walked across our enormous puzzle, the little stinker. She also had to PAINT! and GLUE! and DRAW!! along with the other kids. She has ways of making her needs known. Ellie loved having friends come to our house and was such a big help picking out treats (apples and handi-snacks) and books to read. We talked about circles on Tuesday and the number 2 on Thursday the second. And we played a lot. And ripped and painted. School is so magical.

Speaking of school, my class is going well. I have 25 students who regularly attend and they're a good mix--quite a few right out of high school and quite a few who are just returning to school. It's a nice slow pace which doesn't mean a ton of preparation, I just hope they're getting something out of it. Either way, it's nice to escape for a few hours twice a week and I love talking about subjects and verbs and agreement and prepositional phrases, so it is a good "out" for me.

We had a full conference weekend--most of the sessions at our house with Chris and Shawn's house for dinner last night and then Grandma Orton's for dinner tonight. What a blessing to be near friends and family who love us.