Fair Food and People Watching

The Sandwich Fair is an annual event for our family because it's that one last summer kind of thing to do before fall kicks in. Quite honestly, the best part of ANY fair for me is the food and the people. Today, we honestly just grazed our way through the day, sharing all the yummy treats that caught our eyes and returning home for Pepcid to make up for it. The rest of the day was filled with watching and being entertained by the variety of people we saw there. Both of these favorite past times were so great for me today that I thought I would put them together into 2 lists. Enjoy:
Food Opportunities We Saw and/or Ate:
Italian sausage
Italian ice
dippin' dots
chocolate covered deep fried bacon, that's right...bacon
elephant ears
funnel cakes
giant turkey legs
burritos, nachos, and tacos oh my
corn dogs: regular and on a yardstick size
eclairs
cheesecake, bananas, strawberries, chicken, steak and pickles...all offered "on a stick"
lemon shakeups
tempura
deep fried Snickers bars

Strange Sightings:
7 year old with a full-out 4 inch high mohawk
Eddie playing horseshoes
1,500 lb. cow "can be yours with a $1 raffle ticket"
baby kangaroo being pushed around in a baby stroller
5 teenagers standing around each eating a giant turkey leg
chocolate covered bacon
Burma bull and a yak in a petting zoo...really?
free rootbeer refills if you buy a tin cup
sewing machines that you don't really sew with, the computer does the work
carnies WITH their teeth
no garbage cans by the food booths
camper with a door that opens to the bathroom
woman eating a giant burrito yelling at her child not to drink her giant soda because "it's not healthy for you!"


Until next year...

Bluestems, Mockingjays and Book Whisperers...Oh My!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything new. School is now in full force and we've spent weeks getting our family ready for it. I've been working in the classroom, ready for 23 new minds. Mark's been adjusting to new schedules for drop-offs. Adam's been preparing for all day in 1st grade. Lucy's been enjoying a new preschool that she loves. But now that those preparations have begun and school has started, the Someday Lists are getting longer. Now just the "someday we'll have to visit..." lists, but the Someday Lists of books that I want to read! I've already gotten hooked on The Hunger Games series and I've been eagerly awaiting the last book in the trilogy, Mockingjay. When did it come out? Right when school started! I was in the middle of another book too, that needed to be finished before starting something new. Then, the meetings at school began. And as we met with my teaching team, another great read surfaced, this time a professional book. The Book Whisperer is the basis of some very cool reading ideas we are planning for this year's 4th graders. Our school has formed a Reading Lounge for kids to come to, for the sole (or soul even!) purpose of hanging out to enjoy reading a great book! How cool is that? I am currently trying to read this book as well. Then there is The 2010 Bluestem Nominee List. The books on this list are all amazing looking and I am looking forward to getting them into the hands of my students, but I want to read them all first! One of my favorites, The BFG, is already on there! Love it! And there are 19 others on this list that are absolutely amazing reads! Clements, Selznick, Weeks, Spinelli.....all fantastic! When will I find the time to read all this great books?? Someday.

Moment of Insanity or New Kitty at the Wold House

Either title would be a great name for this blog title. I was not actively seeking a new 4-legged member to our family; we already have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I complain daily about the hair while sweeping the stairs and the floors. I am disgusted by 1 cat's hairball problem which is threatening our furniture since we cannot completely get rid of the smell of cat spit. I am irritated by dogs sneaking into bed at night and hogging the space. We pay for kennel when we want to go away for a weekend. Vet bills can be costly especially as our pets begin to age now. But I love them all dearly and wouldn't trade them for the world. Let me repeat that I have not been seeking a new pet. We all headed to Petsmart on Saturday to get dog food, cat food and litter. I came in several minutes after my family since I had gone to the store next door to return something. So I stopped at the adoptive pet room since I figured Mark and the kids would be there by then to visit the animals like we always do. Big mistake. There, curled up in a very tiny ball, was my dream kitty. I go inside to tell them I'm here now, and Mark was already giving me a weird look. I get her out, read her papers. Uh oh. She's 4 months old, female, short-haired, and ORANGE. The orange ones are never girls, always toms. Uh-oh. She's been spayed already and was purring so loudly that we could all hear her. I could feel myself melting already and all reason was out the door. But I did have some wits about me and restrained myself from impulse buying her. I did say that I would pray about it and if I still felt as strongly about it I could always come back tomorrow. God said "yes". Her name is Alice.

Dear Tooth Fairy aka Tooth #2

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I have lost my other tooth please come and wake me up. I do not know what you look like. I lost my tooth at Jump Zone.
Your friend, Adam

I Hate to Say It But....

In one month...school starts. We start back on August 23rd. Ugh. It's going too fast: the sleeping in, the lack of schedules, the impromptu plans. As soon as the calendar turns over I will begin thinking about my new children, improved lessons, bulletin boards, room configurations and other planning. I want to make the most of the time we have left to play and relax. Any ideas???

The Tooth Fairy Frenzy

Adam lost his first tooth! The 2 front ones have been pretty wiggly for weeks now and last night at dinner Mark said "boy that one's so loose you could just about pull it!" So with huge drama, Adam pretends to pull it out: "And a 1, and a 2...and a .....3!!!" Then he looks at his hand. The look on his face when he realized that he really DID pull it out was PRICELESS! So then begins the discussion of the Tooth Fairy. Now, I just wrote that these 2 teeth have been wiggly for weeks so we really should have expected the teeth to actually come out some time right? We were not prepared for the Tooth Fairy! Argh! We had not talked about how much to leave, whether we would have the little tooth box or bag to leave each time, whether he should write a letter, whether there would be any other token left along with the money, but most important...how MUCH! I've had the conversation in the lunch room at work with coworkers. Honestly, I thought it was pretty ridiculous! Parents these days apparently are leaving $20 and up for first teeth, video games, coloring books, candy bars, new baseball mitts. Yikes! While I wanted to nurture my child and continue the Tooth Fairy fun we enjoyed as children, I didn't want to set a precedent for Christmas type spending on teeth. So we did what any modern parents would do. We Googled it. Fortunately, Mark came across a great blog by a parents who found herself in the exact same predicament we were in, back in April. It was awesome to know we weren't the only slackers, or the only ones opposed to needing overtime pay to finance a baby tooth. The theme that occured in our research was to use some sort of special token for payment like a $2 bill or a $1 coin, a novelty. It also recommended having kids write letters to the Tooth Fairy so she could write backing explaining "the tooth rules of payment". Thus giving the kids clear expectations for the FIRST TOOTH vs. ALL OTHER TEETH. First Tooth=Bigger Reward. All that being said we left $2 in single bills (no time now to get to a bank for odd bills or special coins) and Mark typed -to disguise the handwriting- a lovely, sweet letter from the Tooth Fairy. We had Adam label the tooth envelope himself and address it to the Tooth Fairy, didn't think about having him write a letter until after he was in bed! All in all, we didn't completely blow it, but now that we are expecting the 2nd one to come out any day now, we need to be prepared! We will be paying $1 coins for all other teeth and will need to make a visit to the bank to get them. I think that 50cents is plenty, but Daddy was put in charge of Tooth Fairy duty and that was his call, I'm supporting it totally. This morning before 6:30am our boy was in our bedroom shaking with excitement over his discovery. He had his wallet out and plans made to visit the Dollar Store without delay. After I explained that the store wouldn't be open for 4 more hours he settled down to reread the letter. Bliss. We didn't blow it. More bliss. Now we will follow the Boy Scout motto and "Be Prepared" for the next tooth because while it seemed like just last week when we saw the tooth first appear in his little gummy mouth, it will be that quick that the others will fall out too, bringing on the grown up teeth. *sigh*

Vampires and Country Music! "Colt Ford - Chicken and Biscuits"