June 3

Trev asked on Saturday to go to the skating rink.
On a Saturday.
Uh......Here's the thing, Bud....,

I s'pose that homeschoolers are sort of spoiled - especially if you really don't like crowds... because The Skating Rink (or Ring, as Little Son calls it) sends shivers through the spine every bit as violently as The Park On Saturday does.
Why on Earth would anyone go on a Saturday, when he can go in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday???
Thankfully, he understands well such language as "It will be busy..." and he reads "won't be able to play the way you want - ie cannot climb UP the slide, might have to wait in line, rulesrulesrules", etc etc.
"Aaah." he says. "How 'bout Sunday? Are the kids out of school on Sunday?"
Monday is out.... Daddy swears Come-Hell-Or-High-Water-He's-Goin-Fishin. Alone. Hmmph.
"How bout (he figured this out on his own, by what he knows of our family schedule) the day after the day after the day after tomorrow? Will that do?"
"That will make it Tuesday."
"Will that do? The day after the day after the day after tomorrow?"
"Yes, I think so. Should be fine."
He doesn't particularly want to skate. If at all.
Wants to play arcade games. (Goodness Gracious - they have games for a token - which is ten cents! Can you believe that???) An' he wants to bounce. They have a glorious collection of super-sized bounce things. You can play - bring your trike, scooter, skates, blades, or rent them, and bounce and run and play all day 'til five for five bucks. A dream, I tell you.

So! Off we were then!

Had to first go to the store - Madd was in sore need of a new pair of shoes, and Trev has outgrown all his (last year's) shorts.
So this post also features RockStar shoes, Madd calls them.

We're off. Again.
Like a herd of Turtles, as my dear Janice says.

To the ring! To the Ring!
This is one of those giant rubber band things that you pull forward and it flies you back. Superfun.

See that look on her face while riding this motorcycle? It pretty much sums up Maddie's personality.

She just grabbed the rope and started climbing. Climbed it over and over again. "All by my Self!"

In search of frogs.
But no. Again.
But there was other fun to be had.Identifying birds by their calls.
Pretending dinosaurs were stalking us.
Maddie made markers on our trails - piles of rocks or sticks. She did it several times. Not sure why. So we wouldn't get lost?


We climbed dinosaur stones (as named by Maddie) and hunted and explored off the trails, and stalked and ran and tromped.

Madd lost her shoe, bringing attention to it.
"Those shoes are not RockStar shoes." Pipes in her brother. "They're more like...... feathers and unicorns!"

When are we going to the Park? Maddie wants to know.
"This is the park. It's the nature park."
"When are we going to Liverty Park?" (Liberty Park. They both call it Liverty.)
"Wull, not today." Good God. Really?

Icecream on the way home was the plan, until the not very smart Mama thought of the icecream shop probably not carrying soy icecream....
so a stop to the grocer's instead.
For Rocky Road and Cherry. And sugar cones.
And a blueberry crumbcake.

I mentioned to Maddie that we could have her birthday at the skating rink, if she would like, and we could get passes for the new Jungle area. (Which we didn't know about until we got inside, it was new for us.)
She seems to really like the idea.
Trev seems to think that it's a swell place for his birthday, too. He's marking their birthdays on his calendar.
We'll see.

There was this mad bzzzzing last night, and I thought it was a giant bee trying to get out the window, but guess what?
It was a June Bug!!! (at least what I spent my childhood calling June Bugs.)
What in the world is a June Bug doing here? I haven't seen one since I was a kid in Oklahoma!!

I was a bit worried about it at first, because it just kind of limped and sat around, but after I picked it up and let it crawl all over me, it didn't want to let me go.
But I put him/her outside in the front garden. Hopefully he was alright.
Trev was nervous, but Madd loved it.At about that time the children were playing and laughing - 11pm - and I was so ready for quiet and CSI so excused myself and ran and hid.
I don't know where they get the nerve to play hard all day and still be awake and happy and rowdy 11pm. sheesh.