nixtress's Diaryland Diary

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Playing hooky, Halloween decor and flowery hugs

I was a bad mom yesterday. Well...bad by popular standards. I called the boys in sick and we went to a street fair not far from here.
See, our county fair was a couple weeks ago and it's a big to-do in our little burg. Everyone goes and it's very typical for kids to meet up with friends and spend the whole time bouncing from ride to ride to ride. However, things were tight and we didn't have the money to go so while all their friends were going then coming back to school to tell the tales, my sons missed it all.
I felt bad about that but couldn't squeeze it and they understood but still...they're kids!
So yesterday we got up, had breakfast and trundled off to this fair. It was a perfect day for it, cool but not cold and clear and completely saturated with sunshine. We walked through the animal barns and displays. Ryan loves the pigs and cows and talks to them in this ridiculous baby voice.
Then came the fun stuff---riding the rickety rides and scaring Mom half to death. I've said it before---as a kid, I had no fear of fair rides. I rode them with gusto and had a blast. Now, as an adult with a different perspective, I look at them and see how easily something terrible could happen with them! They just don't seem as...sturdy as they used to. The boys love them, though. Ry's favorite fluctuated between one where you lie on your belly and fly like Superman and one called the DownDraft that sits you in a car and then flings you to the moon. I laughed my ass off at him, at the look of sheer joy on his face when he's on these rides. My little adrenaline junkie at age 9! Trev's a little more fearful and tends toward the more cautious side.
After I managed to peel them off the rides, we indulged in Fair Food. Bad for the arteries, but wonderful for the taste buds. I had a gyro, the boys had footlong corn dogs and we all had fair fries, smothered in salt and vinegar. Then it was onto cotton candy and an elephant ear for Mom!
Games were played and we are now the proud parents of three Fair Fish, named Quicksilver (because he's a silver goldfish), Starry (because Ry swears he's got a tiny little star on his body) and Puddin'Tater (because Trev's a dork).
I tried to prepare the boys for the eventuality that the fishies might die (they're Fair Fish!) but they're not buying it. I'll just have to replace them with betas if they do.
All in all, well worth the not-in-perfect-attendance record for school.
***
The trees are in flames here. Each day, they seem to pop even more. I got up all the Halloween decor on Thursday---spideywebs all over the front porch, a mammoth black furry spider climbing up the side of the house, little tombstones peppering my flowergardens and bats hanging from my porch roof. Trevor and Ryan were pumped to get off the bus! We're still in negotiations over costumes for Beggar's Night.
***
I'm going out to my Grams' grave this afternoon. My aunts finally got the stone up. I'm a little bothered at their requests that we only put up fake flowers (I know it's because they're afraid someone'll plant live ones and then let them go mad instead of tending to them but still...)
I don't like fake flowers. My Grams enjoyed live ones. And that's what I'll take or plant, as I feel like it.
Happy Weekend!
N.

9:31 a.m. - 2006-10-07

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