School's Out for Summer . . .

The highlight of our week was Tuesday around noon. K was excited because it was her last day of school . . . I was thrilled to read her report card and see she is headed to Second Grade in August . . . there are times I wondered. The girl knows everything she's supposed to know, it's the whole "stay in your seat and be quiet" thing she has trouble with.

Since yesterday was officially the first day of summer vacation, we continued the tradition of celebrating by heading to the amusement park. The park was different (Dorney Park, not Busch Gardens like last year) but the fun quotient was the same . . . despite the rainy drizzle that continued all day. One the down side, she is still too short to ride two of the big roller coasters (by 2 inches) and the rain meant the other coasters were closed for slippery tracks. On the up side, since we were already wet we hit the water rides early and often (we usually save those for our way to the car and dry clothes). Despite the lack of any actual roller coaster time, we had a blast on the twirly rides, K had a solo trip on a big "swing you around in the air" ride (the bar wouldn't close over my boobs, so I had to sit that one out) and we both did the "take you up in the air and shot you straight down to scare the crap out of you" ride. We called it an early day and hit the mall on the way home for hot chocolate and hair accessories for the 4th of July. All in all, not a bad day.

One of the things I missed most about PA is the summer carnivals. All of the fire companies here are run by volunteers and their main fundraisers are summer carnivals. The first one started last week and we stumbled on it after a special Thursday night soccer game while we were driving through town trying to figure out what to have for dinner. Carnival fare won hands down.

We went back Friday to celebrate the last full day of school (seemed like a good reason) and just had to join my folks when they went after Tuesday's soccer game for some ham and bean soup. K is disappointed that her mean mommy won't let her buy a baby turtle from the stand in the middle of the carnival grounds, but we were both delighted to find out she shared my love of Skee-Ball.