Family Fun Fair @ KG P&R

 The King George Parks and Rec department held a Family Fun Fair on Saturday.  I saw it advertised all over Facebook and when I noticed that everything was free, of course I had to go!  The kids had a blast and it was small enough to do everything but not so small that we were bored in minutes.  The inside games were first, with Emily hitting the face painting booth and both kids getting balloon animals from Lola the Clown (dinosaur for Jason and fishing pole with fish for Emily).  Then it was a few cheesy carnival games with even cheesier prizes.  After we picked up our free hotdogs and drinks, we grabbed some cotton candy and headed outside.  Both kids took multiple horse rides, played with the animals in the petting zoo, and enjoyed the bounce houses.  

Corn hole for kids!

DIY photo booth!

Ride 'em cowgirl!

Good chicken, you are so fluffy!

Emily starts Kindergarten and Jason Goes to Preschool!

What a big change for all the kids this year!  Garrett is now a junior at KGHS and Caroline started as a freshman!  She is attending the Governor's School, which is housed in a wing of KGHS, and all of her best friends are in CGS as well.  Caroline announced that high school is "overwhelming and intimidating" her first week, but now we're starting week #3 and I think it's getting a little easier for her. Yes, you read that correctly--week #3.  Teachers reported back Aug. 8 and the kids showed up Aug. 15th!  An early start but I won't be complaining on my last day of school May 22nd!  

Emily started kindergarten in Mrs. Boyd's class and couldn't be happier!  Her teacher's husband is the principal at the high school and he's highly respected and liked in the area.  Mrs. Boyd seems pretty awesome as well and even called home last week to make sure that Emily is enjoying school.  

Jason was in for a huge surprise this year as well.  He started at the King George Preschool and attends their 4 day program.  I was nervous on how he would do with all the changes at once (riding the school bus, taking a lunch box, playing with an entire class of kids, etc.) but he's doing great!  His teacher, Ms. Jennette (yes, my former sister-in-law!) draws dinosaurs with him and says that he's really enjoying school (we stayed friends and I get text updates on Jay every week).  On the second day of school, I woke up Jason and told him that we needed to get ready to go.  He said, "To Mum Mum's house?" and I said "Yes, but we have school today too".  Jay jumped up and said "You mean I get to go back?!?!  Whooopeeee!".  He was so excited that school wasn't a one-time thing!  And when I picked him up that afternoon he said "Guess what?!  Ms. Jennette was my teacher again too!"  I think it might take a week or two before Jason gets the concept of "school" understood completely :)

First day of school!

Emily's work from her first day

Part of Emily's first day involved drawing a picture of her summer vacation.  She drew the two of us swimming in the pool!

Water Country!

Newly arrived and loving the park!

 Summer break is quickly coming to a close (can you believe I go back tomorrow?!) so Tim and I wanted to sneak in something fun before the chaos and turmoil of school starts.  We headed out to Water Country in Williamsburg on Tuesday because the weather was calling for a high of 88 and a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. I hoped that the cloudiness would scare off the tourists and leave us with some manageable crowds.  The water park has several small play areas for kids, so we headed to the Kritter Korral first!  My friend Sarah and her daughter Norah came with us, and with Sarah being 8 months pregnant, she had to sit out from the big rides but was great company in the play areas!

This was Norah 2 hours into the waiting....and still smiling!

 We had a good 3 hours at the park before the thunder hit.  With the thunder came the mandatory "out of the water" warnings.  We chose that time to grab some lunch and waited out the thunderstorm under the pavilion area.  Two hours into the storm, the kids were doing great (soooo much more patient than the adults!) and we took advantage of a break in the storm to grab some ice cream.  Another hour later, half of the people there had headed for the exits, and we were greeted by bright blue skies and an announcement that all rides were now open!  The kids all ran for some of the bigger rides--Tim and I took the 3 little ones on the Big Daddy Falls and they loved it!  Tim also took each kid down the Meltdown while Sarah and I entertained the others in the UFO H20 area and the Hubba Hubba Highway lazy river.  We ended up staying until almost closing, heading for the exit at 6:30 PM!  There were no crowds or waits for any of the rides because of the weather.  It turned out to be the perfect day.  A quick stop for Happy Meals before heading home, and each kid was passed out before we hit 64 West.  

Jay was less enthusiastic with the wait....

Emily was freezing and used 2 of our towels to warm up!

Back in the water!  Emily and Jay loved the slides and had such a great time with Norah!