Once is not enough

The kindergarten meet and greet went well.

T met his teacher and already knows a couple of the kids in his class from YMCA camp. I'm so relieved because none of the kids from his PreK class seem to be in there and T will be more excited (if that's even possible) that he's going to school with some kids he knows. I'm excited because since he's invited everyone and their extended family to his birthday party that we haven't planned yet (don't give my blog that look, it's not until near the end of October) it would be nice if we could follow through with a couple of those invites.

Anyway. We found his locker and put his stuff away. I walked him through the morning process of coming in and what to do in the classroom. He was vibrating with excitement, which is so much nicer than when he's vibrating with anger. We looked around this classroom, found his chair, and he wrote his name and drew a picture for the teacher. I showed him the cafeteria, signed up for PTO, said hello to some more of the kids he knew from PreK last year. And then we were off. Our resident diva was not impressed that she didn't get a locker, chair, and a classroom too, but she was an admirably good sport about it.

Once we got home, the plan for the rest of the day was to go back to Six Flags since yesterday we made it there at 4 and found out the water park closed at 6. My apologies to the Google gods for not looking that up when it was just so out there and easy for me to find. Of course I also needed to find the other two discount coupons so that Angela and Madison wouldn't have to sell a limb to get back into the park. And, T wanted to play more Super Mario Brothers with Madison, and she has been sweet enough for her entire visit to humor his wii obsession.

We finally made it to the park around 2, which gave us four hours. Wooo! Only problem? The pavement was so hot that it actually burned MY feet so I hate to think what it did to anyone elses. So we had to lug our shoes where ever we went. The only other problem? They kept closing everything. It was annoying. Really, really annoying. We did our best to let the kids do everything they wanted (provided it was open, of course) that they didn't get to do the day before. The lines for the lazy river and the slides were long enough that we decided to rent tubes. It was worth having to carry them around to not have to wait for tubes and then wait in line. And the tubes would have been a lot of fun in the wave pool had the park not closed it for well over an hour and my kids been so tired at that point that they lost interest. Even T, yes T, said that he was tired and wanted to go home before the park closed. But by golly, we stayed until 6 pm, at which point S had fallen asleep on the tube while it was out of the water, on the tube while we were floating around the lazy river, then on the chair as we were getting our stuff gathered to go. Angela was nice enough to carry her from the lazy river to where our stuff was, and I carried her from the wave pool to the van, where she promptly fell asleep and - with a brief interruption for a potty break and bath - stayed asleep (so far).

The funny thing? Is that the staff at Six Flags seemed like they were trying to dissuade us from anything we wanted to purchase. We asked about a cabana since if you rent a cabana you get the tubes, some drinks, a locker thrown in for the cabana price. Plus, the cabanas are shaded. And it was in the high 90's. We ultimately decided against it, but the guy at the register kept discouraging us from even considering it or renting tubes. When Angela went to rent the tubes, the girl kept trying to talk her out of it as Angela's feet sizzled on the cement. Finally we all went to the tube rental and I must have had my bitch face on because the girl just rented us the floats with no commentary. And the season pass that was so all fire important when Angela tried to rent floats? Saved us a whopping $2. We are going to spend that in band-aids for Angela's blisters. When the kids and I went to get drinks, the lady at the counter tried to talk us into going to another counter because she didn't have a lot of ice. SERIOUSLY, lady? Do you not see my kids about to spontaneously combust over here? My response? Just give me the doggone drinks, ice or no ice. Pleaseandthankyouverymuch.

But man, that water felt GOOOOOOOD. The lines seemed to move a lot quicker today, which I think is partly because we had our own tubes. I'm glad we went back, though. My kids had a great time and I think Madison did too. She was a great sport about playing with T and S and they just adore her. And also? Look ma, no sunburn! Two days in a row in blistering heat with a single application of sunscreen. Thank you Water Babies sunscreen! And whaddaya know? I can be outside in the Illinois summer without melting. Go figure.