Yet Another Busy Weekend

We just can't sit still here in the Ross-Boon household. I think it has a lot to do with Daddy's disdain for sitting around the house. :) Anyway....Saturday was Big Truck Day at the Magic House. We have been looking forward to this since we registered back in July. One of Aidan's favorite things, up close and personal. We even went early, which was a good thing. They have a backhoe, skid loader, front end loader, articulated dump truck, and crane. Aidan just sort of wandered from one to the other in a daze. He didn't want to sit in any of them, which surprised me. He just wanted to look at them. Before too long, the parking lot was inundated with kids. Kids, kids everywhere! Honestly, there weren't enough trucks to look at for the number of kids that came. It's no fun to wait in line for 15 minutes so your child can have his two minute turn in the backhoe. So we decorated our plastic hard hat they gave us, which Aidan loves, and moved on to digging in the sand with trucks and loaders. Aidan has a very set way in which he plays. He has to have a loader and a dump truck and he scoops and dumps over and over and over. It's just his way of doing things. This became difficult as the throng of children seemed to follow us. Now Aidan had to share and/or keep kids from swiping his stuff. This is good practice for him as he isn't used to these kind of social situations. At least that's what I kept telling Daddy as he became increasingly nervous and uncomfortable with the whole thing. Julien gets worked up because he doesn't want to step in a tell another kid to politely back off and have another parent get upset, even if their kid really should back off. It's the whole balance between having your child share and be nice and stepping in when other kids are grabby. I told him to let Aidan be and see how he does on his own. He did pretty well. When an older boy took the dirt from Aidan's dump truck (Aidan had walked away at his point to scoop more dirt) and put it in his dump truck, he didn't get mad and yell. He actually started scooping dirt with the other boy and working together to fill one truck. I was very proud of him and praised him for his teamwork. The other boy seemed tickled by this compliment too and started talking to me about his truck and hat. When the crush of children was too much for Daddy, we went inside the Magic House only to find it was completely overwhelmed with people. At this point we were only an hour into the event and still waiting for the lunch they were to provide. Seeing how it was 10:30a, we had a choice. Stay and probably be overrun by munchkins or leave and do something else. Of we went to the Transportation Museum. It really has become our stand by. It doesn't take a lot of time to go through. Aidan can run and see everything. And we can ride the train and streetcar. All of this and it only really takes an hour or two. Aidan, of course, had a blast. Daddy and I commented on how we've really gotten our money's worth out of our membership and how you're never crowded there either. After the train ride, Aidan was pretty relaxed so we stopped for lunch at Chik-fil-a (the only place Aidan will eat an entire 4 piece chicken nuggets) and headed home for nap. Was that the end to our day- oh no! After having to wake Aidan up at 4pm from his nap (my boy LOVES to sleep), we took off for dinner with the neighbors Mike and Jen. We are very excited for them as they found out this week that they are having a boy. Which of course, I knew from the very beginning and have told them all along. :) After dinner, we checked out Bee Tree Park in South County. Aidan loved the playground, then again he loves most playgrounds. He even tried the swings with Daddy. He's getting braver. Then we headed to Dairy Queen and then home. After we all took turns spilling ice cream in the livingroom, long story, we hung out and watched TV. Aidan, in fact, sat with Mike and Jen, crawling all over them and taking turns tickling them and being tickled. After all that, I was ready for a relaxing Sunday. That didn't mean I was going to get one though. Waking up this morning, it didn't take long to realize our power was out. What was left of Hurricane Ike came through last night and dumped a bunch of rain and wind on us. So, unable to cook or watch TV or even open the fridge really, we set off to Steak and Shake for breakfast. We were enjoying our pancakes and hash browns when a waitress walked up to our table and calmly asked us to please evacuate the building. Stunned, we asked why. She calmly replied, "our kitchen's on fire. we've called the fire department and they asked us to evacuate." First off, kudos to the waitress for a calm and orderly evacuation. She even asked us if we wanted to-go boxes for our food. And even better, told us not to worry about paying. So as we rolled out, the fire trucks rolled in, which was a bonus for Aidan. No one was injured and I'm sure the place is ok. Apparently, they were having problems with the grill and couldn't get a grease fire out. After that experience, we were a little worried we were jinxed. We made a stop to Borders and half expected to be told to evacuate due to a bomb threat. We made it home in one piece and finally, the power came back on. Now we can relax and enjoy what is left of our weekend.