Kindergarten - The First Day

I left early to be near the front of the car line. I was excited to hear all of the wonderful things Andy experienced today. Here's the earful:

Andy arrived at the minivan in tears. A kid in his class (or not, this remains unclear) said he had a small head and big eyes. Or was it a big head and small eyes? Either way, it was a definite insult. Another kid overheard the insult being flung and told the teacher. Unfortunately, it was too late for the kid to move his pin. The next encounter with this kid will have Andy saying, "I would rather be ugly than rude like you."

Key told Andy (not while I was listening) that there was a volcano on the kindergarteners playground. Andy found that this was not true after searching every square inch. He was sorely disappointed. He also complained that there were way too many kids on this playground. "It was like somebody kicked an antpile and a bunch of kids came climbing out," a disgusted Andy reported.

Lunch, which seemed straightforward enough, was a bust. Andy was given two breads, a meat and a slice of cheese. "Was that supposed to be a hamburger?" he asked. He dropped this 'quasi' hamburger on the cafeteria floor but it did not fall apart and he was able to eat it. (gag!)

His milk was in a strange little box and tasted horrible.

He did not get fries. I pressed him on this because they were definitely on the menu. Key asked if he got those 'white round things with smiley faces'. Yes, he did get those. Well, Key explained, those were the fries. "Well, those things were horrible. I have never seen a fry like that in my whole life." (Have we not exposed him to enough?)

At least he recognized and appreciated the 'soft' chocolate chip cookie. There's somethin'!

He explained that he had 'a million of things' in his backpack and he had to bring it home everyday and he had to take it back to school the next day. He is fairly certain that that will never happen. He can't figure any of this stuff out! We discovered his folder in his backpack and found his homework sheet. He is supposed to take a picture of himself as a baby tomorrow and draw a picture of something he learned. One large and one small stick figure are gonna have to do on that part. I am not going to start helping with homework on the very first day ever! But we did find a cute picture of him in his yellow giraffe suit. Somedays I wonder if it weren't easier back then. Thankfully, back then, I didn't realize I would every say that.

Tubing the Green River

Hmmm, so we went tubing today. It was.....interesting, to say the least. The Green River doesn't have a descriptive name. If it did have a descriptive name it would be the Red Murky River. Maybe Mr. Green found the river and named it after himself.

The general idea, upon getting to the outpost, was to pay and put your tube on the trailer. Then you got on the short bus attached to this trailer for a ride upstream. I have to tell ya, most of these people were probably remembering riding a short bus to school at one time. Whew! I am even thinking that some of them were using this as their weekly bath. The girl by me smelled of BO, cigarette smoke and peanut butter. ICK! You could have grown a garden under her fingernails!!!! We felt as if we had crashed a redneck convention. Speaking of cigarettes, I think we were the only ones who did NOT have a ziplock bag with a pack inside.

Okay, enough of that. We get in the river. It is moving very slow. Except for Andy. Andy is half a mile downstream before we can blink. Then it got faster, we hit some rapids. Key gets tangled in some brush by the side of the river and flips off his tube. Then Key is underwater rapid riding. I snatch him up and into my tube. His tube is gone and so is his shoe. We'd just gotten started. Now I am very concerned about the blonde speck that is Andy! Somehow we all get back together and Robbie finds Key's tube. He is still scared and wants to remain in my lap. I convince him that me having numb legs will not benefit us in the least, so he gets off them and lets the blood circulate once again. Any rapid after this point send him into mild hysteria. At one point I am holding his tube with one hand and Andy's tube with the other. I cannot steer at all, of course. We got hung up on a rock and as I am scootching back and forth, back and forth Andy is saying, "WOW, look at that HUGE snake! He is HUGE! Mom, can you see him?!!!!" SCOOTCH SCOOTCH SCOOTCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think my arms are at least an inch longer than when we started. While holding onto both boys tubes we would get hung up on rocks and at one such impasse I think my elbows actually touched behind my back. I went over the rapid and they did not!

One funny moment was when Andy said, "Well, I've seen a bunch of turtles and that huge snake. Key keeps seeing lots of rabbits (rapids!) and I haven't seen any." He also said, after a particularly rough 'rabbit' that the first man to ever float down this river must not have wanted to live anymore. LOL

I did end up seeing one snake in the water with my own eyes so Andy might really have seen his too. I would have thought it was too cold for a snake but there he was!

So, anyway, that was our last-Saturday-before-school-starts adventure. Wanna go with us next time? :)

Florida

I can't believe I never posted about Florida. I think because we were gone so long and did so much that I felt overwhelmed with even beginning to describe it all. As always, it was awesome. We have so much fun there. We were either busy with old friends or not busy and pool/beach side. You really can't beat that.

Some firsts this year: all three kids flew on the trapeze. They all had a great time and were so brave! We also watched the 4th of July fireworks at the jetty. We are usually at a party at the Bay's house and watch the North Port fireworks. We took our beach chairs down just before dark and watched the whole show with our toes in the sand. Also, our Andy-man decided that snorkeling would be fun. He was underwater more than he was on top. He found a whole sand dollar, which is now in his collection. We also found a hermit crab and kept him for an afternoon. Oh, and Key got to drive his first boat! Our friend Jesse was gracious (and brave) enough to let Key take over the wheel. Key took everyone from snake island, out through the jetty and back. He still hasn't stopped talking about it. Thanks Jesse! Natalie got two new boyfriends at the pool. She is going to be trouble one day!

If you would like to view our pictures (there are way too many) you can see them here: www.GoodsonFL.winkflash.com.