My first rodeo and other things

Don’t tell my daughter, but my husband and I went to the Puyallup Fair today.  We went mainly to see the rodeo, but also had fun strolling around in search of food.  I particularly liked watching the people . . . the arms covered in tattoos, the women teetering on spiky heeled boots, the strollers transporting identical twins.

We’re taking the kids in about ten days, so don’t feel too sorry for them.  We have to rob a bank save up some money before we take them.

Yesterday was Grace’s birthday party.  We invited the whole class and thirteen kids ending up attending.  The party took place at a local high school swimming pool and it was fun to watch the kids bobbing around in the water.

The highlight for me occurred while Grace was opening gifts.  After she pulled one gift from a gift bag, the boy who’d given it to her shouted, “My mom says to bring that bag home!”  I laughed and told him that he could have the bag back.

Later, when I gave him the bag to take back to his mom, I noticed that it was not even an actual birthday bag, but a generic bag that was battered from previous uses.  I admired his mom’s frugality and was really very amused.

In every moment of my spare time this week, I read Catching Fire.  I only heard about The Hunger Games within the past week or two . . . suddenly, I heard the book mentioned repeatedly because the last book in the trilogy came out (Mockingjay).  So, I jumped on the bandwagon and have been happily immersed in these books–reading them at the same time as my 12-year old.  (We were racing through book one to see who could start book two first.  He won but I read book two first since he was busy this weekend playing video games and running around outside with friends.)

And so another week begins.