kiddieland, pets and a witch

July has been busy! After we returned from Maine we hung out around Naperthrill and did some things around here... we took the boys to Kiddieland, which they LOVED. Charlie wasn't afraid of any of the rides and kept up with Jack the entire day. It was a nice family fun day for us. You see them on the flying saucers here? Oh, did I mention that Kiddieland was built some years ago... based on everything metallic and a space and war theme, I'm guessing the 60s? Okay, I read the history- it was built in 1929 but there must have been someone involved excited about transportation and the military!

Riding the "Venus" flying saucer!

Learning how to shoot others in the little jets with guns (see them?) nice....

They rode this vintage vehicle carousel at least 9 times in a row before they got kicked off... I'm not kidding.

Jack even went down the log flume ride. He wasn't anxious to go again, but had fun.

Then, when we got home, apparantly the boys were bored so they played dress up with and old bridesmaid dress and my winter coat... and their dad. I think Jack was supposed to be the fisherman from "I Know What You Did Last Summer"...

Then Jack found a big yellow fuzzy catepillar on the sidewalk in the back and we made a home for it with some leaves and a twig, cause you in The Very Hungry Catepillar by Eric Carle, that's what he eats... and what we didn't know was that the next day this catepillar would spin a cocoon and that is where "Mr. Silly" (Jack named him- creative, considering the shirt he is wearing, eh?) would live for now... we're waiting to see if he comes to live. It's just like the book. We can't get over it!

So then we thought Mr. Silly would be lonely, and we ended up at PetSmart, choosing a betta fish (and smartly bypassing the lizards, geckos, gerbils, mice and puppies Jack had his eye on...) and ended up with the newest member of our family, Jackson. Why Jackson? Well.... we originally thought it was because sometimes Grandpa Art will call Jack, "Jackson". Um no, don't we realize, Mom and Dad, that Jackson is Hannah Montana's brother. "What-forever, mom". (I swear, he does try to pull that attitude with us, but he doesn't get it quite right, so he'll say stuff like "What-forever" instead of "Whateva!"...

So in another attempt to stay out of the heat and humidty, we made Jackson and Mr. Silly some signs, so you know, they can tell where they live if either should happen to wander from their homes... and some pictures for them to look at "incase they get bored." Jack also made us play them "Here It Goes Again" (his favorite song) for his new pets. And he's sure when he goes back to school in August that he's going to tell ALL his friends that he has TWO pets, cause, you know... he was the only one who had NO pets last year....