a boy's bucket list

For a long time, over a year, T has been a tiny bit obsessed with roller coasters. He's painted them and talked about them and expressed a keen desire to ride one. Now you should know that D and I are both on the wimpy side when it comes to carnival type rides - anything spinny, or  high or generally above bumper cars has us running for the nearest exit. T is made of sterner stuff. And so this year, when the PNE came around, he added his desire to ride a roller coaster to his desire to go to the PNE (and he said it - peen'ee). And figuring I might just be able to manage the kids roller coaster, I thought we should go this year - before he graduates to a bigger, scarier ride that I might have to go on. Also our boy isn't yet tall enough for some of the rides, so qualifies for a discounted ride pass.

So we went. We saw the animals in the barns including a horse from the RCMP Musical Ride. T took pictures of the ducklings and chicks and the cows and goats and baby pigs with his camera (thanks Auntie K) except it didn't have a flash so none of the inside pictures came out except for the cow. Then we looked at the bees and then the tractors and then we stopped for a snack and some much needed tea for D and I. From there we proceeded to Kid's Playce and T spent the next few hours going from ride to ride and having a blast.

He and I lined up and rode the roller coaster (and got our picture to prove it). Then we went back to the barn to watch the duck and pig races before heading to the super dogs show and then a tour of some military equipment. (Here T thinks he is driving a tank!)

Along the way T managed to play a midway game and win a small green fuzzy shark (I think it's a shark - it might be a whale). And then it was time to head home.

And from our happy, sticky, tired boy came "when can we go camping?" on the drive home. So it seems that once roller coaster riding was crossed off his life list, up popped the next thing - camping.

So a few nights later, D was working late and T and I had a "camp out" in the back yard with his teepee.
We had to bring a lantern, construction hat, snacks, games, drinks, sleeping bag, stuffie and his drum. We proceeded to get the tent set up, the sleeping bag laid out, the snacks and drinks lined up and then T had to have a singsong. So he pounded on his drum and sang for a bit.

 It was a prescribed length of time - no mummy, we have to keep singing - before we could stop and have our drinks and snack. Then we laid down on his sleeping bag and tried to see the stars, which didn't work very well as it wasn't very dark. T got concerned about mosquitos and bats coming out in the dark so we moved the tent inside to the living room and eventually he fell asleep in his sleeping bag, inside his tent on the living room floor.

Another thing off the boy bucket list. So we have moved on. Recently T has focused on preparing for Hallowe'en by painting skeletons. Last night he took most of his stuffies down from the shelf in his room and decorated his room with them, and then put them in families (bears, sheep, elephants, miscellaneous). He wants to decorate the house with them for Christmas. He thinks Santa will be so impressed he might leave all the toys at our house.

And last week he requested I start making his birthday cake right away. (His birthday is in January.) He wants a working exploding volcano lava cake in chocolate for his birthday. Hmmm. Need to think about this.

Note: this is my 200th post (I only counted the other day because Dana posted her 400th). Thanks to you readers for reading this (and letting me know that you do).