Playing Hooky

I incorrectly assumed that the school year would end before Memorial Day, as it did last year, and we made our weekend plans accordingly, deciding to stay down the shore until this morning. Once I learned that Emily did in fact had another week of school, I waffled a bit, even consulting her teacher to make sure she wouldn't miss anything if she skipped school today. Apparently the last week of preschool entails mostly free play -- who would have guessed?! -- which is to say that she wouldn't miss much at all besides one more day of playing with her friends. After all, we won't be able to get away with this much longer. Soon enough the girls will have actual school work and even exams waiting at home, and we'll be braving the Memorial Day traffic along with the rest of the shoobies.

That's not to say that we spent the morning relaxing and luxuriating in the post-Memorial Day quiet. We had another reason not to waste too much time getting out of the beach house this morning: tickets to the Horse Show. Mom-Mom and Poppy had won box tickets at an auction, and who are we to let them go to waste?

If you've talked to Emily at all this week, you already know how excited she was about it. (I'm sure her teachers will hear about it tomorrow. Uh-oh.) She could already spot the horse show grounds from a mile a hundred feet away. There was no way we were skipping it this year. Our first stop: the carousel.

When we came two years ago, there were only two rides. (It's supposed to be about the horses, after all.) This year, there were four! Unfortunately not all were hits. Their second choice after the carousel was the motorcycle ride, which was a little too fast for Emily and a lot too fast for Kate. Because the fair grounds were fairly empty, thanks to the weekday afternoon and no thanks to the heat, there were no lines which meant no one riding the ride before us which meant no warning as to what we should expect. Needless to say they didn't ask to go on this one a second time.

Their next choice was the dog ride. This one revived Emily a bit, but Kate still wasn't too thrilled about not having Daddy and me there to ride it with her. But, hey, at least it wasn't too fast!

We saved the ferris wheel for last, and, wouldn't you know it, Kate got upset again when she realized we weren't all riding together. (Because there was no one else riding it with us, we had to be separated for balance.) What's it gonna take for this girl to enjoy herself here?!

We decided to take a break from the rides and try out some games. Kate didn't quite get the concept of winning the prizes, which is just as well since we don't need any more junk toys, but Emily sure did. The duck pond brought me back memories of our good ol' parish country fair, while the girls enjoyed fishing for sharks, especially considering there was a princess fishing rod. (I could have done without the red-dyed water, though.) The "everybody wins" prizes were a good intro to carnival games for these girls.

They were excited to try the water gun game, until they tried to lean over the scorching counter. Did I mention how hot it was today?! After a near-meltdown -- not literally, but close -- we decided to cool off with an ice cream break and scope out what a "box" means at a horse show. It ended up being a perfect spot to relax in the shade and watch the last show of the afternoon.

I swear I wasn't just watching my two little ponies. We all really enjoyed watching the horses, too! Em and Kate liked it best when the horses knocked bars down during their jumps. (My knowledge of horses is limited to our visits to the horse show and one horseback riding excursion in Yosemite over a decade ago, so please excuse my lack of proper terminology.)

When both our ice cream and the horses were finished, we ventured back onto the fair grounds where the girls posed with a random-but-perpetual-kid-favorite Dora before trying out the carousel and dog ride another time. I don't know if the ice cream put her in a better mood, or if she was just happier riding with me, but Kate enjoyed herself a lot more the second time around. Whew!

We ended our day at the horse show with two more rides on the ferris wheel. The first time, with Daddy and a not-so-happy Kate in one car and Emily and I in another. The second time, finally, all together.

Clearly, all is right with the world when we're together.