The Carnival King! (And other tales of success...)

Last night, Ed and I took the boys to a local carnival!  We thought BOTH of them would love it.  Brian would love the games and the ice cream...and Gavin would be all over the rides.  Well, we were half right.  Poor Gavin was having an "off" night and was sensitive to the noise, the crowds, the noise... there were a lot of pouty faces toward the end that caused us to call it a night.

But not before we had crowned Brian the KING OF THE CARNIVAL!!!! 

 He definitely takes after his Dad on this one.  Ed has always loved carnival games.  And over the years, I have had the joy of loving my big (huge is more like it), adorable (God those stuffed animals are cheap at carnivals), soft (they are so disgusting - can you even imagine the process of getting them from carnival to carnival???) stuffed prizes.  And boy, were they prizes.  (not)  I appreciated each and every one (so not) until they experienced an untimely death.  It was too bad.  (not soon enough)

Where was I?

We were very impressed with Brian's skills last night.  He had technique that would have impressed my Dad at the adult sized basketball game- 

And he charmed his way through the kid basketball game...

 ...inspiring the nice worker to give him a lift to the basket.

He played plinko with Daddy... 

 ...and was amazingly good at a bean bag toss.  He left with Ed's arms filled with toys and games (one cheaper than the next - but he loved them!)  

 And he even shared with Gavin!

A highlight of the night was getting a tour of a real firetruck.  Brian was a little too scared to go inside, but he loved looking at it from the outside!  Both boys got brand new fire hats from a real fireman, too, which was very cool.

This afternoon I took the boys for their "back to school" haircuts!  Or, Gavin's "first day of school" haircut, I should say.  Gavin looks very grown up, don't you think?

He will officially start school on Monday with Miss Sara!  They will get picked up by the school bus in the morning - and then Brian and I will pick them up after lunch.  Tomorrow all four of us are going to the bus depot.  They were nice enough to agree to a tour of his school bus before his first day!

Brian goes back to school tomorrow - same school, same teachers.  He's very excited.  It will be a big potty training test!  He's been doing great - only wearing pull-ups (we call them special underpants) at naptime and diapers at bedtime.

I was very happy with Brian's haircut today, too, and even learned a new boy haircut term.  A "fade."  Miss Silvia gave him a "fade" in the back and he looks so adorable.  I'm also very happy to report that Brian's acting skills are just getting better and better.  He went from this...

 to THIS in ten seconds!!  So convincing!

I also had a huge (hugely embarrassing) success.  I just found my diamond earring.  Hooray!!  Ummm....it was in my large bin that houses boxes and packages of tampons and pads.  Because that's just so obvious.

You have to admit, I keep things interesting.