SQUIDTASTIC!

Forgive the blurry photos– my camera phone does NOT do well indoors.

Yesterday, Mate took three out of four kids to Six Flags (and me of course) as sort of a last hurrah to summer. It was fun– we didn’t stay too long, mom rode the water ride, the weather was fanTASTic, and Zoomboy was allowed to win (buy) a giant squid hat. Since he’s been saying all summer long that he’s a tanned squid, the whole family pronounced the hat “SQUIDTASTIC!”

And so he is. This is Zoomboy and my baby, Squish, who has asked that I call her Dollbaby in front of her friends, all dressed up for school. They were so happy–I can only hope Squish has fun– I don’t want her to be sad, I don’t want her to have Chicken’s self-esteem problems during middle school, but I am aware that her mother is a handicap, and there’s not too much I can do about that.

But today they were happy, and I took a picture or two… God, I’m proud and sad at once.

And to mark the proud, sad theme, Big T was in the living room at 9:00, waiting for me to take him to his job, mowing my parents’ lawn. “Yeah,” he said, “it’s weird. No school today for me. There was no school bus waiting.”

For the first fall in fifteen years, there is no school bus waiting for him. Or me. Happy and sad indeed.

But look at my children–and remember the happy. They really ARE squidtastic!