47 Weeks, The Rodeo

First things first: Caroline's 47th Thursday pictures. I made her little top. I think the fabric was about $2.50, on clearance. The buttons were 40 cents. A little lace and a tiny bit of interfacing, and she has a new shirt for less than $5. [That she desperately needs...*ahem* we won't talk about that today. :D] It was a fun little project for me, and something cute for her. It's not perfect, as I mixed up two steps, accidentally doing one before the other. Oops! But I didn't think the problem was tooooo noticeable. I didn't feel like ripping out what I'd sewn. I have a few more projects in the works--will share them as they're completed.

Yesterday we woke up bright and early, about 6:00, to Lauren telling us she "trowed up" in her bed. What a start to the morning. She continued to throw up probably 20 times, total, I am not exaggerating! Not much coming out, but she kept the bucket handy. We drove, instead of walked, to school, and Lauren threw up twice on the drive to school! Poor little girl. She watched Dora and Tinkerbell most of the morning. Brian came home from work around 11 because he wasn't feeling well. He had the same stomach problems and throwing up too! Then Caroline woke up from her nap, having thrown up in her bed. What a day. What a mess. What a pile of laundry!! I always think on days like that how glad I am not to be living in the olden days, and even to not be in one of our old apartments where we had to walk to the laundry. Austin had had this same stomach virus Saturday morning, and then was fine later in the day. Hopefully Julia and I don't get it!

The three of them were feeling much better today, though Brian stayed home from work again, just because he was so tired! Julia and Austin's classes were both going on field trips to the Elks Jr. Rodeo in Santa Maria. I'd planned to take Lauren and Caroline, and was glad Lauren was feeling well enough to go, as she was so excited to be included. She told Austin, "Four-year-olds are allowed to come, too!" Since Brian was home, I left the baby with him, which was just as well, as she got a good nap.

Lauren isn't allowed to ride the school bus, so I drove the two of us in the van and met up with Austin's class at the rodeo. I figured Kindergartners needed more supervision. Plus I'd gone to the rodeo with her class when she was in first grade.

The parachute jumper (below). A man sang, God Bless the USA as the jumper and flag descended. I had asked Austin yesterday, "What do you do with your hat when the flag passes by or when someone sings The Star Spangled Banner?"

"I take off my hat... And put it over my heart!"

And he did, without any prompting. So cute. He had his hat off for God Bless the USA, even. I guess he figured it was related to the flag and the flag was dropping and all. Then when it was time to sing The Star Spangled Banner, he asked his friend, Kana, "Kana! Aren't you going to take your hat off?! You have to show respect!" I was so proud of him, and they were pretty cute, too, those little Kindergartners with their baseball caps over their hearts. Brian taught him that.

The flag and jumper almost to the ground. They had people there to gather it up right away. Somehow those speakers were invisible when I took the picture. ;) I didn't take any others of the arena.

When I'd gone with Julia's class two years ago, we saw bull-riding and trick riders: ladies in fancy dresses standing on the horses backs and doing stunts. This year they didn't have those! We watched mutton-busting, where little kids try to ride sheep. Funny! There was steer-roping, and barrel-racing, and guys riding wild horses, which they also did two years ago. About 30 minutes into the show, Lauren was bored and asked when we were going home! She, who was so excited to come! I think all the kids would have liked it better if they'd had bull-riding and trick riders again. They did bull-riding tonight at the 'real' rodeo, and Austin asked if we could go to that (but we didn't).

Austin and his buddy, Kana. And Lauren. All the kids were given these little flags when they came in.

Walking back to the buses. I thought those little guys were so cute holding hands, just like they'd been told.

Kana is one of the boys Austin plays soccer with at recess. A group of them play soccer together almost every recess! Austin and his friends Solomon and Kana, are on team. The other team has four players. Two Javi's (short for Javier), Riley, and ?? Sometimes other names are mentioned. The other day they couldn't play because someone had kicked the ball too high and it got stuck in a tree. Then, yesterday, Austin came home and said Riley had kicked the ball over the fence and it bonked three cars. Oh dear.

Anyway, he has some nice little boys for his friends. Austin's been using my old backpack, from when I was in high school (!), for the last few weeks, because his Lightning McQueen backpack ripped apart, there was no bottom to it anymore. I wasn't about to buy him a new backpack just for the last few weeks of school, well, I would have if we hadn't had one for him to use. But we did, so that worked just fine.