All School's Day

Though it happened nearly 3 months ago, I wanted to make sure I documented All School's Day week 2012.  The night before the parade, we took Avery and Rylan to the wonderful carnival.  Avery had seen all the rides when we would drive by the park on various outings and had asked about them numerous times.  She was very excited when we told her we were headed to the carnival at last!  As big as she seems compared to Rylan, there really aren't too many rides available to children of Avery's size, not to mention that the merry-go-round was not there this year due to some technical complications.  But no worries, she still had a handful of rides that she tried out and she loved them all for the most part.  The motorcycles were her first ride of the night. 

Then she tried out the boats and I don't have a picture of those because they all came out blurry.  Onto the dragon  roller coaster.  We thought this looked a little more up her alley because it seemed to be more for the thrill seekers.  I got her buckled in and we watched her go.  She's the second to last in this picture.

After a trip around the track we noticed her look down real quick and then get a terrified look on her face and she started crying a little.  She was holding on as tight as she could to the handlebar.  As soon as the ride was over, I shoved my way through the crowd of parents and got to her and realized, yes, her belt had come unbuckled.  No wonder she was scared out of her mind.  But again, Miss Avery Mae proved to the world at large again that she is the bravest of the brave and asked to go again for another ride.  Mommy was kind of PO'd at the worker because he didn't seem to care that she had a faulty buckle so we decided that Avery could finish out the night on the motorcycles and boats again.  Maybe next year we will have better luck and a few more options.

Onto the following morning:  we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house to park the car and walk downtown from there.  As we started heading toward Main, Chris realized the stroller had a flat tire, so he, Grandpa, and Rylan headed back to fix up the faulty tire.  Grandma, Avery, and I walked ALL the way over by Central Office to see Meema and her float.  Which I don't have a picture of.  Then we met back up with the boys to watch the parade by the Courtyard.  It was very quiet at that corner.  Something to remember for next year...  Anyway, Rylan fell asleep for most of the parade, but Avery seemed very intrigued. 

I apparently did not feel like taking too many pictures that morning.  After the parade and lunch at Grandma and Grandpa's, we headed back home for naps, then ran out to Michael and Jody's to hang out for a bit. 

Rylan trying to ride Charlie's trike.

It was a nice week for both the kids to experience the whole All School's Day experience.  Maybe next year we will try May Fete as well.  All School's Day has always been Chris's favorite holiday, and it definitely ranks up there for me as well.  Last year during this exact week, we were in the pediatric ICU in Wichita with Avery getting our crash course on Type 1 Diabetes care.  What a difference a year makes.