last week of summer vacation

Emmalie and Nick will head back to school tomorrow! Here are a few of the things we've seen and done on their last week of "freedom"....

Aug. 19th, our little aster plant with a single bloom on it has grown into this!:

Aug. 20th, Em and Nick pose with all their new school supplies:
Aug. 21st, Open House Night at the middle school. Em was able to put things in her locker and figure out where all of her classes will be: Aug. 22nd, a few of our tomatoes FINALLY got ripe enough to pick! Yum!:
Aug. 23rd, we got to go back to Six Flags! It was a work outing through George's employer, and we were given vouchers for parking, admission, and lunch, plus $10 in Bugs Bunny Money to use in the park ~ we didn't spend a dime of our own money all day! :) We were a bit worried because they were predicting thunderstorms all day long, but that ended up being a good thing because a) it kept the crowds away and b) the weather guys were wrong! It was overcast in the morning, and did rain for about 5 minutes after lunch, but we were already getting wet at Hurricane Harbor, and barely noticed. And then the sun came out for the rest of the day!! We were able to go on many more rides this time around because the lines were so much shorter than usual.

We floated down this "lazy river" twice ~ so fun, and relaxing, too! Ben rode with me the first time and then with George: Later, we all went on the carousel:

and then on this kiddie roller coaster (George and Nick are in the last car):
That's the one that Ben and I rode last time that he thought was a bit scary. He insisted on riding it again this time, and then found out that it was still "scary". (It is a VERY mild coaster.)

Ben wanted to go see Scooby Doo this time, though by the time we got up close, he'd changed his mind!: He did love riding in this boat, though: and also "driving" a big red car (I got in the car with him after taking this photo):
Ben's favorite ride of all was the train, which we rode the whole way around Six Flags:


We went on many other rides where I couldn't take pictures, of course. I went on my FAVORITE roller coaster, Superman, all by myself, and later took Em and Nick on the Batman coaster. The 3 of us also rode the Whizzer, which is pretty mild, but we went on at night, in the dark, so that made it more fun! And George took Em and Nick to ride the Demon. Em, Nick, and I rode some fun spinny rides, as well, and all of us except Em went on the log ride. (She claims she doesn't like getting her clothes wet, even when it's hot out.) It was Ben's first time, and he loved it until we got to the last (big!) hill. Hopefully we haven't scarred him for life by taking him on that! LOL (He thought it was fun getting all wet at the end, but was terrified by that hill!)

In the evening we used our Bunny Money to buy a yummy funnel cake sundae which the 5 of us quickly devoured!:
Aug. 24th, we invited our friends Carl, Karen, and Andrew over. The kids played in the pool for awhile, and then George grilled us all some supper:

Aug. 25th, a quiet day, and Ben was still sacked out at 9am! (He woke up when he heard me snap this photo, though.):
Aug. 26th, the kids take full advantage of their last lazy day of vacation... Nick, lying on the couch, reading Garfield comics:
Ben, lying on the other couch, watching Tom & Jerry:
Em, lying on her bed, reading and writing: