Sportsman Expo in Monroe!

On Sunday, we went up to Monroe to see what the Sportsman Spring Expo had to offer. They were also doing a barbecue competition. Sadly, there was no Q for sale, it just smelled wonderful.
The big draw was the Les Schwab Trout Pond for kids.  That was the first thing we looked at

First time with a hook in the water.

Very intent

He got one!

Reeling it in! Not sure who the other little one is, but he sure is interested in Lon's fish!

Lon caught a Lon size trout.  We did not keep the trout.  You could keep it or throw it back. The idea of walking around with a fish in a plastic bag all afternoon did not sound like a good idea

Inside, they had a table set up for kids to make a sugar candy tube. Pretty nifty!

Pleased with his creation, but Mommy got to hold on to it. I think it is still in my pocket.

It took awhile, but Lon did pet the homing pigeon.  Just a little. The photographer for the fair said he got a great shot of Lon!

Lon discovered the line of RVs parked in the back of the expo hall. He went into every single one of them, sat in the front seats, looked at them all. He opened doors and cupboards.  He really likes RVs!

While he thought the big ones were amazing, this is the one that would suit our family best.
We met the Yis then! And Lon went back through all the RVs with them.

We went outside to the Super Bounce. It was not covered by midway tickets. That was fine, since we did not want to buy midway tickets.  It was 6 dollars to try the Super Bounce. Lon was a bit nervous at first. He said he wanted to do it, so he did.

Up he goes!

Higher! He is bouncing up pretty high, and enjoying it

Grace and her family met us right before Lon wanted to bounce again. Grace wanted to bounce too. She went higher and did a back flip.  She had been on a trampoline before. I have not let Lon get on trampolines. (I fell off one when I was little)

We went and looked at rides. Grace's sister and her friend were riding bumper cars and they took Lon with them. Lon LOVED it. His first grown up ride.

He is thrilled. He did not stop smiling

Then back to the smaller people rides. They were fun too. Auntie Michelle let Lon use their pass to ride on the swing, she also let him ride the spinning bears, but we think the operator of that one had something else to do, as it was the shortest ride ever, three times around the bears went. It took him longer to strap the kids in.
We all had fun.  I am glad we got to meet up with Grace, her family and Brian and Kayla and their parents. Made it more fun for everyone.

Crepes for Dinner at Meagan's!

Once we got done with Healthy Kids Day it was time to get Daddy and head over to Meagan and Gernot's home for Crepes!  It was Meagan's turn for International Night!  

On the way to their home, the lambs were out!  I had Mark turn the car around so I could go take some photos and chat with the lambs. They are just so darn cute!

Hello. How are you? What cha doing? Then a lamb and his mother started running for the barn bleating loudly. I figure I had been busted and it was time to go. 

Red Wing Blackbird on a fence. 

All the boys playing with legos. 

The savory crepe spread, with a little hint of what the sweet crepes could hold ! It was all so good!

Lon liked his chocolate crepe, he put nutella and chocolate chips on it and then sprinkled on some cinnamon sugar. 

The food and the company were wonderful. Thanks for an enjoyable afternoon. 

Healthy Kids Day at the Y

Today, at our Y and all over the country, they held the Healthy Kids Day Event. Lon was all over it!  I miss the 5 k run/walk they had, but they had a ton of stuff for Lon to do. He had a blast

Lon and Webbly. We won't make it to the Everett AquaSox Kids Day game this year, but if you are in the area, it is worth going!  Baseball games in person are the best

The chocolate fountain was a huge hit! Lon thought it was wonderful and we really really should get one for our house.

There were pages to color, books to look at, so we had to move on from the fountain

Outside was the bouncey house! The line was hugely long, but Lon was content to wait his turn. He got a bit out of sorts when people started cutting in line.  It was annoying.

Lon spotted the Jaws of Life. He was so proud of himself for recognizing a real piece of equipment!

My little goof ball!

Getting the Tiger Badge

Lon has finished all the requirements to move to the Wolf Trail. He has accomplished all the Tiger activities.  Once he is in second grade, he will be officially on the Wolf Trail. I have already told him I will be Den mother. He was happy with that.

The flag ceremony

Lon also earned two belt loops tonight.  Disabilities Awareness and Language and Culture. Thank you so much to Hye for teaching us about Korea!  Our belt loop challenge for next pack is the Photography Belt Loop. I am going to have Lon work on Heritage too. Family tree stuff. I think we can do that one!

Getting his Tiger Stripes!

SO excited and happy!

Mommy has to sew on his Tiger Badge!

Lon got to pick out the cheer. It was fun, and I can not remember which one he picked.  I will ask him in the morning

Tiger boy!

Panorama Picture Day

I was able to go up and watch them take the All School Picture. It was fun. I was impressed when the photographer's assistant clapped her hands and everyone stopped talking and paid attention!

Lon and his class joining the rest of the school. Lon told me he needed to wear a red shirt, I was glad I already had an all red shirt made!

Can you spot Lon?

Not sure why he was saluting. He did not salute once they started snapping pictures

Playing with a classmate as the rest of the school lines up. Not sure what they were playing. I asked Lon what they were doing and all he said was we were playing.  Playing what? just playing.

 They told the kids to squeeze together. Lon's class was a little more literal than others.  They were spread back out a little bit

They were snapping panoramas, and I snapped this one.

Kids of All Kinds

Today, since Dad had to work (bummer) Lon and I found some great fun things to do! First we went to the Special Olympics Track and Field Event up in Shoreline. The garmin knew how to get there or I would have been completely lost!

We watched a few events and talked to some people. Lon learned alot about people with different abilities. He understands that they are just people. In the car, he said some people can do the same stuff I can, some can't and I can't do stuff some people can. It really is no big deal. Love my boy.
From there we went over to the International Children's Friendship Festival at the Museum of History and Industry.

The Junior Pipe Band! These are kids from ages 8 to 18. They are wonderful!  They were outside when we pulled into the super crowded parking lot.  After driving around we decided to pull closer to the Pipes just to hear them practice. Well, lo and behold! When we drove around the back there were 4 open parking spaces! Pipers bring good luck!  Thanks Pipers. Even better, I talked to the Pipe Master for a few minutes, he gave me the name of a nice lady who sews all the kilts and she can find me the cotton tartan I am going to need in a few months to make someone's quilt! She said she even has the clan I am looking for at her house! I LOVE the Pipes!  Lon said it looked like a lot of fun, but he wants to play the drums. So we will look into that part a little more. Yes, I got the information on that too.

All the different booths, the first one is Turkey. The arch is actually made from cut blocks of Styrofoam. How cool is that? There were a number of other countries represented, Ireland, Germany, South Korea, Iran (although the woman who was manning the booth was on the phone when we walked by) Peru, El Salvador, Ethiopia. Mexico and Somalia had a booth, but no one was there.  It was fun. Lon and I were both busy collecting his stickers for his passport and talking to people about the countries. Lon picked up a brochure on German Language School.

Part of the Museum was open too! They are moving  to a new place so not everything was open, but we made the most of what was open. Lon loved it! I am so happy he likes museums.  The dioramas still rule!

Part of the Old Seattle exhibit, this is in the classroom. It was fun that Lon could do things!

The bank. Not sure if it is a deposit or withdrawl he wants to make.

Listening to something with his Turkish  flag

Running through Old Seattle, to see what else is here. We saw the exhibit on the Great Seattle Fire and looked at the diorama of Seattle, it showed which buildings were made of brick or stone or wood. Mostly, they were made of wood. I asked Lon what he thought would happen if one building caught on fire. He was right, they all would go up! I am pretty sure most of the buildings did go up in flames.

Working the slime line. They did not call it that, but they had a timer on it to show you how fast you had to cut, gut, cut. Hard work and lots of it.

Printing out the news. This was part of the AYP (Alaska  Yukon, Pacific Exhibit.

I would have loved to have seen this stained glass in color. It looks like it was HUGE. Not sure exactly where this was in Seattle.

Lunch break. I forgot to get some money, all I had was 5 dollars. The hot dog, with nothing else was 4. SO Lon had a hot dog.  I got him some ice cream when we got home.

Back up to the room with all the countries. We forgot to get Somalia, it was an unmanned booth in the corner. But we got our last sticker for the passport. Lon wanted to work on some arts and crafts projects.

This is what he painted. Pretty cool. It is a tile. I am going to see about putting some sealer on it.

Thinking about getting his face painted. He was explaining to the nice lady from Ukraine what he wanted. Lon had to draw it on the table for her to see.

Lon, Scarface.  Which is what he wanted.
It would have been fun to stay for the Irish Step Dancers. I always have enjoyed watching them.  However, we were still a bit hungry, it was going to be another hour or so till they came on.  So sadly we decided to go home. I have to figure out the garmin a bit more. It really really wanted me to go over the 520 bridge on the way home. I really really did not want to do that.  We found 5 north and headed home around the top of the lake.  We had a great day outside and in. We will look for this festival again next year. We will bring a lunch and look for the Pipers again next year. And hopefully stay for the Irish Step Dancers.