Kid#1 and his special favour

One thing I didn't mention is that when hubby told the kids they would be going downhill skiing today, Kid#1 cried because it meant he would miss the "science fair" at school.

Let me clarify two things - this isn't a "science fair" where all of the kids are presenting science projects as part of the curriculum. This is, as far as I can tell, an entirely parent- / volunteer-run activity where students can go if they wish and put raffle tickets in science baskets (with items donated by the parents) and buy pizza slices and see things about science. So it isn't technically part of school. And it's on a Saturday over lunch time 11-2.

And the other thing is, Kid#1 had never never never never never mentioned that he wanted to go, despite knowing about this for oh - about two weeks ahead of time.

So we were shocked.

And we believed that he should go skiing anyhow. Even, as he said, "But I've already been downhill skiing this winter and I haven't  been to the science fair!" Well you can't fault his logic.

All this explains why, today on my day off from kids, I will be heading to the school science fair. With a camera. I am under strict orders to take pictures of everything and share them with the family when they come back.

Well actually I offered as a way to stop the tears and encourage the kid to head to Vermont instead of staying home with me - I figured it was the lesser of two so-called evils.

So here I go - off to a science fair with camera in hand. I feel all National Enquirer paparazzi reporter-like. Wonder if I'll see space aliens? And I sure do hope we don't win any of those science-packed baskets, because I'm also under orders to buy a raffle ticket for each and every one. Actually, I was asked to put in 5 tickets for each one, but I negotiated down because I'm good like that...