Graduation Day

        Yesterday my boy graduated from Pre-K.  They had a whole ceremony and everything.  The kids all filed in and stood in a line across the front of the room while we parents sat in the preschool-sized blue plastic chairs (some of which I could almost hear groaning).  They (the kids, not the chairs) sang several songs, did the alphabet in sign language and Spanish and then walked up as their name was called to shake hands with the assistant teacher and recieve their diploma from the class teacher.  They all did really well except for 1 kid who was suddenly petrified and wouldn't move from his spot.  No problem though, he came around later finished up the whole deal.  I know I was feeling the same way when I had to get up in front of people as a kid.  Still do, actually.

        Afterward, I took Korben to Moonlight Golf at a "nearby" mall so we could play minigolf under blacklight.  He's been wanting to do that for quite a while and we never had the time, so it was really a great surprise for him.  We played all 36 holes and by the end, I had nearly gotten him to stop chasing the ball around and smacking it like a hockey puck.  On the upside, he seems to putt as well left handed as he does right.  Not saying much just yet, but...cool.  The girl running the place gave us 2 glow-in-the-dark necklaces, neither of which would fit over my big 'ol noggin, so he wore them both for the rest of the day.

        After a long session on the links you know you gotta go to the 19th hole, so we went over to the Chili's, Too they have in the food court and split a molten chocolate cake with a couple of sweet teas.  I let him pick from the dessert menu and that's what he wanted.  Attaboy!!  I'm all about some chocolate, I'll tell ya.  We did have one errand to run while we were there, too, so it was off to the Bass Pro Shop at the other end for a campfire sandwich cooker for Joy.  He had a ball running around looking at the boats and the giant fish tank, and getting his picture made with his head in a shark's mouth.  Not to forget the laser "target range" where you get 25 shots for 50 cents to try and hit little red bull's eyes around an area set up to look like a swamp with an old shack in it.  You know the "hit one target and the hat spins, another and the dogs ears go up..." kind of thing.  We need to work on aiming and letting off the trigger a bit, but in his defense the rifle is bigger than he is.

        He was asleep before we got out of the parking lot of the mall.  Which was good because traffic on the Interstate was backed up for 20 miles.  From right where we were to right where we were going.  Lovely.  He missed all that though, and woke up in time to see the driveway coming up.  A couple of hours on his Vsmile game and a light dinner finished out his day.  I think he'll remember that one.  The whole day just him and his daddy.  He told me at the Chili's "Daddy, this is the best day of my life."  

        Any dads out there know you'll do about anything for that one sentence.  Good time.