I skipped school...

The end of the school year brings about all the award parties and the "field day" activities that typical developing kids absolutely enjoy. Many atypical kids do too.

My elementary school years have developed a tradition for me. About a week before school gets out and my fellow classmates enjoy "Beach Bash" at school, I stay home. I went my kindergarten year, and I absolutely did not like it.

At my school, Beach Bash consists of inflatable water slides, face painting, games, snacks, chaos of about 200 students at a time. Sounds great, unless you have sensory process disorder and food allergy issues. I don't like getting splashed. The water felt icky on the inflatables. The face painting made me break out the one time I tried it. None of the snacks are friendly to my diet.

*Note on the food allergies. I react with severe digestive issues with any dairy. I am allergic to food dye, I get sick and develop a migraine - the reaction gets worse every time. I have hypoglycemia and my body can not process non-natural sugars. This includes processed Stevia.

SO... instead of going to school on Friday, I had my own day of fun.

After about an hour of playing MineCraft on the Xbox 360, we got dressed and went to town.

Our first stop was at the new Bibb Civic Center. There is an Art Exhibit currently showing in the lobby and it is quite interesting. There were several large works that appeared to be made from paper-mache. There was a giraffe, and elephant, a tiger, and more. There were also some drawings on display too. What caught my attention was the old guy in the water trough.

He looked funny. Mom says he was wearing longjohns and must have fallen in. I don't know that I agree, he has soap in one hand and a scrub brush in the other.

As you might be able to tell, my brother (who also decided to stay home for similar reasons) liked playing in the fake water. There was this blue gel stuff that felt sticky and cold. It was weird. I had to wash my hands after touching it. It made my skin crawl.

 It was neat to see it though. At first I thought the guy was real. Behind him is an old engine of some sort and it had some really old looking fabric/leather belts. It was kind of interesting.

Our next stop was at the Jennie Woodworth Library. It is inside the Bibb Center and is a brand new facility. They moved here from an old house that had been converted for their needs when the Bibb Center opened a couple months ago. It is a really nice library considering its size and that it is run solely by volunteers. There is free wi-fi available, four public access computers, a children's reading room, and the general library. A brilliant gem for our small town.

While we were there, mom found some books for her to catch up reading on and I got on the computer to play on Poptropica. It really was fun and I am getting a library card next time we go.

After the library, we grabbed lunch and took it to dad. He was happy to see us. Daddy works hard at the local state park and appreciated having a relaxing lunch with us.

We were excited for lunch and also after lunch.

Before we left the house mom found out that the swim area at the park had just opened. It didn't hurt that it was a good warm sunny day. We got to enjoy another beautiful gem that our area has that not many are aware of.

The beach was clean and had fresh sand. The volleyball net is brand new. The geese stayed away for most of the day. (Pretty much until some people came down with food.)

We enjoyed running up and down the beach and swimming quite a bit too. Mom didn't want to get in the water though. She said we had to be good and maybe next time she would get in with us. (She did get her feet wet.)

There are some days that is just great to unplug and have fun. This was one of those days. I was able to get in the water and play. While I don't like getting splashed and my brother did splash me a few times I was able to control my typical reaction.

I see where I can tolerate some things better now than I used to. For me I think it is awesome. I remember when there was no way I would get into the water. Even bath time was rough. We had a lot of fun getting fresh air and exercise. mom brought some apples and water for us to snack on (much better snack than they had at school). Brother and I had some good bonding time.

Towards the end of the day, my oldest sister and her boyfriend met us there too. It was good to see her. We don't see her very often since she moved out last year. She's a grown up now though and has a job and all.