Our Military Child

As most of you know, Matt is in the Army. (If you did not know this, you have obviously not been paying very close attention to our lives.) So because Matt is in the Military, Bennett and I automatically inherit some pretty great things, such as free health care, tax-free shopping, random hugs from elderly women in grocery stores, and the titles of "Army Wife" and "Military Child" (but no, we do not have any bumper stickers or banners proudly displaying these titles, as is so widely popular here. Tacky.)

On Friday afternoon, my friend Bethany called to inform me that the entire month of April is actually dedicated to military kids, and that they were having a huge fair the next day to celebrate them. She invited us to go along with her and her three boys. Need she ask twice? I don't think so.

Bethany was also husbandless due to training exercises at this time, so we all just went together in her minivan. Here's the little bunch, looking oh-so-excited for the day ahead.

This is a tiny section of the fair grounds, which were massive. There were seven different bounce houses, two rock walls, live entertainment from Radio Disney, face painting, craft corners, and tons and tons of FREE STUFF. I have never experienced anything like this before. There were literally tents set up that you could walk into and point to the "prizes" you wanted...and they just gave them to you. I had an entire bag full of free toys, games, books, DVDs, and cookies by the time we got home. It was awesome!

Most of the activities available were geared towards older kids, so Bennett spent the majority of his day riding in this stroller. We really just went to get out of the house and hang out with people anyway, so we didn't mind too much. I did find a few things for him to do though, like...

...the "Baby Bounce House," which was just a normal bounce house they dedicated to children ages three and under. Let me tell you, these little guys were just ecstatic about it.

This is the bounce house I should have taken Bennett on. It was the tallest one I have ever seen, and by far the steepest coming down. Totally cool.

They also had a few mascots walking around, including a cell phone person, Batman, Wonder Woman (who was more of a hit with the older boys, if you know what I mean), and this cow from Chick-Fillet who formed an instant friendship with Bennett.

Whenever we would stop at a booth for a particularly long time, I would let Bennett get out of the stroller and do his thing--which in this case was to push the stroller around and screech. He's also been working on a few dance moves lately. Unfortunately, I think he is taking after his mom in this area. Poor, poor white boy.

I fed Bennett in his stroller as we watched the older boys play, but around lunchtime everybody else was getting pretty hungry, so we stood in line for free food (pizza, hot dogs, snow cones, popcorn, etc.) Bennett never made it.

He is an extremely scheduled child, and when it is nap time, it is nap time. You would be amazed at the level of noise and activity all around us while Bennett took a peaceful hour-long nap. It is too bad though, because he missed out on the free ice cream sandwich truck. I had to eat his for him. :)

When he finally woke up we decided it was probably time to go home, but were sidetracked for quite some time when we passed several sand boxes tall enough for wobbly bodies to lean against. Here's Bennett and Trey having a great time playing in the sand...

...and eating it. I later moved him to a box that was filled with birdseed instead of sand, figuring that was a little more edible. What a good mom I am.

And here we are going home with our new balloon buddy. It was a fantastic day full of fun and friends, and Bennett slept for four hours afterward.

Sometimes I really do love the Army, but never as much as I love our little Military Child.