Today was Partee Elementary's Fall Festival. Sean and I arrived at Partee with Jack and Mick shortly after 11:00, which is when it started. First, we went into the gym to play some of the games for prizes. Mick enjoyed a game rolling a big rubber bowling ball down a track and another game throwing a Velcro-covered tennis ball, but he didn't follow the object of the game, but neither did he care about getting a prize. Instead of tossing beanbags at the rubber duckies, he walked up to them, tilted each back on its axis and stuck the beanbag underneath. He actually picked out a prize from the bin for that game -- a plastic straw with a 3-D dog's face in the middle, the same prize Jack chose. Jack came a little closer to throwing the beanbags at the ducks, just not from any distance, more like shoving the ducks over with a fistful of beanbag. Later, Jack stood the indicated distance away from a large board with a hole in it and still managed to get a beanbag through for a prize. I think that might've been where he chose a rubber snake. There were prizes just for trying and better prizes for winning, not that Jack really grasped that concept and therefore was not bothered by it, nor were the student volunteers too concerned with the win/try distinction on some of the prize bins. The adult volunteers were a little more rule-conscious, but not obnoxiously so. (By the way, yesterday Jack said someone was being "obnop-sious.") Jack chose each prize happily, without trying to see if there was something better in the bin he wasn't offered. He was pleased with each one. Works for me.

Mick and Jack both liked the inflated castle bouncing game very much -- sometimes called "Moon-Walk" rides. Mick was a little less daring than Jack or the bigger boys and girls who were in there with him. He liked the "Staff Volunteer" girl very much. She carried him over the threshold into the bouncing area, and he stayed close to her for the first couple of his five minutes. Once in the middle, he returned to her to say, "Hi." And at the end, he let her carry him back outside. He grinned and flopped on his belly more than any jumping around. With the other kids bouncing all around, he was bounced up in the air a bit anyway. And the giant slide, also an inflated structure, was a huge hit with both our boys, though they didn't attempt the daring leaps that some older boys did -- just a small hop onto the top of the slide. I think they might have done that one three times each -- the only repeat of the day.

They rode together with three or four other kids in the Spinning Strawberry, like a Teacup ride with the wheel in the center for the riders to turn to increase the speed of their spin. Mick didn't touch the wheel, but he seemed pretty calm about the spinning, sitting next to Jack who laughed and laughed. Toward the end of the ride, I spied Mick winking across the wheel. They stumbled off the ride, quite dizzy, which of course was expected, a sensation Jack found very funny. Next, Jack got harnessed up for the rock climbing wall and climbed to a height of about ten feet, I guess, before coming back down. He told us that was hard work.

Then we got paper cones of popcorn before Jack rode a pony named Sassafras, "Sassy," and chatted to the two girls from a local riding school who accompanied him around the circle. He looked much more comfortable than seemed appropriate and grinned enormously at me (and the camera) when I called his name. He told us all about his ride afterwards, especially how he hadn't screamed (which was a rule -- to use a quiet voices to avoid scaring the ponies) and how the dial in his brain had turned to "normal voice," which was from an activity about Voice Volume this past week in Social Skills, I think. He told the lady who fitted his riding helmet that he had ridden five horses before, though Sean and I only remember the one from Scientific-Atlanta's Easter Family Day at Stone Mountain a couple of years ago. He also told us when Sean asked what he had been saying to the girls that "I was right; I'm six years old."

Then we headed inside the school, and Sean got to see the hallway artwork outside Mrs. Bracy's room, which includes Mick's life-size self-portrait. Miss Kris traced him onto paper, which he then helped paint. There was a "Fun Room" or "Fun House" in one classroom, which one little boy who passed us on his way out told us was very scary because "they make you put your hand in spaghetti!" Jack was quite brave, going in alone, crawling through the tunnels without hesitation, despite the darkness and the scary music. Then Sean took Mick through, and he didn't seem to be scared either. Nor was Mick! (ha ha) But on the last tunnel, Sean reported that the student volunteer informed him, "Sir, sir! You don't have to go through it; you can go around it." I'm not sure if Sean was disappointed, insulted, or just amused.

After that, we headed for the cafeteria and had pizza and bread sticks, Cheetos and soft drinks, and a couple of baked goods. Sean and Jack participated in the Cake Walk but didn't win my carrot cake back. Jack didn't seem to realize the object was to win a cake; he was just very pleased that he ended up on "Fifteen!" which is a very high number.

Finally, we stopped by the Book Fair in the library. Jack found and purchased independently (waiting patiently in line, which earned an appreciative comment from the librarian) the third of David Shannon's "David" books. We already have No, David and David Goes to School. Now we have David Gets in Trouble, and Jack read it "in the blue car on the way home." Jack paid his money and then answered very precisely and completely the librarian's question about his name for the hand-written receipt: "My name is Jack Dullaghan, John Wallace Dullaghan, Jack John Wallace Dullaghan." He even spelled out "Dullaghan" for her when she asked, and when she thanked him and said she was impressed with his spelling, he told her, "I'm six years old."