Yesterday afternoon me and the two older boys enjoyed the town's annual "day," a common tradition among Jersey towns. The event was held at one of the day camps in town, serving as a sort of "open house" for the camp.

Like last year, there was a police helicopter resting on one of the soccer fields. My boys were allowed to sit in the four-seater passenger area. The leather seats were more supple than the ones in my car. I won't say anything about small-town Homeland security spending ...

I don't know whether there's something unusual about my kids or whether the other kids are weird. But, my kids sat in the helicopter for almost ten minutes. No other kids showed anything but a fleeting interest in the copter. TTTT, probably both are weird! I mean, ten minutes seems like an inordinately huge amount of time where a six and a four-year old are involved. And they both know what other activities are waiting inside the day camp. But, in their own sweet time, the older one said, "Mom, I'm ready to move on." The younger one agreed, so we did. And went to the paddle boats.

Now, the older one wanted to do a kayak alone but the lifeguard suggested that I go with him. I didn't because I had the other kid too. Who would watch him while we were out? So, we opted for a four-seater paddle boat but I could not get the hang of steering so we did a lot of going 'round in circles. It was frustrating and tiring. I let the six-year-old steer and he got us back to the dock in no time. The lifeguard at the kayaks had changed, so I thought we'd try again. This time, we didn't ask permission, we just started taking a single-person one out. The lifeguard saw Kenny's cast and asked me, "He can't get that wet, right?" "Right," I said. And that's all there was to it. Kenny waited for us to get into a two-person one and we had a better time getting around the pond. Towards the end of it, Kenny got tired and needed some help getting ashore again. We collided a few times too, but nothing serious.

Then, we did Tim's favorite: miniature golf. And, at the 18th hole, I found a crumpled ten dollar bill. I imagine that it belonged to the people playing just ahead of us because it was in plain sight. So, I picked it up and ran out after them but they were well away. I know one of them from school, so I may ask her if they lost any money. Thing is, most people in town can stand to lose ten bucks now and then, so I may just save myself the trouble and donate it.

Then we ate something and spent the rest of the time at the pool. Of course, Kenny couldn't go in, so I sat with him on the side and dangled my feet next to his while Tim ran around and enjoyed himself in the 2-3 feet of water. Eventually, a neighbor friend came along with his dad and took Kenny away for something more interesting and I was able to join Tim in the pool.

The day ended much too quickly.