Katie's Birthday

We love our Katie and we just had to celebrate her big day in style! She was OVER the Hill and 30, but we we didn't dwell on that not so monumental milestone! Nope, we did what we do best...EAT! We met for lunch in a little local cafe. It's so weird to not have Maura with us. I miss not having my girl around during the day. I feel like she misses out on so many fun activities. Hopefully she's having fun at school too!LOVE this photo. I bet Grammy would too...if I ever get around to sharing it! We walked over to a railcar displayed near the restaurant after we got done eating. The kids LOVED pretending like they were driving the train. They're full of imagination! Happy Birthday Aunt Katie!

Questapalooza

Let me preface this post by saying "It was fun!" All that follows is going to make you believe otherwise, but at the end of the day we looked back and had had fun. My parent's church hosts a huge music festival every year over Labor Day weekend. They have lots of crafts, games, and activities for the kids to participate, and lots of food to keep the adults busy all day and concerts going on all afternoon. All. stinkin. hot. day. It was hot. I believe it was about 99 degrees with about 90% humidity. We were on asphalt. All. day. It was HOT! We decided(wisely) to leave Bennett home with babysitters and go on to the festival.

We were determined to have fun, despite the heat! The last time we came to the festival, Maura was three and she simply refused to have her hair painted. This year, she was all about it, but Tristan refused to allow it. Hmm. Must be a three year old thing! She was pumped about the purple dots in her hair.

Below: Tristan was pumped about all the inflatables just there for the climbing. Notice his face; he was beet red for the entire afternoon!

The kids loved the petting zoo and this little pool full of toys. I think they were trying to figure out how to climb in!

My girl is big stuff--she even consented to face paint! We are growing up! Sniff! Sniff!

After all the festivities of the afternoon, it was time to move on to my time of the evening. Third Day!! They have been one of my very favorite groups since I was in high school. I remember seeing them in concert several times while in high school. In other words, they've been around for a LONG time! Mac Powell and his band were AWESOME! Such a wonderful time of praise and a beautiful testimony. I was truly blessed by this concert.

My kids, on the other hand, not so much. We weren't terribly close to the stage, but the music was pretty loud. Neither of my kids liked it...at all. Here, I had these visions of my kids rocking out to my music along with me. Not so much. Maura started asking from the first note when we could go home. It had already been a very long, very hot afternoon and they were all cranky and tired...even Alex.

I did get Maura to perk up and dance with me, but I don't expect that she's going to be asking me to take her to any more concerts in the near future. Although Tristan didn't like the loud music either, he was pretty content to sit on our blanket and eat. And eat. He wanted some Kettle Corn, but I told him he had to eat his PB&J before he got any popcorn. When I turned around about a minute later, he was scarfing down the remainder of his sandwich and the rest of his drink. I remember thinking that he'd eaten that sandwich pretty quickly. Too quickly, it turns out!

Next thing I knew, Tristan was turning green and telling me that he was going to "frow up." Yep. Too quick. Brent grabbed him and ran back through the crowd, hoping to make it out before Tristan exploded. It was not meant to be. Brent ended up just rubbing his back as he unloaded his dinner right in front of some surprised concertgoers. I kept waiting for them to come back and had the sinking suspicion that all was not well. They eventually returned, covered in vomit, which Brent had gamely tried to clean up. I, thankfully, had a change of clothes for both of them. So, the day didn't go exactly as I'd envisioned it, but we did have fun as a family and we praised God as a family. I'd call that a successful day!

This is why I love Chik-Fil-A

Our town might be small, but we're moving up in the world...we have a Chick-fil-a!! I was ecstatic when it opened up earlier this year. I honestly would be fine if I never had to eat in any other fast food restaurant. They just can't compete with Chick-fil-A. The food is good, the employees are friendly and helpful and they put on fantastic promotions like Princess night. When I saw the signs for this, I knew we had to go. We rounded up a few of our closest friends and headed on over...along with most of our town. I have never seen anything like it. I'm surprised they didn't get shut down by the fire marshall! It was a zoo!
Of course, my little prince and princess got into costume and into character for the evening. That's a shield that Tristan has, not a sword. Remember, I'm crazy, but not stupid!

Waiting and waiting in line for a horse drawn carriage ride. Despite the fact that we got there early and were among the first in line, we still waited a half hour for a ride. The kids weren't sure about waiting that long, but they loved the ride itself--a very quick jog around the restaurant. I felt for the poor horse. The line was past the drive through window when we left the restaurant!

A view from the top.

Below: My little prince and princess, hungry and ready to go find some food--this would prove very difficult!

We ran into two princesses on our way in: Princess Cow and Princess Alexandra. Alex is always a princess at home these days!

The kids enjoyed meeting a real life princess, Miss Kentucky. I think Tristan had a little crush!

Below: It doesn't look that busy, but looks can be deceiving! My friends Angie and Dawn were huge lifesavers, holding tables for us and watching the kids while I stood in line for what felt like forever for our food. Life as a football widow--gotta love it! I'm so thankful that I had this time to catch up with Angie, who is living in Kansas, and Dawn, who lives down the street but never see!

Together at last. These girls love each other so much and miss each other. They had lots of opportunities to see each other on this visit. Best friends are so hard to come by and we miss ours so much! I had to included this last photo. It looks like Maura had too much chicken, but I'm pretty sure she was just being weird! :)

Best Day EVER!

Knowing that Brent would be deploying soon, we set out to make our last few weeks together really special. We hadn't told the kids yet(and wouldn't tell them until about a week before he deployed) so they probably just thought we'd lost our minds with the number of fun activities and restaurant meals that we treated them to. On particularly fun morning, we headed to church with some plans in mind, only to look over and see Brent's mom sitting a few rows over. We were completely mystified! Turns out, she was on her way back from seeing Amy and stopped by to see us too. The kids were SO excited, though Tristan's first question was "Where's Poppa?". Nan asked to take us to lunch and to lunch we did go!
Mmm, to a popular breakfast spot that we hadn't tried out yet. What a beautiful day for such an outing. Maura was in seventh heaven sitting next to Nan and playing games.

I was so glad that Brent got a chance to spend some time with his mom before he deployed. With his football schedule this fall, it was very apparent that we weren't going to make it to TN for a visit. We chatted, filled up on yummy food, took some photos and said our goodbyes. It was time to move on to our next fun activity.

THE CIRCUS!! This was a completely spur of the moment decision. I had toyed with the idea of taking the kids after we saw the clowns a few weeks back, but I didn't want to spend the money. We decided the night before the trip to just do it. We didn't tell the kids where we were going until just before we left and they were so excited! I couldn't wait to experience it with them!

The circus parade was fun, but my favorite act was the aerialists. They were so beautiful the way they moved to the music.

Daddy with his wild ones. Bennett was really hard to control during the show. He was interested enough to watch from time to time, but mostly just wanted to crawl around on the icky sticky floor and find bits of garbage to eat. I don't think he appreciated the elephants as much as the rest of them.

Nan had given the kids some money to buy a toy at the circus. What a joke! It has been so long since any of us have been to a circus. I didn't realize that you'd have to take out a second mortgage to take one of these cool motorcycle lights with you! Instead, my kids settled for the next best thing. Light up toys from home and glow in the dark necklaces from the Dollar Store(which, incidentally, I accidentally broke and sprayed up on the man behind us just as they turned the black lights on. He was not amused.).Can anyone tell me which one of these three children missed a much needed nap today?? It was fun, but we were done! I'm so glad we went. It was magical watching my children experience it!

State Fair 2011

I look forward to August every year, not because it's the start of football season, but because it's the month of the State Fair. I have a deep, deep love of the fair. My parents took our whole family when we moved to Kentucky WAY back in 1988 and I haven't missed many opportunities to visit it since. Ever since Maura was born and I became a SAHM, I have a tradition of going to the fair with my mom and sisters. Poor Brent usually gets left out because it's so much nicer to go during the week when it's less crowded. I usually try to bring him back some fudge to make up for missing it. I was really sad this year, thinking that we'd have to leave Maura behind to attend kindergarten..until I read the yearbook. A visit to the State Fair is an excused absence. Yay! We were good to go!

We just had to pose for our traditional State Fair photo. I like how it's now all children and I'm no longer expected to be part of the photo! From left to right: Bennett, Alexandra, Maura, Tristan and Haylie(Alex's bestie).

Below: We went straight in to see some of the most amazing balloon art I've ever seen. It was incredible and the alligator's mouth even opened and closed. We could hardly peel the kids away--of course they wanted to go under the chains and play with the balloons.

We started in the Exhibition Hall, where all sorts of organizations have booths. I was especially drawn to this one. The FBI. I wonder what committee decided that having life size cutouts of FBI agents carrying assault rifles for children to stick their heads through was a good idea? Hilarious. Of course we had to participate!

One of my favorite fair activities is Safety Town. The state police set up a "town" complete with signs and stoplights the the kids ride tricycles through the obstacles. I realised this year that Maura is technically too big to participate. Sadness!

They had lots of precious baby animals in the same hall for a petting zoo. I think my kids could have spent hours there watching the ducklings, baby pigs, rabbits and peacocks. Unfortunately, Alex and Haylie didn't feel the same way!

But not before Bennett tried to join the petting zoo. He would have succeeded too, had it not been for his Budda belly! This baby loves animals SOOO much! If he had succeeded in getting in the cage, I have no doubt that he would have laid his little body over the sheep and given him an open mouth slobber kiss. That's pretty much what he does to our cat every time he sees her.

Below: On to the merchandise hall, where Alex found a sweet place to hang out. Lucky for her, Grammy thought is was too and she might just be seeing it again.

Where else, but the fair can you see incredible cakes and even more incredible quilts? The kids went crazy over the cakes. Maura wanted me to take a photo of every single one. The quilts were not quite as exciting for them. We did a speed walk through those aisles with the kids whining about when we were going to be done!

Bennett finally gave up and went to sleep in his stroller. Sweet baby! I don't think I've ever had one who could sleep through something like the fair at this age!

Below: It's just not a visit to the fair without a stroll through the cattle barns. Tristan is a wee bit sensitive to smells. He even holds his nose when he's on the toilet! He'll be the first to dime you out if you ever happen to pass gas in his presence! He spent the entire walk through the cattle barns with his nose firmly pinched in his fingers. Just slightly embarrassing!

We visited one of my absolute favorite displays, the egg incubator. We stood and watched this little guy for about ten minutes, thinking he'd make an appearance any second, but no luck!

Below: Bennett's first taste of cotton candy. He liked it. He liked it a lot.

We just HAD to go find the prize winning pumpkin for one last photos op. Alas, this was only the second place winner, but it's the only one we could get close to. It was truly a fabulous day at eh fair, filled with fun, family and fabulous food(think Deep Fried Snickers...mmm.).

Thanks, Grammy, for always being willing to endure the fair with four children in tow!(Notice Tristan behind her, still holding his nose!)