State Fair

Jim took yesterday off since this is the second Saturday he'll be gone from before sunup to after sundown. To stave off my insanity, we went to the State Fair. First stop: Petting Zoo! Porcupines? Yep. However, although they were in the petting zoo, they were in a cage in the middle where kids couldn't reach.

I stayed out with baby D and the stroller, but the kids went to each animal, found carrots others had dropped, and fed every animal they could! Nicole was trying dog tricks with the goats by putting the carrot on their noses.

 

Nicole and Michael on their first rollercoaster! It was cute to see how for them it was so intense of a ride :)

They were screaming and laughing from the start. After a few rounds Mike wasn't too happy, either motion sick or scared I couldn't tell. He was holding his mouth shut and the expression on his face was similar to when he went on a ride in May when we were sure he was going to lose it. Less than a minute after the ride he was fine, much to our relief.

Nicole was brave enough to do a ride that lifts up and down as well as goes in a circle. She was pretty excited to ride "Dumbo"!

Jim took the boys on a more toned down ride after Michael's previous experience. These cars went in a circle so slowly it was kind of hard to believe it was a ride. But the boys loved it! Honking, driving and actually moving was paradise for them :)

Jim went with the kids to "help Jake" and they all really enjoyed this huge slide. They were all going to go at once but Mike decided to just go and the grin on his face as he came down was priceless.

Outside the PBS tent there were some flying pig hammer toys. The kids were determined to figure out how to make the pigs fly! It was cool how far the pigs flew. We had to physically remove Mike he loved it so much!

We couldn't leave the PBS area without saying hello to George. He and Jake could be twins.

Huge pumpkins! I think the winner was over 500 pounds.

 

The piggies were eating and it was crazy to watch all of them diving on the sow to eat and how the mom just lay there while the pigs were going nuts!

 

 

Here's a little video of our fun at the fair. http://delbifamily.blogspot.com

(Side note: we spent the afternoon updating the website! Look on the side tab to see a bunch of patient videos Jim just did. I think they're pretty neat! And I'm so proud of myself that they actually work! www.delbiancopo.com )

Pumpkin Patch

 

Nicole went to the Young Women's Modesty Fashion Show last week. I told her to take some good pictures... and she did. Lots and lots of good pictures of her mouth, eyes, nose.

My two little carbon copies! Jim and I both noticed that they are also left-handed!

I finished mowing the lawn and came in the house. The boys came around front looking for me to show me all the fun they'd had in the backyard while I was distracted. They were COVERED in mud!

I arranged with a local farm that has weekend pumpkin patch/inflatables/rides to open for our playgroup on a weekday and it was awesome to be there and have the place practically empty. Two school classes came a while after we arrived but it was prettymuch the whole place to us. So fun!

Nicole diving on the hay during the hayride.

Jake was more interested in picking up hay than looking around the farm as we tractored around.

They had a machine rigged up so you could "milk" the cow.

Nicole giving it a go!

The farm had really really nice farm equipment for the kids to play on. If it were my farm, I would put out the old rusted out stuff, but this was the real deal! Very nice and new. It was situated right in front of a sandbox area with tons of the little play replicas. A little boy's dream!

 

Jake buckled in was ready to go!

Feeding hay to the goats!

Nicole, Anna, and Jake (well at least you can see his fingers as he tries to pull up).

Nicole and Anna on top of the world! These girls had so much fun, I am glad they have the same school tracks so they are out at the same time!

Nicole trying her muscle...she got up to the first level! Jake tried it but his shoe got stuck in the mud and he couldn't get it out. And the hammer was so heavy for him, but he kept trying.

Sitting in the spider web, planning his next move...We also did the corn maze and we let the girls lead the way without giving them any help and they made it through both mazes with only a few dead ends!

 

Jake trying the hammer www.delbifamily.blogspot.com

Super Wednesday

Michael got a "king crown" from his sunday school class and wore it for as absolutely long as he could. Every time it broke he tried repairing it with glue, tape, or whatever he could find. You can see the beating it was taking!

The kids and I had a super Wednesday this week and went to the art museum, chickfila, and pullen park all in one afternoon. I am thrilled to finally have the energy to do this fun stuff and that the kids are old enough to enjoy it. The kids really liked the art museum, I explained all of the ways the different art was made and we tried to imagine what it would be like to make the art or what the people were like that were in the paintings. The gallery was plenty diverse to give us all sorts of fun.

We certainly had enough of our quiet voices after the museum so we went to a fun Chickfila that is two stories and has a small outdoor balcony on the second floor and enjoyed some ice cream cones in the warm summer breeze.

The play place outside had some of  these hills so the kids would run from hill to hill and feel on top of the world!

Then we were off to Pullen Park. The only other time we've been is with Kelly and Carter when it was pretty cold, and this day was 80 so it was pretty nice. We didn't do any of the rides since Diana would have made things tough to handle Jake and Mike, but the kids loved running from playset to playset and digging in the sand.

And major bonus- the water misters worked! The breeze kept changing whenever I pushed the buttons and managed to get Diana and me wet a lot.

Jake wanted to get a drink while he was at it. I like the double rainbow- he is my end of the rainbow, a sweet treasure that makes me laugh and is just so cuddly and cute.

Nicole in her imagination world...

We haven't had as many disasters lately thanks to more energy, but the other day Mike got a permanent marker and decided to draw on the wall behind the couch. And somehow they hit a toy hard enough on the outlet that it cracked off the top. I was able to use the mr clean eraser to get off most of the marker, but you can see the lovely print that still remains. Luckily it's behind the couch and I figure we'll just add this to the fixup before we move someday.

 

Michael's preschool has done WONDERS for his self esteem and comfort level communicating with adults. His teacher said he starts all of his sentences with "a-cuz" (because). This fact sheet was cute to see what he thought about pets. It's true.