County Fair Week

Our saga of County Fair week starts the previous week, actually. On the Thursday before County Fair, my cousin Scott and his family came to spend the night at our house on their way driving from Cincinnati to Utah for our family reunion. The very reunion I was not attending because it was scheduled for County Fair week, the one week of the summer I refuse to travel. Friday morning after Scott's family left, we packed ourselves up to drive to Lexington, Nebraska to drop Shad off. He participated in RAGBRAI this year with his brother Dan. RAGBRAI is the original bike-across-a-state ride...in Iowa. So that will get its own post later. While waiting for the guys to arrive from Colorado, we shopped in Walmart; the kids had just received payments from me for extra chores, so they had money to spend.

Dancy bought a Doc McStuffins microphone and it is the most exciting and most contested thing in her life, and Thora's as well. She is wearing the hat that Dan gave her in Lexington.

I love her little dance!

She had the most fun ever singing that nonstop for hours all night and the next day, and the next day. Pris was at our house Friday when we got home from Lexington. She stayed with us Friday through Sunday the full week that Shad was gone. Without her, I probably would have been functionally useless, unable to take the kids to anything at the fair, or feed them (because they all seem to need me the moment I say I'm going to cook). And I also started to have trouble breastfeeding Samson that week, so she was great emotional support.

I had Sister Atkins and Sister Draney over for dinner and games on Monday, the only time we got to do games. And Sister Atkins transferred on Thursday...or whatever day they do transfers now.

We had lots of fun mornings seeing the animals--we watched equestrian events and visited the small livestock (chickens, guinea fowl, ducks, rabbits, etc) and the large livestock (cows, goats, sheep, pigs). We also looked at everything in the 4-H building: garden foods, baked goods, crafts, photography, art, etc.

The kids missed Shad a lot. Before he left, Shad told Katie that she could wear a shirt of his to help her not miss him as much. She forgot until he called us Wednesday night after his 100 mile ride. She quickly ran up to my room and grabbed a shirt out of the closet.

One evening when we were finishing a walk, I wanted to take Pris and the kids to see a huge garden (okay, this thing is several land plots behind my house, possibly an acre) our neighbor Louis has. Louis was out there and we chatted and he offered us a gallon of jalapeno garlic dill refrigerator pickles. He packs some 50-70 gallons a year. I forget exactly. Samson had his first pickle and just kept eating it. No recoil at the taste. Tommy hadn't minded it when he was a baby, either.

And what better to do after a walk and pickles than to have a water fight?

These pictures uploaded all screwy and won't let me fix the order, position, or write where I want to, and I quit trying. But we went on many evening walks and had many little smiles.

The kids love to race on this driveway of an empty house.

Tommy found a tree he could climb.

Another racing picture with Thora running to me after tripping. Trooper.

After reading Magic Tree House: Night of the New Magicians, Tommy was inspired to build the Eiffel Tower. The book is set in Paris, 1889, when the tower debuted.

Summer Science

People are always interested in what I do for homeschooling, especially when I say that we haven't even started any curriculum yet. We read, talk, play and explore. This summer we picked off my Science board on Pinterest and had loads of fun. Simple activity: pour baking soda into a cake pan (or a high chair tray), dye white vinegar. Simple, easy, cheap. I already had the droppers.

Little scientist at work! Or play :)

Thora tried eating the baking soda. She didn't like it at all, but that still didn't stop her from trying it about 5 more times.

When Dancy was done, I had fun pouring the vinegar out into her pan.

Tom and Katie got artistic with their pans. Tommy made a moonscape.

Katie made a volcano.

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Science activity #2: Magnifying glasses.

Inspired by Sid the Science Kid on Netflix, I bought the kids magnifying glasses at Dollar General. Hooray for $1 science tools, because that's all they need at this age. We can invest in higher quality items later.

And then we took them with us for a walk to the library. Oh, the wonders they found magnifying everything along the way, as well as inside the library! On the way home, we collected things for them to bring to the table to continue being scientists while I made lunch.

And when they had questions, they asked questions. And if I didn't have answers, we googled them. 

Six-year-old Tommy

Tommy's birthday was in July, and we now have a six-year-old! For some reason, this birthday was completely comfortable for me. No mom freakouts about "How can you possibly be 6?!" Probably because I had been hearing about his 6th birthday from the day after he turned 5. The topic had to be banned in the house because I simply could not stand it after 3 months. 

Despite my desires to make this boy an awesome Death Star cake, breastfeeding just didn't make it possible. Luckily, he's quite thrilled to get Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies, a trend he set for birthdays when he was 2.

Thora loved the Happy Birthday song and danced happily to it. 

Shad has started building towers to encase surprises, and this time he filled the tower with balloons.

Crashing the tower.

We spent the evening playing balloon volleyball.

Look at all those lovely blurs!

Samson didn't want to be left out, but he didn't want to be ballooned in the face, either.

Sisters like to take pictures, too.

Super excited about his birthday present!

He did get to have a friend birthday party this year! It was somewhat impromptu, but it worked and he loved it. He had 3 friends over for a video game party. Presents, Mario Kart, music, brownies, playing outside, and more Mario Kart. He wanted nothing more.

Samson, Four Months Old

Two months ago, my baby was four months old. Actively playful, proficient roller, and a thumb sucker.

Shad picked him up from the stroller and Samson just snuggled right in and fell asleep.

Thora's Looks

Thora is always a great one for facial expressions. Especially if she's staring you down with disdain. She can be quite the intimidating little creature.

We went to story time at the library, as we do every week, and the guest reader had music for the kids to exercise with. Thora stood her ground.

"Thora, do you want to do the exercises?"

Exercises over, time to read a book. "Hi, little one! Do you want to come sit with the kids?...No?...Okay, I guess I'll just keep reading then."

And this side-glare is so typical of her.

Cherry Creek Reservoir

Tuesday at Cherry Creek Reservoir...

This little guy was my buddy! We stopped at a kid consignment store to see if they had swim trunks (his 3-6 month ones are WAY too big) and a hat. Score! And he looks so studly! Look at that suave little grin!

After Samson and I had our time out on the inner tube, the girls were ready for a turn. They tried to hang their arms out in the water to paddle, but it didn't work very well.

Oh, hey! There's my sister Jen in the background. 

Tommy loved all the feathers laying around and made use of them in his sand castle.

Erik is a man-child. He'll be a freshman this year and is probably one of the most put-together kids I know.

It's no secret with Tom and Katie. They play favorites with these two cousins of theirs. Bode is Tommy's favorite.

Erik is Katie's favorite.

Erik and Thora in the sand.

Um, yeah, that's the face she's been going with for a couple months. It's smiles or glares.

Tommy, Bode and Jen

I should really start remembering to take pictures BEFORE it's time to leave. You'd think my kids hate everything I take them to do...

Oh, and because his belly button was visible...not only does this baby boy have pointy elf ears, but check out that jelly roll belly button!

Homeward Bound!

Just a few remaining things. So the reason for the trip to Colorado was because my sister Jen came down from Washington with her two boys, Erik and Bode. Shad was out of vacation days, having used them for Samson's birth, his grandma's funeral, and currently for RAGBRAI, a 7 day bike trip across Iowa. And as much as I didn't want to go off with 5 kids alone, I didn't want to deprive my kids of the one time a year they get to see these cousins. It was only going to be 3.5 days, but then developed into 6 when I heard word that a former bishop of mine was going to be in town from Texas and that there was going to be a ward reunion. There were two or three days that I just wanted to quit and come home, but I stuck it out.

Becky read bedtime stories almost every night.

Everyone Poops

Thora got her shoes to get ready to go home.

The kids loved playing on the big rocks at our rest stop on the way home.

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I just found this Jumpoline video.