Fair Obsession

OK, I have lots of obsessions. Talk Radio is one of them. My favorite radio program is Garage Logic. I LOVE Garage Logic. Every year at the State Fair, I visit the live broadcast of the show. The picture below shows Baby L with the host of the program (his second "celebrity photo"). The photo was taken during a commercial break. It may not seem like a big deal, but I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the day. My Dad can relate, right Dad? I LOVE the State Fair!!! We go every year and it is so much fun! We ate lots of food (cheese curds, milk shakes, corn on the cob, Sweet Martha's cookies, salt water taffy, fresh cut fries, mini donuts, and a foot long hot dog). Every year we say we're not going to take the kids, but every year we take them. It was interesting navigating the crowds with three kids, but it was worth it. They loved the giant slide and the sky ride. And they were very fascinated by the Miracle of Birth Center. One baby piglet shares a name with S and she was very happy about that.


This is an awful picture, but I was very nervous and I only had one shot. This is local/national radio talk show host, Jason Lewis. We are huge fans of his program.
We spent the afternoon/evening walking around, going on rides, and enjoying the nice weather. The kids want to go back AGAIN before it is over, but I think once is enough.

Curse of the Stinky Towels

Raise your hand if you've ever forgotten a load of clothes in the washing machine. Anyone? Hold those hands up. It happens on occasion. I get busy and forget about a load for...a while. It happened with a large load of towels recently. Somehow these towels were dried and put back in the rotation without being rewashed and THEY STINK. I've since tried rewashing said towels and the smell will not go away. I decided the only solution was to just throw away the stinky towels as I came across them. Somehow the stinky towels got together and had stinky towel babies or something because I'm still running across stinky towels. I had to take drastic action and eliminate all the household towels. It is for the greater good.

There's a lot of pressure associated with picking out new towels since we've had some of our old ones for more than TEN YEARS! Next time you're over, you can use our new, super fluffy, nice smelling, towels.

New kiddie towels. Aren't they cute?

Summer Wrap Up

Here's some odds and ends from the summer's last days...
I don't know if any of the cookie dough actually made it to the oven!

The pictures above and below are from one of our favorite parks.

Baby L wasn't too sure about his first cereal experience. He wants to eat what we're eating! Can't say I blame him. It looks disgusting.

Boys and their trains. I love it!
This is Baby L with Sue Whitney from Country Living magazine. He was a "tag along" when I went to this HUGE flea market. It was so fun! Don't you love the "Toots" sign?
School starts in just over a week. I'm excited, but a little sad that summer is over. I always wish we could have fit more things in, but maybe next year...

Baby Judges Potato Head Contest

We LOVE a good competition at our house. (Those genes come from my side of the family). Whenever we have these miscellaneous competitions, we always struggle to find impartial judges. So, when we staged our latest Potato Head contest, we turned to the baby to be the judge. Everyone must be congratulated on a valiant effort, but there could only be one winner.

Here are the results:

Entries by S, Mom, and R

R was VERY proud of his creation.

Dad's entry

Dad's second entry

Baby asking, "You want me to do what?"

After much contemplation, the winner is...S!

Attack of the Butterflies

We visited a local park recently and were able to see an incredible butterfly exhibit. The guides give a VERY strict speech before you enter the exhibit about not touching the butterflies. "Do not touch the butterflies. Let the butterflies touch you." Needless to say, our three year old had a very difficult time with this instruction. There were hundreds of butterflies flying all around us. The kids really wanted the butterflies to land on them, but they would only land on me. Their legs were so tickly. It was slightly creepy to have them all over, but it was a fun experience.

Being Seven

Tomorrow is hubby's birthday. S and I went out tonight to do some LAST minute birthday shopping. She started talking the moment we walked out the door and didn't come up for air until we arrived home. Sometimes (especially lately) I find myself not listening when the kids are talking. I throw in the occasional "uh-huh" or "yeah", but I don't even know what I'm agreeing to. Tonight I was tired after a long day and I wasn't listening at all. Then I heard S say, "Mom, don't you think that is the best sunset ever?" It hit me. My daughter is seven and I need to pay attention.

Things I don't want to forget about S being seven:

*She is so creative. She constantly has BIG plans for things. Yesterday she wanted to build a flying machine (bless her heart). She spent hours working on a newspaper after she saw the Kit Kittredge movie. She wants to dress up as a penguin so she is working on a costume (out of paper) that will transform her into a penguin to the point that no one will recognize her. So far she has the wings done.

*She is a pack rat. I struggle with her desire to save EVERYTHING! She would reuse anything and everything if I let her. I have one junk drawer. S has LOTS of junk drawers. I sneak into her room when she's at school and throw things away...shhh.

*She feels everything very deeply. There can be a lot of drama at times. I struggle not to laugh sometimes, and I need to have more patience.

*She loves to be home. S is my home body. She would be perfectly happy never leaving the house again. Ever. She constantly asks me how many more days until she has to go to school.

*She loves to be with friends. She is very social now. I need to be better at planning "friend time" for her.

*She is very curious. She always asks what things mean and how they work. She is finally catching up to her vocabulary. Meaning, she is actually correctly using all those words that she picked up somewhere.

I love her so much. After all, it's me and her against the boys.

My Babies

I know I've posted a lot of photos lately, but it's such a fun time of year for pictures. This is the first photo of all the offspring together. Remarkably, everyone was happy throughout the experience. The photos really show the kids' personalities. I don't know when I'll be ready to undertake it again, so feast your eyes.