Fairs and Festivals

We love festivals.  We do.  So when I got an email about a Family Adventure Fest nearby, for cheap, we jumped on that.  Basically, it was an opportunity to try a bunch of adventurous stuff. 

 rock wall.

 she was not afraid.  Pretty much of anything.

 Learning the appropriate golf swing with a game.

 Stand up paddleboarding

This supreme confidence was shattered
when he fell in the water trying to get out
of the pool.

 fishing, Joy's favorite.

 The Captain, not so much.  He would only use one arm to cast, so he didn't do as well on the game.

 We take our flight simulators very seriously.

 building rockets, or eating nachos if you're me in the background.

 what Miss Lee was up to.

finished rockets

 should we really be giving this kid a bow and arrow?

Joy shooting a dinosaur

getting my form corrected.

will take down all the zombies in an apocalypse.

This year we did something different for Octoberfest.  We bought a special package that gave us unlimited rides for the kids and a fancy dinner for all of us.  It rained all morning, so we headed out just when it started to clear up in the afternoon.  That meant not a super-crowded day for us.

Miss Lee washing her hands in the downspout before we left.

 Unlimited rides!

mirror maze - this was a favorite

Gliders - basically the swings but laying down.
I wished I could try this.

Say, "hooray"

 We had the opposite problem at the State Fair.  We went on the teacher work day for two or three different school districts.  The kids had free tickets for that day, so it was super crowded.  We still managed to have a completely different experience from last year.  We watched African acrobats

 saw the car show, a kids cooking demonstration, ate fried cheeseburgers, watched some pets perform tricks, saw pig races, and ate ice cream.  Then to finish we watched the new and improved lightshow/fireworks/dance concert at the end.  It was super late when we got home, but it was fine because the kids stayed up super late the next night, too while Johnny and I saw the SYTYCD tour for our anniversary.  

 And then there was the Bluegrass Festival.  A free one in our neighbor city at the Historic Park.  We had so much fun listening to music, which the kids said they liked, eating nachos,

doing crafts, playing with play dough, bouncing in bounce houses,

 getting faces painted and balloon animals

Basically, we like festivals.  You put on a festival, and we'll probably be there.  I think it's a fun way to get the kids exposed to new things and get out of the house.  Plus, now that regular summer has hit Texas, we finally have some great weather to go out and play in.

Preschool

So after much deliberation, discussion, and changing our minds, we found a great preschool for Joy.  It's close to home, and about as much money as equivalent time at the rec center would be, but she goes 4 days a week from 9-1.  

They do activities centered around a letter a week.  And for C, they studied colors and had a color parade.  Joy was originally assigned red, and was super sad when they changed it to brown, so we decided to all dress in brown and be Team Brown together.  Luckily that idea worked.

Team Brown!

Lee has brown pants.

 Here's the parade

We love our preschool, but now that means Joy has to make her lunches every night, too.  She saw an episode of Creative Galaxy on Amazon and wanted to make monster sandwiches.  Here's one of her creations. 

It lasted for several weeks and gave me the idea to have the kids start cooking dinner one night a week.  We went to the library and found some cookbooks in the kid's section and they have been chefs ever since.  Here is their first dinner. They'll be experts by the time they leave home, hopefully.  They both still enjoy it, and cook breakfast with me on weekends sometimes and help with the FHE treat, too. 

Joy Turns 4

So it took a few weeks and a few borrowed eggs, but we finally let Joy have a birthday.  She wanted to have a horse themed party, so I wanted to make her a carosel cake.  I bought the stuff, borrowed the eggs, and wrestled with fondant for about two hours.  After much muttered cursing, and loud yelling, I gave the project up to Johnny.  He did a great job putting it together for me. 

And of course her present was a horse. 

And this was her reaction to finding money in her birthday card from Grandma.

Did I forget to mention? Summer Roundup

Here's some things that happened this summer that I forgot to mention. 

The Captain lost his first tooth shortly after
Kindergarten got out.

One day our AC went out. Johnny was traveling, of course, so I called an AC repair guy, but they couldn't come until the morning, so we were without AC all night and most of the next day.  So we went to story time, lunch at the Rec Center,  and a super hero snack party at the library.  All in all, not a bad free way to stay out of the house until 4 pm.  The kids had a great time.  And food.  So they were saved from one catastrophe.  

We tried to do something fun everyday.  That lasted about a month, then it became once a week.  This was one of the fun things.  There were free concerts at the Mall, and Joy got called up on stage to dance during the pre-show.  She got a (huge) t-shirt and a bag of goodies.  Then both children were upset during the David Chicken concert.  I'm not sure why Joy was upset, she either did or didn't want to go up on stage again - I was never sure.  The Captain didn't want to be there until David Chicken mentioned that he had a friend with The Captain's same name.  Then suddenly he was sold.  So maybe not the most fun, but it got us out of the house. 

4th of July breakfast parade with the Ward. 

Playgroup activity at a petting zoo/farm in Irving.  It was crazy cool, and totally free.  If I hadn't thrown water on The Captain to cool him off - did NOT go well - we might still be there.

Oh, and this happened.

We had to stop family scripture study one night for some first steps.  It was one of the cutest things that's ever happened in our house.

After school started for The Captain, I took Joy to story time at the science museum.  It was awesome, but I quickly realized that we needed to get this girl into preschool.  

bubbles

doing science

mini scientist