State Fair

Last week I took the kids out of school to the State Fair on the 2-for-1 day.
We went with our friends the Schmutz's.

Here is Sean helping to make a leather key chain. He chose a truck imprint and loved help his new friend "bam-bam" on the key chain.

Daphne was near tears when she found out we couldn't take any of these darling baby animals home. That sweet girl desperately wants a pet she can cuddle with, but I am already a little overwhelmed with the brood I have. I don't want to clean up any more poop than I'm already cleaning up, ya know?

Hayden loved this sweet grilled corn.
He got really mad at me when I took it away to taste some, so I quickly gave it back!
It was good stuff. I love fair food!


The kids got to pick one ride before we headed home.

All the kids at the fair!
Daphne, Bobby, Dallin, Loralyn, Lydia, Ray, & Sean

Laughing out loud

"What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul."
~Yiddish Proverb

Butterfly Fieldtrip

On Thursday, we went on a field trip to the Butterfly Pavillion at the Botanical Gardens. It's really cool to see all the different butterflies. Sean was mostly interested in watching the trains in the train garden, but he suffered through the butterflies as best as he could. I thought they were great, though.

Putt-Putt Golf

On Labor Day, we went for a round of free putt-putt golf at the Hinckle Family Fun Center. (Our kids kept calling it the "Frinkle" Family Fun Center.) Dallin was pretty good at it, and even got hole in one! Sean was crazy, and just walked up to the hole and dropped his ball in each time, yelling, "I DID IT!!!." Hayden was a very patient observer--mostly he just chewed on his stroller. And Daphne had some issues with knocking her ball into the water. We had a great time.

Back-2-Back Birthdays

Daphne and Sean have their birthdays just five days apart, so the end of August and beginning of September are a little crazy. Also, since Daphne turned five this year, we had a birthday party with friends. (Usually the extent of my birthday parties are invite families over to share dinner and birthday cake--no games or crafts or party favors.) Since I was out of town on her real birthday, we had a family celebration before I left, and her friend birthday party when I got back.

Family Party:

Daphne's Girly-Girl Birthday Party:

We had the girls come in their favorite "dress-ups" and I turned on music from "Enchanted" while they twirled and danced around.




Uh . . . if you can't beat 'em, join 'em?


The kids made castles out of wafer cookies,
gum drops, pink M&Ms and frosting.
Fun, but messy!

Notice Dallin holding Sean's mouth away from the cake--
Sean kept trying to blow out Daphne's candles.

Sean's Birthday:

Thomas the Tank Engine cake. Evidently, that Thomas candle was too tempting--Sean couldn't resist dragging it along the frosting train tracks.

Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of birthday cake lately.


This video clip is of Sean opening one of his "boring" presents (clothes).
His reaction is classic, I think.

Trip to Kentucky

This past weekend, Arthur sent me out to Louisville, Kentucky to visit Natalie, and we had such a great time playing together! Arthur, the saint that he is, stayed home with all four kids-- that's right guys-- all four kids and kept them fed, and alive, and happy for FIVE DAYS! and the house was even CLEAN when I got home! I am so thankful for my amazing husband!

Someone has said, "The road to a friend's house is never too long."

I beg to differ. I wish the road to my sisters' houses were much shorter!!!

Me & Kyrie at the zoo

Kyrie held unusually still for me to paint her fingernails and toenails.

My first crab experience.

Brian made dinner for us one night. We had crab, corn on the cob and red potatoes all boiled together with special crab boil seasonings. We ate them all with our hands (wearing our blue latex gloves that Brian has in abundance.) This was my first time tasting crab. It's a lot of work to get to the meat, but really good once we got it!

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg
even though [she] knows that you are slightly cracked."
Bernard Meltzer

Scrapbooking, of course.

We worked on some really cute Event Calendars that I'll post pictures of later.
(If you're lucky)

Antique shopping!
The East has way more antique shops than out west--something I noticed when we were living in Ithaca. I didn't get to look around much when we lived there, though because I always had my little ones and there's no way I'd take kids in to an antique shop! But we got a babysitter for Kyrie, and spent a fun time browsing through all the fun things at the Antique Mall.

Arthur doesn't understand my love for antiques, or as he calls it "other people's old junk." I can't really explain it myself, but I just really like old stuff. I like to imagine the history and the memories that may have been made with old wooden boxes, school marm bells, wooden thread spools. Natalie got the cute tricycle, and I bought a little wooden doll's cradle (the sturdiest one I could find,) for Daphne to put her baby dolls in, and then on an impulse, I got this old Ice Cream maker, that I probably paid too much for.
Who knows why, but I just fell in love with it!

It was so much fun to visit you guys, Nat, Brian and Kyrie.
Thanks for all the fun memories!