Parade Fun

Another big perk to Riverfest is the parade. It is always under an hour long and has tons of people throwing candy, which of course is a big hit with the kids. Besides where else would your kid get the chance to shake hands with Mr. Peanut?

Riverfest 2008

We love Riverfest and enjoying going to it every year. It is a blow-up carnival where all of the rides are FREE. Here are some pictures of the kids climbing and playing.

Ride 'em Cowboy

This is another fun free experience at Riverfest that the kids wanted to try out. The guy that runs the bull can make it go as fast or as slow as the person riding it. Unfortunately he seemed to think that he didn't do his job unless the person fell off. Isabella did really well, she probably made it 3 minutes before she fell off. Dominic made it about 5 seconds before he started screaming that he wanted ME to ride with him. I said that wasn't an option but the man running the show said "go ahead we will make an exception for you"
You would think the guy would take it easy on us since I had to hold on to Dominic and try to hold on to the bull.....but nooo. He felt compelled to make it interesting. I just kept thinking surely after a minute or two he will stop since it would be really dangerous if we both fell off. But that thought must not have entered his mind- I finally made a motion for the guy to stop and he did but man did my back and neck hurt for days. The tension I had to maintain to keep us on the bull was intense. I really don't recommend this to anyone over 18 years old. It was so not worth it even if Dominic had a blast.

Yet again...more apples

Picking apples is really just too much fun. We can't get enough of it. We are seriously going to have apples coming out of our ears by the end of the month. I am sure we will appreciate all the frozen apple products this winter.......unfortunately that means that the next few weeks are going to be spent making apples sauce, apple pie fill and anything else I can figure out to do with the bushels of apples we are taking home.

LIfe on the Farm

Everyone needs to experience the joys of jumping on large hay bales. What fun it is. The kids really felt big leaping from bale to bale. We only had one bad moment, when Isabella got stuck in between the bales, luckily there were people to help her escape. Unfortunately we found out later that night and the next day that Isabella must be allergic to hay. She had quite a time sneezing and coughing. No more bale jumping for her. Allergies stink!

T.V. Zoombies

This is your kids on Bugs Bunny. Seriously notice how none of them is noticing the person with the camera....all eyes on the cartoons.

Making Grape Jelly from grapes

When we were at my Grandma's picking apples, Isabella noticed that Grandma had grapes growing. She was more interested in picking grapes than she was apples. My Grandma noticed this and told Isabella that she might as well pick enough to make grape jelly. So the picking continued until we had about 5 quart of grapes. Then when we finally had a few minutes to spare Isabella helped me in the LONG process of making jelly.
First you wash the grapes and take them off the stems. Then boil them in water until the skins start to fall off. Then using a very special cloth (my grandma gave me) you strain the pulp of the grapes from the juice. This part takes a long time. After you have the juice you follow the directions on the Sure Jell and make Jelly.
I have to say that it took a lot longer than I anticipated BUT I would totally do it again. The jelly was awesome. Store bought jelly can't compare to the yumminess. Our family is not really jelly eaters but we burned though at least three jars in the first two weeks. I don't think we will have enough to make it though the year. I guess next year we will have to make more!

Beautiful

It is not very often that we take pictures that don't have our children in them. But driving home tonight we saw the most amazing sunset. Of course you never can catch it on film as you see it but this was a nice try.

Please mommy

Ok, so the kids were building with Legos and it was time to call it a night. But the drama kicked in the high gear when they had to put the Legos away and destroy their creations. For some reason this creation was especially important to Isabella and she insisted that we photograph it from all angles so she could remember how to make it again. You are in luck, I am only posting one angle. Kids are so crazy sometimes.

Little Cowboy D

It isn't a horse but he sure does look like a little cowboy riding his four wheeler. This is part of what inspired the Halloween costume for this year.

New perspective

My parents brought the van down so they could take home the neighbor's swingset that they bought. The kids were quick to notice that the van has a ladder on the back of it and climbed it to see where it would take them. Here they are viewing the world from a new perspective. Dominic thought this was hilarious.

Ballet in the Park

The KC ballet group did a free performance at a park and we were able to go. This was perfect timing since Isabella and her friend Mary were going to be starting ballet next week. Jude and Dominic were more interested in playing with eachother than they were watching ballet. Good thing Isabella brought a telescope so she could see better!

Love my Grandparents

It is so sweet to see my kids hanging out with my grandparents. I am so glad that I live close enough for my kids to get a chance to know what amazing people they are.

Visit to the Farm

This summer I decided it was really important for my kids to have contact with my grandparents one on one. Since our family is so big it is really hard when we get together for my kids to really get to know their great-grandparents. We did this a couple of times in the spring and the kids really enjoyed it---so did I. So here we are spending some time picking apples. We picked way more than I could ever use but the kids had a blast doing it. Nothing more fun than getting to climb up a ladder and pick something. Since this visit was such a success we are going to try and make it a monthly event.

Happy Birthday times 2

Here are some pictures from my cousin's birthday party. James, our Godson, turned 4 and Emma turned 7.

Visit from friends

We were so blessed to have our dear friends from Cobden IL, come to KC for a visit to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They made time to spend an afternoon with us. It was so great to catch up on changes in our lives since we left Cobden 5 years ago after Isabella was born. The kids adored them. We are thinking we will need to take a trip back to Cobden for a visit again soon. (Notice in the picture with Michael and I that it is a bit lopsided.....Isabella is the photographer.)

Celebrating Daddy's birthday with bowling

Michael took the day off from work so for his birthday and the kids got to have their first experience at the bowling alley. Lucky for us there is a new smoke free bowling alley that is relatively vacant during the day, except for other families with kids. Dominic loved feeling so strong heaving his 6lb bowling ball around. Both kids had a little bit of trouble getting enough momentum to get the ball all the way down the lane, luckily daddy was willing to help them out. This may become a tradition for Michael's birthday.

Fun with the "blower"

When the kids noticed that there was air blowing out of the bowling ball machine they were pretty excited. Here are some pictures of them enjoying the "air."

How sad

Here is a picture of the score board after our bowling match. These are the real scores people! Granted my kids had bumpers up so they didn't get gutter balls but who would have thought that I would share a score with a 5 year old? Seriously I need to sharpen up my bowling skills. At least we got a good family shot!

Birthday fun continues

After bowling we went to the T-Rex restaurant for dessert. The kids got to split a dino-rice krispy treat--the best part of that was that they got to paint it with icing and decorate it with candy. Fun stuff. After we got home the kids gave Michael part of his birthday present, a Superman coloring book. He really does look a lot like superman don't you think?