She Decided To Stay...

We've been going to the fair a lot! Yes, we're crazy! Yesterday, we went to the 4-H and FFA horse show. It rained all day, so it was good to be inside. Big Sis had her 3rd corn dog.

Tonight we returned to the fair for supper and the demolition derby. Big Sis ate her 4th corn dog. I had my second tenderloin (yum). The girls lasted through 4 heats and a final round of the compact car class. Then they were done. Cool Daddy-O made arrangements for me to get a ride home with our neighbors and he took the girls home. I'm glad he did. There was only one heat of full-size cars, but they were DEAFENING! It was fun to watch.

Cool Daddy-O said it was kinda hard for him to watch the cars get demolished. He's very much into vehicle maintenance and getting as many miles as we can our of our beloved Hondas. On a good note, there were no Hondas or Toyotas in the derby. Fortunately, they're mostly still out on the road.

This morning, the girls were not allowed to watch TV (in part due to yesterday's behavior -- long story). They decided to play with Lincoln Logs and then Big Sis built a log cabin she was quite proud of. After that, the girls became quite irritable with one another and a fight broke out. I decided I was going to put the Lincoln Logs away and out of reach for a consequence. oops!

Big Sis came unglued when she discovered what I had done! She stomped back to her room, screaming and crying. After some time had passed, she stomped out and placed a hand written note on the kitchen table. Here's what it said:

I am going to the othr sid the wrld. frome big sis

I took the note back to Big Sis's room and talked to her about it. I couldn't quite understand what it said, so she told me she was packing up her things in her backpack and she was going to leave to go to the other side of the world. I asked her how she was going to get there. Her plan was to take a plane. I was able to talk her out of running away and all was forgiven.

Here is Big Sis pretending to be sad and posing with her run away note.

On another note, the girls had their first swimming lesson on Wednesday. We finally convinced Lil Sis to sit on the edge of the pool and dangle her toes in the pool. I think she will be more brave next time. It's too bad the lesson only lasted 30 minutes and half of that time was sitting outside of the pool talking about safety. I think another 15 to 30 minutes and she would have been in the water too. At least they both left wanting to go back.

That's all for now. We're going to hang out at home tomorrow and will do some cleaning, laundry, mowing, etc.

Ribbons At The Fair

The girls and I went to the county fair this morning. Big Sis entered a few drawings / pieces of artwork in the Junior Arts competition. Last night she worked on a collage using the technique she learned earlier this summer at a class she attended. I'll upload a picture of it later. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it yet. It turned out pretty nice. She also entered several other drawings she had colored with crayon, markers, tempera paint, and another crayon design. She ended up with a red ribbon, several blues, and one purple (for the collage).

Other cool stuff we saw:

• a showering sheep...he was NOT happy about it
• a friendly lamb whose best friend is a horse
• an Angus calf named Hershey's
• a pen of pigs enjoying a bath
• an attacking turkey (don't worry, it didn't hurt, but it did scare the sh*t out of me)
• crowing roosters
• furry bunnies

I know it's not healthy, but, Big Sis ate two Jumbo Corn Dogs today. For an afternoon treat, Big Sis got a huge chocolate ice cream cone and Lil Sis got a blue raspberry shaved ice. Big Sis got full, so Lil Sis ate the rest of the cone. I got the rest of the shaved ice. It was definitely a WIN - WIN situation!

We send out Kudos to Uncle J today on being part of a #10 Country song. WhooHoo!

Swimming lessons commence tomorrow. The girls are excited!

I'm hoping to stay away from the fair tomorrow. We'll definitely go back later in the week. We have to pick up Big Sis's prize money!

*Dryer Update: I think I forgot the share the good news. The dryer was fixed quickly. It is working better than ever!

Pioneer Girl

Big Sis spent the last 2 days at Pioneer day camp. She made a candle, wrote her name with a goose feather dipped in ink, and milked a goat. She got bit by a kid (the baby goat variety) and cut and pinched her finger on something that she describes going up and down and then getting stuck. She's pretty proud of her injuries.

It rained most of the day today. Fortunately, Big Sis wore her raincoat all day. Her coat was muddy and her face was covered in chocolate ice cream. I'd call Pioneer camp a success.

Lil Sis and I hosted a fun play date today. We ate sweet corn and other good stuff. Days like today, I wish I had a bigger, more open kitchen. An island would be nice. Otherwise, I really like our house. The best part about hosting a play date? Having a clean house! We really need to do this kind of thing more often.

Next week is the county fair. It's a nice warm up to the state fair. We made hotel reservations for two nights in August. We plan to spend the night in Des Moines and get up really early and try and be part of a new world record corn dog chomp. We may go to Omaha to spend part of the day at the zoo and then return to Iowa for some more state fair fun. This may be the closest thing we get to a vacation this year. WhooHoo!

Big Shoes to Fill

After a cloudy start this morning, the blue skies prevailed at last. We drove to Pella for the annual Tulip Time celebration. We scouted out a cool spot out of the wind and planted our chairs between a huge tractor and a wagon full of spectators. The parade was complete with Dutch costumes, marching bands, awesome floats, and a martial arts entry complete with a broken leg. I didn't see it happen, but I did see a young man that landed on the ground after jumping to kick a board. His leg was bent between his knee and ankle. I was a bit squeamish at this sight. His fellow participants quickly picked him up and carried him away. Not sure if they should have moved him in such a manner. Within 10 minutes an ambulance was nearby and he was taken away for treatment. A few minutes later, we saw another ambulance picking up someone else. I bet the ER was busy today.

The Squirts each ate a corn dog and Cool Daddy-O and I had brats or Sinterclaas Sausages as they're called in Pella. For dessert we had funnel cakes and for a mid afternoon snack, the girls shared cotton candy.

After our snack, we set out on a 6 stage geocaching expedition. The clues took us to the stage on the town square, then to Central College, then to the VerMeer Mill (windmill), and finally toward Lake Red Rock. Cool Daddy-O spotted the cache and then gave the rest of us clues to find it. We found three other more simple caches today also. We found our first travel bug and will place it another cache soon to continue its travels. We found and logged our 21st cache today.

We enjoyed a delicious supper at Pizza Ranch in Pella. I think it's Big Squirt's favorite place to eat. She loves the chicken and mashed potatoes there.

The girls were asleep within a few minutes of hitting their pillows tonight. I think we'll all sleep well after spending the day in the fresh air.