going to the state fair

We took the kids to the state fair on Tuesday. It was a good day to go-nice weather, not too crowded (a lot of schools have gone back already, but not us) and $2.00 admission, midway rides and assorted foods! It was a rough start-Marcus DID NOT want to go! He complaned and whined and actually cried about having to go to the fair. Too bad, we're all in this together and he had to go. Guess what? He had fun-they all had a good time. I took a ton of pictures and probably posted most of them. Here we go...

We walked through the cow barn and the chicken/geese/rabbit barn. Our kids are "townies" and don't get to see farm animals up close too often. We had to get pictures taken in the second barn-first Cale and Ewan (look up) and then Ewan and Liam (look down).

$2 midway rides was a big plus. We bought tickets and let the boys each pick two rides. Marcus, Ewan and Liam (with Andy) went through this climbing house.


Wait, is this boy smiling? Oh, he's must be glad he came to the fair!

Here come Andy and Liam down the climbing house slide!

Cale and Ewan (and Andy) rode this ride next. They had a blast! Liam was very upset that he could not go on this ride with them.

If you look really close, you can see the guys-they are the only ones on the ride.

Liam got to ride this ride next. It was went in a circle and the bees went up and down. Liam was very happy :-).

The last ride was the kiddie coaster. The three big boys rode it. We kind of had to convince Cale to ride, but I think he was glad he did. They all rode with big smiles on their faces and even rode with their hands up in the air for most of it. Liam was unahppy, again, being too small to ride this ride.



Kella slept. She pretty much slept the entire time except when I woke her up to nurse her (yea! for the breastfeeding stations). There was a scale where I fed her. I weighed her-14 pounds.

After eating state fair corn dogs, we went to the FFA building. The boys got suckers=dessert, played in a play area and fed some animals.

Our last stop was to the DNR building for some target practice and climbing on a snow mobile and 4 wheeler. Even Liam got to sit behind a gun. I'm not sure if he actually fired a shot, but he got to be one of the big kids=happy.

playtime with Kella

Playtime can just wear Kella out sometimes....

best used toys ever!

I'm giving props today to Rescue Heros. They are actions figures that were made by Fisher Price, oh, I don't know, at least 10 years ago. I knew about them when they were sold in stores, but we didn't buy them until they were being sold in kids consignment stores. We have quite the collection-a small army of figure, a plane, tower and command center. We also frequently check the Rescue Hero movie out of the library. Yesterday, the whole crew made their way downstairs to have a live reinactment of the movie the boys had just watched. This kept them entertained for a while and all the boys played nicely with each other-so great! So thank you Fisher Price! I only wish they were still produced, they are still popular-even used!

it's starting to look like school might be starting soon

During the last school year, I think Marcus went through 3 or 4 backpacks. It's not that he was extra rough with them, I was just buying cheap backpacks. For this next school year, we decided to go with a little more $ backpacks that have some kind of replacement policy. We ordered backpacks for the 3 older boys from LandsEnd.com. I wasn't planning on getting one for Ewan, but he really wanted to be included, too. We even got their initials on the backpacks and Ewan also got a pirate on his-very cool. They were excited when the backpacks came and everyone, even Marcus, let me take their pictures.

Oh yes, everyone picked a different backpack. And, Marcus picked a different font for his initials. Cale and Ewan thought the diamond type was very cool and I think Marcus liked that his font was the "atheletic" font.

What about Liam? Well, he does go to preschool this year and will inherit this green backpack. For some reason, this backpack has survived 3 years of nursing school and at least 4 years of preschool for Cale and Ewan. Liam was way happy to have a backpack, too. He took a nap with it yesterday and it also had to come to karate with us!

I did it!

Well, I finally did it! After many times of pondering, I finally filled out a job application with another hospital. I'm not unhappy where I'm at. I love the people I work with and I like my job. And, I don't like change very much (at all). But, this position I applyed for is a little closer to home, has hours that work better for me and involves working with new moms and babies! So I just submitted the app and I'm so thankful for my work friends that were willing to be my references. I'm also thankful that I have a job to return to anyway. I know there's supposed to be a nursing shortage, but I also know there are nurses who have had a hard time finding jobs. It seems like no one wants new nurse, they just want one with experience. I'm hoping my critcal care experience will make me marketable.

Here's to hoping! We'll see what happens!

Liam just wants to be like the other kids...

Liam wanted a belt like his brothers had on with their karate outfits so I found one of Andy's and put it around his waist. He was so excited. He wore this belt the rest of the evening to karate and then playing outside. The shirt he has on was the shirt that was the fundraising tshirt for VBS tshirts. Liam didn't want to take off his other VBS tshirt until I pulled this one out for him to wear. It hangs down to his knees so I got a rubberband and tied up the bottom into a tail.



Liam also likes to be like his sister. He likes to have his blanket laid out like Kella's. And, if I'm changing Kella's diaper, he will want his diaper changed too. Can we guess there's a little jealousy going on? :-)

we survived VBS!

The first thing that August brought us was 4 days of vacation bible school. We started on Sunday night and ended on Wednesday evening. I think the kids all had fun, including baby Kella, who got held by many willing ladies. Our theme was "God makes me incredible" and the skits everynight starred some well-known cartoon movie stars. From a Bible story standpoint, we learned about Saul's transformation to Paul and how incredible God made him. For the 4th year, I taught (?)/babysat (?) the 2 and 3 year old class. I always hope they can remember something about the Bible story, but really, they are 2 and 3 years old. My standards are pretty low. My class had anywhere from 6-10 kids that were pretty well-behaved for 2 & 3's. This year, Liam was in my class, too. He did okay-he's a very young 2 who is also very familiar with the church building. He liked to try to wander off and do his own thing. Luckily, everyone knew who he belonged to and he always made his way back.
It was a lot of work getting everyone to church early to eat dinner and do what prep needed done. I was definitely tired when I got home each evening. It's worth it, though when I see how excited they get to go (except for Marcus the last night when he had to go up on stage, but he survived, and really, he was smiling with his classmates before they went up there, so I guess he wasn't too "scared").

Here's Liam, post Wednesday night performance. The younger kids all got capes. They were all excited and Liam wore his the rest of the night. He also was way excited about his "incredibles" shirt. He didn't want to take it off, so he wore it to bed.

I bet you can barely see this, but it is thedoor to my classroom. Every year, several teachers take great pride in decorating their doors. Every year, I stress over what to do with mine. This year, my door was an island volcano. I contracted the work to 2 high school kids. They did a great job!

My boys-post Wed night. We made it through late bedtimes and daily drives to church. Our schedules got a little altered, but we had fun. Check another thing off our to-do list for the summer.