A Day at the Fair

On Tuesday we took a trip to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton for a very fun-filled day. Charley took the day off and the weather was absolutely PERFECT! The last time we went to the fair, I think it was over 100 degrees which made it almost too hot to do anything. This time it was perfect.

The kids saw all kinds of animals. We saw baby goats....

a 250 pound 6 MONTH OLD PIG!! WOW!...

and we were even able to see the sheep competition (*love this picture of the boys)

In one of the display halls, they had 2 huge areas that were full of Legos. The kids spent quite a bit of time there using their creative juices to create masterpieces.

The kids (minus Anna) were also involved in the tractor pull. Caleb pulled 60 lbs. in his tractor and was one foot away from "winning" 1st place. He came 2nd to a 10 year old who pulled 120 lbs. all 30 feet. We thought that pulling 60 lbs all that way was pretty good for a 6 year old. Must be all that big wheel peddling that he does:):) All the kids in the competition were given ribbons for a job well done.

They had lots of things for the kids to do there. In this picture the kids were involved in a water balloon toss. Unfortunately, I don't think my boys know the meaning of the word TOSS as they THREW it over hand. Needless to say they did NOT win the toss. This picture says it perfectly...notice Caleb's clenched fists and Joshua's "WHAT?" position along with his very wet shirt.:):) We just had to laugh. I think we will have to put "practicing throwing a water balloon" into our homeschool curriculum:) NOT!

My brave son did something that I didn't think any of my kids would do...he held a tarrantula! He's braver than I!

This year at the fair, they had a GREAT kids area, that I don't think has been there in past years. There were "musical instruments"....

a big corn box (who would a thunk that kids would enjoy playing in a big box of corn!)....

..and last, but definitely not least, Kristina got to "milk" a "cow". It was a great, but exhausting, day. Anna was asleep before we were even out of the fairgrounds and about 4 of them were asleep by the time we returned home. Having so much fun is hard work you know!!:):)

Happy Birthday Abby!!

At 2:49 a.m., 8 years ago yesterday, Abby was brought into our lives and has continued to be a joy to us. Abigail means "fathers joy" and she has definitely lived up to her name.
On Saturday, she had a birthday bike party. Her friends brought over their bikes and they all rode over to a local park and rode bikes. They also got to run in the sprinklers that were on there (that aspect of the day was totally not planned). When they came home, we had pizza and fruit salad and then had some (per Abby's request) chocolate CHOCOLATE cake!


Auntie Binky even brought "Cousin Gwen" (the dog) over and the kids had a great time playing with her (I know that I'm going to be hearing, "Mom can we get a dog?" for weeks to come now)


Thanks everyone for coming to Abby's birthday and making it special!!

Raft vs. Wrath

The boys and I were doing a phonics lesson today and Joshua read the sentence "The man is on the raft". He asked me, "What is a raft?", to which Caleb replied, "You know, slow to speak, slow to raft (when you read "raft" you have to say it in a tiger-like manner:):) These kids are so hysterical or as Auntie Lindsay said when she was a little girl...they are so historical.:):) (sorry Linds...I couldn't resist)

Silly Goose

I go in the playroom this afternoon (83 degrees outside by the way) to this sight. I asked her why she had her coat on to which she replied, "I'm cold". What a silly goose she is!

Happy Fathers Day!!

We have the BEST Daddy in the whole wide world! We love you Daddy!
....and the best Papa too:):)

We celebrated Fathers Day a day early this year by having a pool party/BBQ at a home that Lindsay housesits at. We had such a fun time swimming and eating yummy hamburgers, corn on the cob, and guacamole. YUMMO! What a great day to celebrate our Daddy/Dad/Papa.

Happy Birthday Auntie!!

Well, this morning we celebrated...celebrated Auntie Lindsay. It is her birthday today so she and mom came over with an "adult" egg dish and muffins and I made scrambled eggs for the kids (they are not too crazy about the adult egg dish). We also had YUMMO chocolate covered strawberries and cherries. What a treat!! All of the kids made Auntie a card so each of them gave her the card or cards they made and then we opened presents.

After that the kids wanted to do a "program" for all of us. They dressed up, turned up the tunes, got out their "instruments" and danced, danced, danced. It was quite the scene as you can well imagine with 5 kids twirling around all at the same time.

We love you Auntie!! Hope you had a fun birthday.

Sometimes you just can't win

At the dinner table tonight, Joshua was asking about something that Charley had bought at the store on his way home from work. The conversation went something like this....

Joshua: "Mom, did he buyed it?"
Stacey: "He BOUGHT it."
Joshua: "Did he bought it?"



*I know..I know...I asked for that one:(