Iowa State Fair

We spent our annual day at the fair on Friday!  We had so much fun!  The weather was very hot in the morning, but then a rain came in and cooled it off a little!  We spent the day with Ryder, Jami, Rexy, and my mom.  We also saw Abby, Delaney, Gehrig and their grandma there too!  Oh, and we saw Mark and Deb that evening too!

We first (well after round 1 of eating!) went to the Little Hands Farm.

With their aprons on, new Pioneer hats on, and baskets ready!

Audrey planting her onion seed.

Still planting the seed!

SMILE Audrey!

Eli riding the tractor

 

audrey on a tractor

We watched baby chicks hatch.  It was so amazing to watch these baby chicks come out of their shells.  I could have sat there for hours watching this!

The big yellow slide is always a favorite!

Brian rode with Audrey and Jocelyn rode with Elli.

Jocelyn as a cowgirl, Audrey as a lamb and Eli as a farmer!

They love to climb into the big tractors.

Sitting in the big tractor wheels!

At the end of the night, we wanted to go check the building with the pregnant animals and babies.  Earlier in the day, we had been there to see the animals.  There was a cow that was in labor.  We waited a while to see if the baby would come soon, but we thought it would be a while so we left.  This was the baby cow that had been born around noon that day.  So cute!  Then as we were walking around, we noticed that there was a cow in labor and a pig that was about to have babies!  So we had to stay a while!

These pigs had been earlier in the day.

Jocelyn and Eli had front row seats to watch the cow give birth to a baby!  They were about 4 feet away!

The baby calf had just been born –

They had it on the screens throughout the buildings.  Here is the calf just seconds old!

It was such an amazing thing to see.  I couldn’t believe how enthralled the kids were in watching this happen.  I think we stood there watching this poor cow in labor for about 45 minutes!  Won’t they have stories to tell!

And what we did the rest of the week with just the older 2!

On Tuesday the kids both had a friend spend the day with us.  We went to Moon Marble Company and watched someone make a marble.  It was very cool.  They also had tons of toys, old and new, to look at.  Very cool place.  The kids also got a tube of marbles to they could play Marbles.

 On Wednesday,  I had a meeting for my Building Better Moms group that I am in.  The kids and I ran some errands after that.  Then we decided to go get haircuts.  Jocelyn decided to get her hair cut to donate it to Locks of Love.  She was so brave!!

BEFORE picture!!

Here was how long her hair was!

And here is the first 12 inch ponytail being cut off!

And the AFTER!  Doesn’t she look so much older!

It was quite a change and she cried for while after we got home.  I think she needed some reassurance from her friends and not just the adults!  She got it throughout the week though! 

We are so proud of her for donating it to people that don’t/can’t have their own hair!

On Thursday,  I took the kids to the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

They have all the pig artwork /monuments on the lawn of the museum.  We went out there for a few pictures, but it was HOT out there!

The kids love this statue from the Night at the Museum movies!

We had a really good week!

And do did Audrey!  I will post those pictures soon!

We finally made it to Black Bob Bay

We have a new aquatic center about 5 minutes from our house and all summer the kids have been asking me to go there.  We have a neighborhood pool that we get to use for free, so I haven’t wanted to spend the money to take the kids to another pool.  And since Audrey is in Iowa for a week, I took Jocelyn and Eli today.  Jocelyn and Eli wanted to take Addy and Savannah with us.  We had a fabulous time!

Savannah and Eli just getting off the slide.

Jocelyn and Addy coming off the waterslide and flipped off!

Eli, Savannah, Addy and Jocelyn taking a break and having a snack!

Their favorite part of the day was the high dive!

Jocelyn

Eli jumping from the high dive

Jocelyn in mid-flip.  She almost got 2 flips in…but fell a little short and slammed her face into the water.  I felt so bad for her – but once I realized she was fine…we all laughed a little! 🙂

Eli and Savannah in the tube after going down the slide.

Jocelyn and Addy coming off the waterslide.

Addy and Jocelyn on the lazy river

Jocelyn practicing her cheerleading jumps off the high dive. 

Here she was doing her pike jump.

Eli jumping off the high dive.

We had a really fun day!

 

 

Jocelyn’s Bridging Ceremony

Jocelyn has been in Girl Scouts since she started kindergarten.  She started as a Daisy and then the last 3 years she has been a Brownie.  But as of yesterday, she is now a Junior Girl Scout.  I am so proud of everything she has learned and done over the past 4 years!  The next step for Jocelyn (and the rest of the troop) is to get out into our community and give back to our community!

Jocelyn and 2 of her friends singing one of their Brownie songs for the last time!!

Jocelyn getting ready to cross the bridge and get her Junior sash on!

I helped Jocelyn get her sash on!

Yeah…she is a Junior!

The entire troop and Angie and I.

When the girls planned their bridging ceremony, they voted to have the Kansas City Kite Club come to the ceremony.

It was AWESOME!  Take a look at these kites!

 

The had a candy drop for the kids. 

The kids were able to go on the field and see the kites.  Look how huge those kites are!

It was a very cool (not temperature wise!) afternoon!

Fun at the Zoo

The kids and I went to the KC zoo for one of the last times before school starts.  We were hoping that the polar bear exhibit was open, but it wasn’t.  We found at that it opened over the weekend, so when Audrey gets back from Iowa, we will take one last trip to see the polar bears!  We are hoping to go Monday before school starts!

And right after this, we headed to see one of Audrey’s favorite animals…the snakes!  She is a crazy girl – her favorite animals are ephalants (that is how she says it!) and the snakes!  Especially the big yellow python!  🙂

They could ride the carosel over and over!  Good thing we got the FOTZ membership that included free rides on the tram, train, and carosel!!

Oh, and Audrey wore her Dora backpack almost the entire day!

Jocelyn – I am so glad that she doesn’t think she is too grown up for riding the carosel!

Jocelyn! 

We love watching the kangaroos!  This is one of my favorite animal exhibits at the KC zoo!

Audrey!

Eating Audrey eating lunch! (Well so are the other 2, but I accidently cut them out of the picture!)

There is one that I got all 3 of them!

I just love these kids so much!  No matter how frustrated I get with them…they are the best kids ever!

Eli looking at the lorikeets!

Jocelyn and I fed the lorikeets.  Audrey and Eli didn’t want to, but they watched us.

 

I was so proud of Jocelyn for feeding them.  Last time she fed them, they got caught in her thick hair!  (And we all laughed and took pictures!)

Fun day at the zoo!!   

 

Our garden

Brian and I have planted a garden every year since we bought our first house.  This year, we decided to add on to our garden and make it bigger.  (Well, as big as it can be with everything that we have in our yard…play set, trampoline, patio, etc)  I went out the other day to see what veggies we had and I was so excited that I found enough veggies to make pasta primavera with yummy garden veggies!!

 

That is just some of what we picked that morning!  I know…I picked the carrots too early!!  But they still worked and tasted so good!!

This is what we had already picked the day before!!

 

Budgets!

So, most of you know that we started on the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University plan in January.  It has been quite the lifestyle change for us, but definitely the changes we needed to make.  I (We) have learned so much about ourselves, our values, and what is really important in life.  It changes your mindset in the way you think, therefore in the way I have learned to shop.  We have realized that in order to enjoy our lives in the future, we need to change how we budget now. 

 I am a shopper! And I was raised that way!  Thank you mom!  But, I also learned at a young age to look for bargains!  My mom is also quite the bargain shopper.  I love to find bargains and the best deals when I go shopping.  My kids have now learned that I don’t buy anything (well, much of anything!) that isn’t on sale or clearance.   Coupons are now a way of life and I LOVE to see my receipt when I am done to see what percent of $ I saved!  I can usually save between 35-50% with using coupons and shopping sales. 

My advice to anyone who hasn’t gone through this program is to read the book, watch the DVD’s, go to the class- I wish someone would have told us to do it 11 years ago when we got married!!

I can’t wait until we pay off our debts and can feel that accomplishment!  We have friends that have done it and we know we can do it too!  Wish us luck- some days are harder than others!!  There are many days when Brian and I think “Can we do this??”  And it usually takes both of us to look to the future and say Yes WE CAN!! 

 

“Who to vote for?”

Tuesday was an election day here.  So needless to say, there were political signs everywhere.  We also met many of the candidates when we went to the 4th of July parade.  On Monday, Jocelyn asked me about all those signs, so I explained to them about the election and what it was for.  I told them that we met many of the candidates at the parade.  Eli thought about it for a minute and said “I think we should cheer for the guy who came up to me and tapped me on the head!”  I thought for a minute about who he was talking about – then I responded, and trying not to laugh! “Eli, that wasn’t a candidate, that was a guy from the Ren Fest!”  It was so funny! He just responded “Oh!”

And to think, that was one of the goofy guys dressed up…not like the King!!!!!!