State Fair

One of my very favorite things in the whole wide world is going to the County or State Fair. I love them, I love them, I love them!! We had the New York State Fair here in Syracuse in September. It was the perfect thing to end our summer with. The kids had fun seeing all the animals and they loved riding the rides!!

Who doesn't love an adorable, clean baby calf!!

Tess loved every single animal!

These beautiful gray cows were enormous!! And I loved their beautiful color.

I made the boys take a picture in the bunny face too, but I kindly decided not to post those.

Talk about a double chin!! :-)

I really think these Chinese chickens were naturally these crazy colors. I couldn't believe it!! If I'm wrong, someone tell me, but I'm gullible enough to believe that God made them that way - why not?

They had an incubator where chicks were hatching and it was mesmerizing!! I could have stared at them for hours. I just kept routing for those poor little chicks to break out of their shells!

They had a few chicks that they let the kids hold. I'm a little concerned that the chicks never recovered, especially this little guy.

Tess was willing to ride anything that she was tall enough for. The other kids were not as fearless.

The slide seemed safe enough.

It took alot of talking to convince them that the swings would be fun. Eventually they went on, and I even got a turn. I love the swings - it feels like flying!

The ride that the kids were really looking forward to was the bumper cars. They rode them twice. Why don't they do bumper cars for adults? Oh wait, is that a demolition derby?

Oh, and of course we had to have yummy fair food!! We had popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream. I wanted to sing the song from Charlottes Web "The fair, is a veritable smorgasbord, orgasbord, orgasbord, after the day is through...."

Peek a Boo

Where's Tessa?

There she is!!

The Big 7

Emma finally turned 7. I say finally because I have been saying she's 7 for several months now. So now its official. Emmas birthday was a 3 part event. On her actual birth day Ron and I were leaving for a weekend getaway, so we let her open a few presents in the morning. Then when we got back on Sunday, she got her birthday cake and the rest of her presents. Then the following Saturday she got her birthday party with friends. Saturday night at dinner Tyson said "Thank goodness Emma's birthday is FINALLY over!" And I felt the exact same way, Emma however did not. But she had a lot of fun and loved her birthday.


Emma wearing her birthday crown and her new rock and roll t-shirt.


Emma is currently obsessed with scarves so she got 3 new ones for her to enjoy and be "stylish" with.

Grandma made her a beautiful new quilt.

One of two birthday cakes. I didn't take a picture of the cake at her party because I cheated. It was a horse party so it was a horse cake. I didn't take the time to decorate it with the star tip and make it oh so beautiful. I frosted it with chocolate frosting and just outlined it with yellow. It turned out cute, but not up to my perfectionist standards - so - no picture. But they were both super yummy!!

All Hallows Eve

Halloween day was rainy and windy, it was actually quite miserable. The kids prayed all day long that it would stop raining in time for trick or treating. Their prayers were answered and the rain stopped around 4. Ron thought it was funny that the kids were praying that they could celebrate a pagan holiday - but who cares - they had fun!!a> The kids kept changing their minds about what they wanted to be for Halloween. They basically ended up making their costumes from our dress-up collection, which suited me just fine. Tess was the only one wearing a hand-me-down costume. Emma was Belle when she was 3 too, and shockingly the dress was still in great condition. She couldn't wear the shoes that matched because it was too darn cold and there were too many puddles still. We basically put her dress on top of her clothes and added her cute Belle jacket, and she was ready to go! Tyson is a soldier (of course), Zach is a Ranger from his favorite series Rangers Apprentice and Emma is a cowgirl.

Can you tell how windy it was? It was crazy!!

We told the kids to keep Tess in the front of the pack because she was so darn cute that everyone would love her and they would give them extra candy. It worked too!!

I know this pic is a little blurry but I wanted to show how blustery of a night it was. I love that word - blustery - thanks Pooh!

Headed home. Tess' bucket got pretty heavy but she wouldn't let us help carry it. So Ron and I kept taking handfuls of candy out of her bucket and started shoving them into our pockets. She didn't seem to care about that, as long as she had her bucket.

I wanted to get a video of Tess saying Trick or Treat and thankyou. She was so cute about it, and I love her little voice. I ran home in front of everybody so they could knock on our door last and I could get this video of Tess.

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Family Home Evening carving pumpkin night. So much fun!!! To quote Tess, "I love it, the punkins - I love it!!"
Daddy gets the job of carving out the lids and scooping out the gunk for the girls (and mommy :-)!



I love the, "I have to touch that?" face!!

Tess loved every minute of it!!

Here's Emma drawing out a picture of what face she wanted to carve on her pumpkin. In the end, she neeeded some help from mom, but it turned out great.

The mostly finished pumpkins (Ty ran out of time to finish his). L - R : Zach, Ty, Tess, Mom, and Emma. Daddy never does his own because he is too busy helping everyone or finishing peoples when they get too tired to finish their own!!! This year, he completely redid Zach's pumpkin, because Zach tried to "wing it" and it didn't turn out so good.

Zach's re-done pumpkin. Looks really cool!!

Mine - I love it!!

Emma's mean faced pumpkin. Are you scared?

Tess' cute face

Tyson's completed pumpkin. It looks cool!



We put up orange lights this year and I think it looks so cool!! Next year, we'll put up even more.

The end of my good day

First this post was going to be about something ridiculous that my son said to me today. But now it has morphed into a mommy complaining post. To begin the story, there is a little news, I got a job. Just part time at Michaels. I work 3, 5 hour shifts a week and its when the kids are in school. I have been so busy. I started working at the beginning of the month and I have been so busy with extra stuff like birthdays and coffees and Halloween parties that I have been going non stop. I really never get to sit down anymore. But today, I was feeling pretty good about my ability to handle the new schedule and get everything done. I even considered myself a wonder woman of sorts. That was around 2:30 pm. Then my kids got home at 3, and that all changed.

Tonight for dinner we had hamburgers, homemade potato salad and chips. I was proud of myself for taking the time to make the potato salad from scratch. I knew the kids would love the hamburgers and chips; well I thought they would. When Tyson asked me what was for dinner and I told him he said "I was having a good day until now!!" Apparently he was angry with me that we were having hamburgers and not hot dogs. He proclaimed that his day would be salvaged if I would only add hot dogs to the menu. I refused on a matter of principle. My kids don't get to tell me what we are having, nor do they get to pick and choose what they will or wont eat!!! Oh, and I'm not a short order cook either. So I was annoyed, but I let it go. I figured I would blog about it and vent my annoyance to the world wide web.

Then dinner time came. Tyson still wasn't thrilled about the hamburger thing but he was willing to choke 1/2 of one down. But then came the dreaded, miserable, disgusting, revolting, awful, potato salad. I gave each of the kids one small spoonful, I promise they were small. Tyson put one spoonful in his mouth and started to gag, he actually looked like he would throw up. By this point I had had it!! I was so furious!! I am sick and tired of making nice meals for my family and then all they do is complain. I can't believe that a dinner of hamburgers and potato salad could make my son physically gag at the table. I finally couldn't even look at him he made me so mad. Then Emma and Zach started in and would only pick out the egg pieces. What has happened to my world? What can I do to make my children appreciate good food and not be so ungrateful? AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Oh, and just so you know this complaining about what I cook for dinner is a pretty regular occurrence around here and I have had enough!!! Ron thinks we should start feeding them bread and water. What do you think?

Cowgirl