Lorelai's Week Without TV

A couple of weeks ago, Lorelai declared she wanted to go one week without watching television. Where did she get this idea? Not from her loving parents (who don't watch much TV, but nor do we discourage our kids from watching when we want some alone time). Not from her Sunday School teacher (who is nevertheless a wonderful lady with many other wonderful ideas). No, Lorelai got the idea for a no-TV week from a Berenstain Bears book we own:

Our whole family loves the Berenstain Bears books. Besides having great illustrations and lovable characters, the Berenstain Bears books are very good at dealing with "important issues" in a clear, thoughtful way...without every becoming condescending or overly preachy! They strike a perfect balance of entertainment, folksy wisdom, and loving parental advice & support. They were a favorite of mine growing up, and I'm so happy my kids have joined me in loving these stories.

In the book pictured above, Mama Bear gets worried that the rest of the family is too hooked on the television, at the expense of valuable family time. So one night, Mama announces to her couch-potato family that they will all forgo television for one whole week. Despite the family's initial protestations, everything works out swimmingly (it IS a kid's book after all); the family takes more nature walks, does more family activities together, and finds that they don't need to watch so much TV after all. It's a short, simple, yet effective reminder that it's important to balance our television viewing with other family & personal activities.

Thus, it was time for life to imitate reality! Lately, I'd begun feeling a lot like Mama Bear, worrying about my kids spending hours on end in front of the TV each day, wasting precious daytime hours watching shallow, pointless programs. I was however, a bit embarrassed that Mama Bear ended up being the moral compass of  my own family in this matter...I should have proposed something like this sooner!

Even with Lorelai's enthusiasm backing me up, I'm ashamed to say I allowed the rest of the family to "cheat" a little. Since my two youngest still can't read, I exempted them from total participation. However, I did heavily cut down their TV watching that week, and they were required to turn off the television whenever Lorelai came home from school (or whenever Nathan and I were in the room). Nathan and I also didn't go on a complete "technology blackout": we still spent large portions of the day on the computer, and we even played some computer games during that time (although Nathan did cut down his game time a significant amount). Also, I tried to consciously avoid watching YouTube clips or any other video on the computer for the week. The goal was "as few moving pictures as possible."

So...how did everything go?

Overall, I'd give us a "B/B+" grade for the week. Lorelai was a real trooper, but the first two days of the no-TV week were a Saturday and a Sunday...it was very hard for her to resist turning on the TV, and she loudly complained of boredom to anyone who would listen. We tried to help out by playing a board game or two, reminding her to practice the piano, and giving her chores. She also escaped outside on her bicycle a few times. Luckily she had been invited to a birthday party on Saturday (and had church on Sunday), which helped break up the days a little. Celeste & Aurora "cheated" by watching a short program when Lorelai was at the party; Nathan and I excused ourselves from the room for that.

The rest of the week wasn't nearly so hard; school hadn't gotten out yet, so she was kept away from temptation most of the time. However, the school itself ended up playing spoiler to her resolve; on Tuesday, she watched part of a movie in class! She felt pretty bad about it, but I told her it "didn't count" because, school. I hope she accepted this answer! At home, she often told me she wanted to play video games (which I'd given her limited permission to do), but she rarely followed this up. In fact, I can't remember her playing the Wii once that week, and she only checked a few small things on the computer. She never stayed in front of the computer for long. It was nice to see her "electronic resistance" increase throughout the week.

Lorelai also got more into her personal reading than usual. In my opinion, this is always a good thing. She even spent an afternoon or two reading stories to her little sisters...

...sometimes with soporific effects. Lorelai had no idea she'd read Aurora to sleep until I'd told her! Very cute.

As for Nathan and myself, the "no-TV" week didn't turn out to be much of a stretch. The first day or so was a little hard, but we quickly got into the groove. It helps that we both enjoy reading so much, and that we had our lovely glowing computer/mobile device screens to keep us company. I think that for Nathan and I to really grow and sacrifice, we'll have to turn off the computer and put down the tablet and smartphones as well as leave the TV dark. Well, maybe not all the way off...maybe we could only check our Facebook for emergencies...or just check our e-mail one time...or...well...yeah, we have a bit of a problem. But television? Apparently, we can live without it just fine.

I feel like Mama Bear at the end of our Berenstain Bears book. When asked why she "didn't like" television, Mama Bear responded [paraphrasing here], "I like television just fine! But it's the amount of television that I want to be careful about." I really enjoy television, and there are many television shows I love to watch. However, I think I am past the point where I want to "binge-watch" television; I don't have the time to sit and watch for hours on end, because my mind and body begin screaming at me to do something else. This is an equilibrium I hope I can hold onto for the future!

Lorelai's no-TV week ended on a Friday night, when she spent the evening at a friend's house while Nathan and I went out to a movie (thus ending our no-TV week as well!). When we picked her up after the movie, Lorelai looked down--a little embarrassed--and said, "Mom, I watched TV tonight." She actually felt guilty for ending her no-TV streak a little early (technically, she had started her week the last Saturday morning, so she ended a night early). While I reassured her that she did fine and applauded her effort, I was also secretly pleased that my daughter is automatically questioning whether or not she should be watching television. That's a self-consciousness I want her to maintain throughout her life...it's good to keep a balance!

Happy Mother's Day To...Myself

Yikes! This month has gotten away from me. The first half of May wasn't too busy, really...I even found time to catch a few quick naps and avoid various responsibilities. But as usual, the latter half of May happened, with all that implies (birthdays, extracurriculars, school, church, holidays, etc.)...and here I am, with summer vacation imminent, and the blog lying fallow and uncultivated whilst I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. Time for some catching up.

Mother's Day is usually a low-key affair at our house; for some reason, I get a little uncomfortable at the thought of being endlessly pampered or showered with gifts or whatever. I feel like my birthday is sufficient for that level of spoiling...I don't need two days a year for all that! (I'm not begrudging any other moms out there who love to be spoiled on Mother's Day...these are just my own feelings.) That, plus the fact that my Sundays are a lot busier than they used to be, mean that Mother's Day has often been a hurried afterthought.

However, as the kids have grown older, they have gotten a lot more excited about Mother's Day than even myself (I suspect their schoolteachers have had something to do with this, and who am I to gainsay them?). This year, both Lorelai and Celeste made gifts for me at school/preschool. They spent the whole week leading up to Mother's Day gleefully hinting at how awesome their presents were. Their enthusiasm for the holiday made me more enthusiastic in turn, and I started to look forward to my day of being pampered.

Luckily for me, Nathan got into the "pampering mood" as well. I got breakfast in bed out of the deal!

After eating, it was time to open my presents.

Lorelai gave me a hand-made wind chime. It was very cute, but since it was made out of clay, I thought it would work better if we hung it up inside the house, for now, to prevent breakage.

Celeste brought me this adorable jar:

It was filled with a small questionnaire about the student's mothers (Celeste got most of the information right, except that she put my age as 46 years old! Ouch!). The jar is intended to sit around for the next year, while everybody periodically writes awesome things about me and put those tidbits of awesome into the jar. It's a great idea...now we'll see if anyone remembers to do it! Either way, it was a sweet idea and I appreciated it.

Celeste also made the "wrapping paper" for her gift, by drawing a picture of herself and me:

She later told me that the reason she'd crossed out her own picture was because "this holiday wasn't about me, it was about Mom." Kind of cute.

Nathan bought me a fancier gift than I probably deserve, but a welcome one:

We had an electric counter-top griddle for a few years, before it finally died a horrible death from overuse. We currently have a counter-top George Foreman grill, which is also slowly dying. So Nathan decided on this neat device, which is a combination of both! It has panels that can be flipped to act as either a griddle or a grill. We promptly christened it "The Grill-dle," and I thus declared Mother's Day 2013 to be a success.

I have to finish by saying how grateful I am for my family, and how nice it is to be loved by them. They make every day a little (or a lot) better.

Painting Some Loooooong Walls

Yay, my third post of the day! Today is my "when it rains, it pours" approach to blogging...gotta get all the news in before life gets too busy again!

Anyway, I spent most of the first week of May recuperating from my crazy busy last week of April. However, there was one project waiting for me at home; it was a project that we'd been hoping to finish for months, but hadn't had time to do on account of our many busy weekends. We wanted to finish painting all our downstairs walls!

We'd painted most of our downstairs last October and November. However, we'd left two large walls unpainted, since we weren't exactly sure what we'd do with them. It took us a while to decide what to do. Eventually we decided on a color (we went with a slightly lighter shade of the blue-gray paint that was already in our kitchen). However, after purchasing the paint, our weekends got pretty busy throughout the spring. So at last, when we finally had a free weekend, what did we do?? That's right...we turned our house upside down once again!

Time to move all the furniture again...sigh.

Although we only had two walls to paint last weekend, they were big ones; the rear wall is the longest in the house...it's the entire width of the house, in fact! We also painted the west wall in our front room (with the piano).

Luckily for us, these walls were fairly straight and rectangular, so painting them was relatively straightforward (although we did have to shut off the computer for the weekend). However, there were several windows and the back door that required taping, and that got pretty time-consuming after a while.

Look at me paint!!

But, despite the late hours we put in, it all seemed to work out for the best.

Nice clean lines!!

Besides, check out the sweet ball of used tape we got to toss around afterwards!

After the painting was done, we gleefully destroyed the vertical blinds that had been hanging on the back door since we moved in. They kept out the sunshine well enough, but they were also horribly flimsy and awkward, falling down every time a kid ran into them (which was often) and almost every time we tried to open and close them. Now that we'd painted the walls, we could finally start putting up curtains...so bye-bye, blinds!!

We won't miss you one. Little. Bit.

Due to our budget being tighter than anticipated this spring, we are going to add curtains slowly; perhaps once a month or so, until all the windows are covered. We started with the back door:

After getting these curtains home, we had to admit to ourselves that they weren't the prettiest curtains ever. However, we still liked them for a few reasons: 1. They were reasonably priced; 2. They were utilitarian, which will be useful in a high-traffic area like our kitchen; 3. They have a matching valance that we'll buy later to put in our kitchen sink window; and (most important) 4. They are black-backed curtains, specifically designed to keep out the sun! In a room that faces toward the sun for the majority of the day, that will be very helpful at reducing glare on the television and keeping the kitchen a little cooler.

Behold the final results!

We'll add pictures of the new curtains as we obtain them. Still, not bad for a weekend's worth of work!

New Calling For Nate

(Time to post on behalf of my beloved husband; he doesn't get to blog much, so I need to chronicle some of his personal history for him!)

Between the glut of carnivals, fairs, showers, book clubs, and barbecues that flooded my life at the end of April, I spent most of the following week decompressing--and talking to as few people as possible. However, the first weekend in May brought a new development, which may keep us busy for a while.

Nathan received a new church calling! For the last couple of years, Nathan has been one of our ward's Gospel Doctrine teachers. I've had several people come up to me during that time and tell me how much they love his lessons, and what a great teacher he is. I myself have never heard one of his lessons; being in Primary doesn't leave time for that, unfortunately. However, I know Nathan is an awesome public speaker and a great teacher, so I believed everyone when they raved about him.

As it turns out, I probably won't hear Nathan teach a Gospel Doctrine lesson any time soon. Last Sunday, he was released from his calling and given a new one--Ward Mission Leader. It will be his job to work closely with our assigned full-time missionaries, teach the Gospel Essentials class (for investigators of the church and new members), support new members and investigators in learning the gospel, and encourage the whole ward to participate in the work of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. As someone who loved his full-time mission very much (and as someone who has served as a ward missionary before), this is a good fit for Nathan's talents.

He is definitely a little nervous about being Ward Mission Leader, though...he is replacing a guy (a friend of ours, named Shane) who magnified that calling more than I'd ever seen anyone do before. And besides that, he'd held that calling for four years, an amazing amount of time! On Shane's watch, several strong converts have joined the congregation, and he has been a close friend and willing helper/advisor to each one (along with his lovely wife--and fellow ward missionary--Kylee). He seemed almost tireless (and unflappable) in his efforts to be a good missionary. Shane has indeed left some big shoes to fill.

Nathan is not as outgoing as Shane, and I'm sure his style of missionary work will be very different than Shane's. However, that doesn't mean he can't be just as successful and serve the Lord just as faithfully. A ward missionary is an interesting calling, because serving as a missionary can be accomplished in many different ways. Each person investigating the church has a different learning/conversion experience, and there are many different ways for ward missionaries to interact with these investigators.

The most important factor, of course, is the missionary's own testimony, and his willingness to share it with others and serve them as fellow children of God. In this regard, I have every confidence in my beloved Nathan and in his ability to share the truth with those who are seeking after it. Go get 'em, dear! I love you!!

April Ended On A "Carnival-Themed" Note (Plus Some Other Stuff)

Besides the county fair, our family had a lot going on at the end of April. It left me pretty drained, to the point where I'm just now getting over it all. There were a lot of other "carnival-themed" activities that closed out the month...it was an interesting trend that spanned the entire week! Thankfully, most of the activities were either helpful to others or fulfilling in some other way.

Here's a brief rundown:

Tuesday: Besides the usual business (school, preschool, piano lessons), I volunteered in Lorelai's class, right after buying tickets to the school's "carnival" that was to take place that Saturday. Volunteering in Lorelai's class always wears me out, for reasons I'll describe in more detail later; suffice it to say, there are a lot of rowdy, rude kids, and it gives me a headache.

After lessons were done and dinner was eaten, I headed out to my monthly book club meeting. This month, I was in charge of leading the discussion, which meant a little more prep time than usual (usually, I show up, eat a bunch of food, gossip with my friends, and leave!). The book I selected for the month of April was Call Of The Mild, by Lily Raff McCaulou. I picked it up on a whim at the library one day, after seeing it on the shelf...it has proved to be one of my better impulse picks in recent memory! It's a memoir that tells the story of how the author (an animal-loving, gun-hating political progressive from New York) becomes immersed in the world of hunting. She details her gun safety training, then slowly moves from practice shooting to dove shooting to bird hunting to big-game hunting. The "climax" of the story is when she shoots a massive elk and has to field-dress it...not for the squeamish! It's a fascinating look at modern hunting and how it fits in with America's current political and conservationist landscape. More than that, it's a perceptive look at guns and gun ownership, American dietary habits, and how we view death in modern society. It's also very readable and relatable...I highly recommend it!

Wednesday: This was my "off" day (thankfully...I needed one off-day this week!). It mostly involved me lying around gathering my strength. Well, in the morning I did run two miles...and took the kids to storytime at the library. So, not a total off-day. Nathan also got some new expansion pieces for our favorite board game, Seven Wonders. We invited a few friends over to give the new expansion components a "test drive." I love Seven Wonders (it's one of my favorite board games of all time, probably!), but I admit I got my behind kicked that night. Time to play some more practice rounds!!

Thursday: This was one of my crazier days. Driving the kids to school, exercise group, preschool, a frantic trip to CostCo (where I bought a whole bunch of food...more on that in a second), babysitting, and four piano lessons. Eek! Usually I don't do more than three piano lessons in a day, and those days are exhausting. But four?? I will try to avoid that in the future.

But that's not all! As soon as my final lesson was done, I piled the kids up in the car and we headed over to the church building, where we had to set up the Primary room for our annual Teacher Training meeting.

It's not often that Primary teachers get to meet in a kid-free environment, to discuss the nature of our jobs and how we can do them better. By offering a Teacher Training, the Primary presidency is hoping to accomplish just that! True, the Sunday School presidency often offers a Teacher Improvement class during church...but given the number of Primary classes we have, getting all our teachers to that class is a near-impossibility.

Anyway, we provided child-care and dinner to sweeten the deal for all our teachers, some of whom may have balked at coming on a weeknight. Mmmm...delicious chicken-salad croissants!

In the end, we had a handful of teachers show up, along with several teachers from the Young Women's organization. We handed out several forms prepared for us by the Stake Primary Presidency, including spiritual and temporal responsibilities as Primary teachers, and some tips on how to deal with disruptive children.

As you can guess, dealing with rowdy children was a big part of the discussion, as was the appropriateness of bringing food to classes. For the record: I am against treats in class, except when the lesson suggests them or on otherwise rare occasions. I worry that treats create a "reward culture" in Primary, where the kids come to expect them weekly. It can also make a mess of the church building (crumbs everywhere, etc.), and can make siblings jealous of each other, thus chasing away whatever spirit they had been feeling.

Obviously, I am not a "final authority" on these things, but as Primary President, I have tried hard to limit the treats in class (I don't know how successful I've been, but I've tried!!). However, we had an instructive conversation with some of the teachers who don't agree with my stance, and hopefully worked out a few compromises that will help some of the more wiggly children. I was very tired after all was said and done, but I was happy for the good discussions we had, and grateful for the spirit of the Lord helping me discuss a potentially difficult subject with respect and understanding. Hopefully next year's Teacher Training will have even more attendees!

Friday: Another "off day"--if by "off day," you mean "spend the whole morning cleaning the house." I also managed to take a quick trip to the grocery store to buy a cake for the school carnival the next day. Nathan was supposed to have a game night that night, but came home tired and slightly sick so he hung around home all night, while I furiously whipped the house into respectability. To be honest, our whole family had spent most of the week with a Pima County Fair hangover, and more was to come the next day! Lying low at home (well, aside from all the cleaning... and the laundry!) was a form of self-preservation at that point. That leads us to...

Saturday: Another long day, with not one, not two, but three carnival-themed activities! We started it bright and early, arriving at Great Expectations Academy at seven-thirty in the morning to help set up all the carnival games, booths, and what-not. Nathan and I don't volunteer much of our time at the school, so we thought of this as our "karma" for the year. After carrying a few wooden games to various points on school grounds, I helped prepare Lorelai's homeroom for the "cake walk" fundraiser...

I even laminated the numbers! Yes, I know...such an overachiever. The treats all looked delicious (we had donated a couple of them ourselves), but we knew the chances of winning them were not great.

After some of the heavy lifting was done, Nathan went home to shower and get the girls ready for the actual carnival. I stayed behind, to meet up with them later; I had some final set-up to do, as well as a quick detour for some grocery shopping before the carnival began. Plus, I had also volunteered to monitor one of the inflatable obstacle courses for the carnival:

It was a pretty impressive set-up, all things considered!

When Nathan and the girls showed up, they proceeded to have a blast. They tried out the cake-walk (but didn't win anything, of course); played every carnival game available; jumped on every bouncy castle many times over; and, of course, ate a bunch of kettle corn and cotton candy. You know, to get them in the "carnival" mood...

After a couple of hours, we took our leave. It was a fun trip for the kids, and a well-put-together event for the school! Unfortunately, it was a busy weekend, and as a result, a lot of families weren't able to make it to the carnival. The attendance was probably a bit lower than the event organizers would have liked. Hopefully, the school was able to turn a profit and get some significant funds for the upcoming school year.

After the carnival, it was time to quickly get ready for my next activity...a bridal shower for my friend Deidre's (soon-to-be) sister-in-law. It was really fun to go to a bridal shower; it was the first time in a long time I've been to one! I've been to countless baby showers over the last several years; those are wonderful, of course, but it's just as fun to offer presents to a beautiful bride-to-be just starting her adventure as a wife! Plus, the humor can be a little raunchier, and no one minds!!

The bridal shower was "carnival-themed" as well; there were delicious lollipops, popcorn boxes, corn dogs, and plenty of taffy. We also had a prize drawing, and guess who was the lucky winner? Yeah...this guy!!!

I loved the cute ceramic "bathtub" everything came in...and I am still saving that lovely giant lollipop for a special occasion. It was a great conclusion to a fun afternoon.

But my day wasn't over yet! I had to transport a salad to a church function...a barbecue held for the entire stake. A new pavilion had been constructed behind our old church building, and this dinner was the stake's way of celebrating. It consisted of hot dogs, salad, punch, and a shady place to eat (I was very thankful for the shade...by this point the day had gotten quite hot!). And for the kids, there were--you guessed it--more carnival games!!

Our ward was in charge of face painting. I asked a sister from our ward to volunteer, and she stayed for the first hour of the (four-hour!) event. Another woman took over after that; I saw lots of flower-faced girls happily running around as a result. There was also a "cake walk" at this barbecue...one with a much higher success rate than the school's cake walk. Celeste stayed at this event for a long time (darn the lack of parental supervision!), and ate no less than six cupcakes! Yes...totally obscene, yet hilarious too.

There were other typical carnival games as well (ring tosses, water balloons, etc). But the biggest draw was the rocket launcher!!

Each kid was responsible for making his or her own rocket out of the available construction paper. They then placed the rocket on a "launcher" made of PVC pipe, and powered by air pressure generated by a simple bicycle pump. Ah, science made easy and fun!

Some of these rockets really flew...a handful probably got close to 100 feet in the air! Lorelai's rocket...did not fly that high. It also flew kind of crooked. Blame me, who helped her make it and who has no engineerig know-how whatsoever. However, we both had lots of fun making the rocket, and lots of fun at the carnival!

And thus one of my busiest weeks in recent memory came to an end. May is usually my "busy" month; if this week was any indication, I fear for my sanity in the coming weeks! Of course, I could be blowing it all out of proportion as I am wont to do. Time will tell!

Our Day At The County Fair, In Pictures!

If you like lots of pictures, then this is the blog post for you!! Last Monday, our family took a trip to the Pima County Fair. We hadn't been to the fair in about three years...the last time we went, Lorelai wasn't in school yet, Celeste was too small for most of the rides, and Aurora was a tiny babe in arms. We had fun, but we didn't stay long and didn't do much. We thought after a few more years of growth, the girls would have a lot more fun. So after a few years of "passing" on the fair, we finally decided to take the plunge this year.

This year, we went on a Monday--which was a discount day both for fair admission and parking. We also bought some cheap ride coupons prior to going to the fair. Last of all, we actually got Lorelai out of school early to go! Remember kids, education is important...but not as important as getting your money's worth at the fair!

Here's a bunch of pictures from our trip, with some commentary:

Our first stop was inside one of the big tents, where we got to see an "exotic lizard" presentation. It was especially great since all the girls got to be volunteer "animal handlers" at various points throughout the show.

Lorelai's the one in the middle with the blue hat...

...and you can't see her now, because a crocodile is in the way!

Lorelai's reaction upon being asked to pet the crocodile...those eyes...those eyes...

Celeste and Aurora got to go up next...you can see Aurora shyly "waving" to us while on stage.

They got to help hold a huge snake! (you can just barely see Aurora's arms just touching the snake; she was a bit nervous)

There was a lot of cool stuff inside this (very large) tent; including a whole mini-medieval world for the kids to play around in for several minutes.

Including this cute little wooden "warship"...

 

...and a jail cell for disobedient girls.

And stocks, too.

 

 

Lorelai's command style

Celeste's laissez-faire approach to ultimate power

Aurora's just happy to be here.

Nathan had one goal at the fair...to eat something deep-fried. He found one of those vendors that deep-fry all kinds of things, and bought himself a deep-fried Snickers bar.

Verdict: delicious!

It turns out the vast majority of deep-fried foods all end up looking like corn dogs, even when dusted with powdered sugar.

We saw a couple of shows at the fair; the girls' favorite was this one, with Frisbee-catching dogs. They were excited, friendly, and super-athletic. One of the male dogs had to "mark his territory" all over the field before he would perform though; it was pretty darn funny.

 

 

 

These two dogs got into a competition for most Frisbees caught.

Look at that air!

We all really enjoyed the livestock tents. It's always fun to see farm animals, and most of these animals were healthy, beautiful specimens.

 

At first, Lorelai was calling these turkeys "HUGE CHICKENS."

The highlight of the livestock tent (for cow-lover Lorelai, anyway)

Lorelai posing with her favorite animal, the cow!

Lots of cute sleepy calves

The girls spent so much time looking at livestock, they began to resemble them somewhat.

After looking at the animals, we headed into the 4-H tent. It was neat to see so many different kids' projects in one place. The variety of projects was pretty impressive, too! We even saw a small "baked goods" section, and found some award-winning cookies made by one of Lorelai's school buddies. Small world!

But while "looking at stuff" was fun for a while, it was soon time to do what we'd all come here to do: ride a bunch of carnival rides!

Here's a free-fall ride Nathan rode.

Too tall for me!

I preferred this "hang-glider" style spinning ride. I loved it, but Lorelai was freaking out the entire time! She is not a big fan of the rides in general.

The swing ride on the left elevates almost to the level of the tall Ferris wheel in the background. Much too high for my liking. Celeste was waving her hands in the air and screaming with delight, while I grabbed her tightly with one hand and prayed not to die. Right before the ride, Celeste told me, "Mommy, I hope this helps you overcome your fear." Sorry kid, it didn't...especially not when she's riding with me, and I'm spending the whole time worrying about her. Who knew my little princess would be so fearless?

After making our stomachs upset for an hour or so, it seemed only appropriate to buy some greasy fair food for dinner:

I love me a good barbecued turkey leg. Everyone else either had hot dogs, sandwiches, or nachos.

Too bad this monster leg was too much for met to eat by myself!

Good thing I had a hungry girl around to help me out.

Since Aurora wasn't quite big enough to ride most of the adult rides, we headed to the Kiddee Land near the fair entrance to spend the rest of the evening. Once there, Aurora and Celeste got all the rides they wanted, and then some!

They all had lots of fun riding this weird caterpillar-coaster.

Aurora and Celeste were in heaven on this mini-swing ride.

 Sadly, the one ride Aurora couldn't ride on was the Ferris wheel--the very ride she'd been looking forward to for much of the evening! Hopefully the next time we go to the fair (in another 2-3 years), there won't be any height restrictions for her. Thankfully, in Kiddee Land, there were lots of other options for her...

...like this sweet motorcycle ride!

While Aurora rode her "hog," Lorelai, Celeste, and I headed into the Ferris wheel, for a lovely panoramic view of the whole fair...

 Whee!

Daddy and Aurora waved to us while we were waiting to be unloaded...

After this, we all piled into the car and headed home. We were very tired, but we had had so much fun! Not something I'd want to do every year, but a wonderful little escape from reality for a night. The rest of my week was definitely more hectic...more on that next time! As it stands, my kids will have a lot of fun memories to cherish.