BUG!

So this bug landed on the deck and had no intentions of hopping or flying away. Evie caught it on her hand
Then the bug decided to go for a walk.

Climbing Mt. Evie

It made it past the hair and neck onto her cheek.

And tried to see her brain through her eye. This is when we removed the bug and set it free.

the State Fair again

This week, my old friend, Erica, came to visit me for my birthday. As a former Hoosier, she didn't pass up the opportunity to go to the State Fair. So as soon as we got Evie on the bus, we headed down to the fairgrounds and had a pancake breakfast with some fine young FFA members. We stopped at the swine barn and Erica and Annalie petted a "pig pile".
We also saw the completed cheese sculpture.

And we saw the biggest pumpkin!

It was Farmer's Day at the fair (aren't they all Farmer's Day?) and there was a parade of old, stinky tractors. Here are 2 Olivers. Uncle Kevin, did you know you can get a pedal Oliver???

And we saw Smokey who reminded us that only you can prevent forrest fires.

We were even enticed by the Hot tub deals (special for you, today only, pretty lady). show of hands--who thinks this tub should come live on our deck??

Onslaught of Tomatoes

The garden is really producing. We picked tomatoes on Monday and again today. It turned out to be much more than I thought I would get off of 4 plants! The girls help with the harvest.
So with a kitchen island full of tomatoes, I decided to make spaghetti sauce. It also used home grown onions and peppers. Talk about eating local!

I also made eggplant parm for dinner. My sous chef was in charge of sprinkling the cheese. :)

First Day of School

After 5 1/2 years, we turned Evie over to the best public school we could find. She woke up and was dressed in a flash this morning. We had plenty of time to take some pictures before the bus came. Here's our kindergartener. Such a big girl.
Once the bus pulled up, there was no looking back. Good thing too because Mom was on the verge of tears.

All day long, Annalise keeps asking--is Evie still at Kindergarten? When will she be home. I think she misses here wrestling partner.

Hottest Day Ever.

No we aren't referring to our wedding anniversary. 11 years ago, we said our vows in front of all our sweaty friends and relatives. And look at us now. We look like someone's parents.

No, today we decided, on the hottest day of the summer, to go to the State Fair. We don't have many options because Evie will start school on Tuesday and we have to go to Ohio for a birthday party next weekend (Tessa--you better be walking by then). So today it was. We got up early and packed our backpack full of water and the camera. We were at the fair at 8:37!
We entered the gate with all the tractors. Evie can still fit inside a tire.

Annalise drives one

We also checked out this awesome combine with the cornpicker attachment.

That's a big tractor!

Then we checked out this sprayer. We learned from the salesman that the booms can reach 100 feet and with GPS, they can selectively turn spray nozels off when the sprayer goes somewhere that shouldn't be sprayed. So all the farmer has to do is sit up in the AC cab, program the stuff in, then text his friends. Pretty slick.

Annalise on top of the sprayer

What's a fair without some goats? We found some babies to feed.

Dad even felt generous enough to shell out the $1 for the bag of carrots to feed the goats.

Then we went over to the little Farm hands thing for the kids. YOu can see that this kid is getting a little big for the pedal tractor.

But this kid is just the right size.

And we "milked" the cow.

Annalise did too. She spent a lot of time positioning the stool for the best milking position.

It was getting hot so we headed over to the dairy producers for a milkshake.

Annalise didn't want to share!

Evie pose with Miss America--she's from Indiana if you didn't know. This is even better that Indy 500 Festival Princesses!

We allowed the girls to choose one rickety carnie ride. Evie picked the roller coaster. She really liked it.

Then we stopped for a corn dog. The heat started to wear on Annalise.

In the Ag/Hort building (yes, we visit all the buildings including the Pioneer land of tomorrow building, the arts and crafts building and ALL of the barns), Evie volunteered to be in the watermellon seed spitting contest--hosted by the Indiana Honey Association.

She got a pink ribbon for participation and a yellow 5th place ribbon (there were 7 kids)

By this time, Annalise was finished. We scooped her up and took the tractor ride back to our gate of entry.

Before leaving, the kids got canned.

When we got in the car, it said it was 98 degrees. Annalise fell asleep before we left the parking lot and then took a good sweaty nap at home. We cooled off in the pool and then had an early bedtime. Tomorrow is our last day before school starts! This was a great way to end summer.

Wedding in Cleveland

I've been a little lazy on the updating lately. With Annalise feeling sick and enjoying the last few days of summer vacation before Evie starts school next week, it got put on the back burner. So now the kids are amusing themselves (somewhat) and I'm updating what's been happening around here.

We went up to Cleveland this past weekend to attend the wedding of Jim's cousin's daughter, Allison. I'm not sure if that makes her Jim's second cousin, or his first cousin once removed, but whatever. I defer to Aunt Becky on genology terminology. The girls vied over the asile seat to see the bride the best.

They were married in this historic church that was moved to the Cleveland Metroparks. It was nicely restored with air conditioning.

The happy couple--Congrats Allison and Jason!

Shlee in her shlee-ness. She was just a bundle of fun on the drive back to Indiana. She cried and whined all the way from Columbus. Incidently, we are having a tough time with her lately. She wants to be "big". When we asked her how big she wants to be, she said "5".

We enjoyed the reception. The girls had a great time dancing with all the other little kids.

Annalise didn't want to go!

Ballerinas

The girls had their final ballet class of the summer this week.here are the little ballerinas in their studio at the community center.
They started by warming up with some stretches.

Annalise gets stretched out.

Annalise does "step-passe" across the floor. When she tried to do it backwards, she stalled out until the teacher helped her.

here are some more dancing exercises.

Then they had to balance a beanie baby on their heads while dancing across the floor.

then they did their performance. This was the only time they were in sync with each other.

The girls and their teacher.