A month...

...since I wrote. How did that happen?

...of fun times and train rides with little friends.

...of the return of our favorite Daddy after 2 long weeks on the road.

...of birthday photo shoots for Little Miss who is 3 going on 17.

...of an undefeated soccer team.

...of purchasing pumpkins and mums {and just a few more mums. and another pumpkin or two.}

 ...of a special lunch date with Mommy and a very quite day at home, just to two of us.

{I thought maybe while his little sister was gone he would need me to play games, read books, just generally keep him company but it was exactly the opposite. He read books, played with the kitty, and quietly entertained himself for hours. I almost forgot he was there. Almost.}

...of celebrating 60 years of Grandpa.

...of field trips with first graders.

...of joining a cousin for a small town parade. {where record breaking amounts of candy are thrown out, thank you to whoever threw the toothpaste our way too. not pictured are the potato chips, pens, glow sticks, water bottles and chocolate milk also collected at said parade.}

 

... of a 30th birthday party for a sister-in-law, returned from afar. My sister and I made the food, but not the cake. Her family did the decorating. Her husband (my brother) conspired and coordinated it all from across the globe.

  {Yeah, we've been a on a bit of birthday overload around here, but who doesn't love a party. Another one coming up this week.}


...of a weekend church retreat (sans kids) where I took not one single picture. Not one! I find it hard to believe  myself but there was just too much connecting and being inspired and late night partying to be done.

{This picture was taken at the same retreat several years ago, it gives you an idea what we had to suffer through.}

And now you are officially up to date. I know you've been checking daily for all these inspiring, thrilling details. Be back sooner next time. Really.

Fair Skies and Funnelcake

I told my husband last week that what I really want to do is decorate my porch with pumpkins and corn shocks and bake everything pumpkin and apple, but instead----I emptied more boxes. I'm partial to Summer's warm temperatures, long days, kids off school and the rainbow of fresh fruits and veggies, but for some reason  fall is testing my loyalty this year. It's probably mostly because I'm quite ready to do something, anything really, other than pack and unpack and organize and sort and figure out what to do with the last 3 boxes of really odd things sitting in the living room. But since I don't know of any grand pumpkin patches nearby (of course if you're local and you'd like to recommend one, I'd be happy to file that info away!) it will help me restrain myself and stay on task here. Maybe next year!!
 

I did venture out for one evening of fall fun with the kiddos though. Let's call it 

"The Woman who lives in a Shoe goes out on the town."

 The last of the local fairs runs the first week in October. It's the one I went to as a kid and now it's our "hometown" again. It's pretty important for our family to get there at least for the parade night. So important in fact that said "Woman from the Shoe" took 5 kids (one of them barely a month old) to parade night SOLO last year, on a night when it happened to RAIN. It's okay, you're not the first person to raise your eyebrows and question her sanity!!! She does it herself, REGULARLY!

So this year, Daddy had to work again but we recruited Grandma to join us. She willingly agreed since the forecast for the week was sunny and unseasonably warm.

 We got there early so we'd have time to do all the important stuff.....

Drive the Tractors 

--except there wasn't very many to choose from this year. we had to settle for a lawn mower and sharing it at that.--

Drool over the Legos

 The Petting Area

The Corn Box

--by far the biggest attraction on the grounds. my boys could spend days there--

And of course......

The Food!

(Well, actually we started with that. Not because it was the most important part--but it might have been-- but because if you wait to eat dinner until dinner time the food area becomes one big massive line. The french fry stand is swarming like a bee hive and the milkshake line makes Friday afternoon traffic look easy! In between there are 27 other junk foods begging for your whole months allowance and a ride on your hips.)

I told the kids they could each choose one thing. Our dinner consisted of Funnel Cake, French Fries and Soft Pretzel. (And the big bag of apple slices that I packed, in hopes that it would somehow balance out those grease loaded goodies.)

We don't get good stuff like this very often! =)

The other highlight---watching the rides. Yup, I said watching. I'm too tight to fork out real money for a chance to bring up the $4 treat I just bought, but they stood there for a long time fascinated by the spinning, blinking, tilting  and whirling.

It's not everyday you get to walk down the middle of the road. 

And then we perched on our reserved curb seats to watch tractors, trucks, horses, dogs, marching bands and "those guys with only one wheel" (unicyclists) pass us by and throw candy our way.
We were not disappointed, we filled several bags with tootsie rolls, smarties and mints.

Chances are good that we'll be back next year, even if the forecast says rain!