Festival Fun

I love summer festivals. This area has a ton of them. Founder's Day festival, Art Festival, the Spree, Ragtime Music Festival, etc. It has been a lot of fun to see the various artists and their work, the kids' rides, the bands and entertainers, etc. So far our favorite has been the Founder's Festival in Farmington this past weekend. They had a mini carnival for kids with rides (blow-up stuff, ferris wheel, mini train, etc), ponies, petting farm, face painting, balloon animals, free food, and entertainers. We spent all day and had a blast. The entertainer, "Amazing Clark," did 3 shows that day and did something a little different in each one. We watched the puppet show and the magic show. Bella was most amazed when he ate fire. He asked her to move away from the stage but she was so enamored that within moments she was back up front. She also loved the ponies. Although, her choice was really more of a horse. It was the biggest one they had and the lady was half way through saying, "Are you sure you want this one, honey, because we have that little one over there," but before she could finish, Bella was already climbing onto the biggest one, happy as a clam and excited to get going.





When we're not going to the festivals, we're at home in the water or riding bikes.


We've been trying to save gas this summer and enjoy the weather by riding our bikes anywhere we can. Not easy in a city built by the car industry. But if I know there will be a sidewalk the whole way somewhere, we'll take our bikes. It's been a blast and Benjamin has become a real bike riding pro - 8 miles in one day last week. Not bad on his little 12-inch wheel bike. Of course, his favorite thing is to go back and forth in front of our house showing off. His newest trick is the standing ride. He can do it on one leg too, but haven't gotten a picture of it. I know I wasn't doing stuff like that at just barely 5 years old! I remember the day I figured out how to ride without holding the handle bars! I was so proud! I think I was at least 10!


This is how Christian prefers to travel. :) The kids love dumping all the legos out of our container and then riding around in the kitchen, repeatedly crashing into my legs as I make dinner. Fun times.



I have spent these last few weeks doing incredible amounts of laundry. Couldn't figure out why until a few days ago when I realized that Benjamin has discovered a secret - it's much easier to throw your clothes into the laundry hamper than it is to fold them and put them in your drawer. Once they're in the hamper, your mom eventually folds them and puts them away for you! Smart boy. Smart, manipulative boy. "Ugh, these pants really stink!" he'll dramatically declare as he holds the nearly-new item at arm's length over to the hamper. So his entire outfit - pants, shirt, and pjs (rather than just underwear and socks, as it's has been in the past) have been going in the laundry every day. This may be normal for some, but I'm of the wear it until it's dirty or stinks school of thought, so this once wear business isn't working for me. This week, Benjamin is on laundry duty. We'll see how it goes.