The Week of the Carnival

Last week "the carnival" was in town.  This refers to a fair that is smaller than a state fair but larger than a school type carnival.  It comes here every summer for a week and the two surrounding weekends.  It is fun for the younger kids and also pretty filthy!  Lucky for my kids, I'm not a germophobe!  Ben had bible school every night last week so we weren't sure if we could fit this in too but on Wednesday Justin came home early and we risked overstimulation and chaos by fitting two big activities into one evening and even ate at a restaurant in between!  Whoa whoa whoa!

Last year the "Lightening McQueen" ride was broken but this year it was operational again.  Yessss!  Ben is well above the 36 inch standard for riding alone on the little kid rides.  Tessa is right below it.  Fortunately, the workers at this carnival had no problem letting her confidently climb on the rides and, although they were supposed to take tickets for a parent rider they let me on every time I needed to ride with her.  Call them whatever you want but I appreciated that!

This was one ride where I couldn't believe that having an adult weight person dragging it down would be safer than a little kid riding alone but it seemed strong enough to hold me!

Tessa loved the "horseys". 

I left my dignity at the gate!  Hopefully when they are older the kids will enjoy going on the "real" rides that really toss you around.  I enjoy wild rollercoasters and spinning rides so maybe we can have a fun weekend at Valley Fair or the nearest Six Flags which is not very near at all! 

Oh, and Ben fell asleep on the way to bible school.  I had to haul his limp body inside to the church bathroom to wash his filthy carnival hands.  Fortunately, he perked up quick. Something has to give when you have fun outings with kids!

Some other excitement from last week:

I bought two new chair cushions at Wal-Mart. We only need two because our other chairs are taken up by booster seats.  Milo's high chair is on a folding chair.  Yes, we are now "one of those families" who doesn't fit into the perfect family of four standard encouraged and glorified by society  Oh well.  Justin and I aren't the only one enjoying the new plush cushions.  I should have bought a third for the floor so we wouldn't have to fight over our chairs with a cat.

Ben has decided he is now big enough to carry Milo around.  One afternoon I was absorbed in doing dishes (Yes, I was absorbed in dishes...is this really my life?) and suddenly I perked up when I heard "I got Milo up!" jumping out from his endless chatter.  This alarmed me and I discovered that Ben had lifted Milo up onto the couch.  He was so proud.  He said, "I'm very very powerful!"  Milo seemed happy about it all but now I have to monitor their time together.  At least he is four instead of two like he was when he decided he could carry Tessa round. 

We recently obtained this little table and chair set which was built for Justin and his sister in 1987 by their godfather.  It is a finely built set of furniture but I wasn't sure what exactly we would do with it seeing as we have no room for anything.  Well, it turns out all I had to do was put away a bunch of junk and where that junk was piled is a perfect spot for it! 

I had to share this picture of Milo because it shows how big he is getting. 

I've never had chubby babies so those thighs of his, although not chubby on the continuum of baby thighs, look so cute to me!