Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Iowa State fair a.k.a Tomas eats his way through Iowa

I know I mentioned here how generous my parents are, but let's get serious, they are really generous. On Friday they took my kids and me to the Iowa State Fair and spoiled us rotten.

The littles got to ride dirty the many hours we were there. Not "dirty" in the sense that they were hiding crack somewhere on their persons, just "dirty" in the literal sense. They were a couple a pigs in there.


First stop? Food. Obvi. Being a vegetarian at a State Fair where Beef is basically your state bird, color and song makes things complicated. Oh and pork. We have lots of pork too. My dad got 2.


The kids shared a footlong corndog. By "kids" I mean Tomas and Tariku.


Then they washed it down with these. Because why not?


Then, in what was surely the best decision making ever, we went to the Knapp center. This is a place with lots of agricultural education going on. Great place. The problem is that on every TV screen there was birth happening. As in real, slimy, bloody animal birth. The kids were less than impressed.

Tariku was probably the most horrified. At one point he said, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen but I can't stop watching!!!"


Dailah was equally mortified at what was to be the future she's always dreamed of (the girl can't wait to give birth...until now perhaps).


Even though it was an educational center, they did have some leanings in their "education".


Clearly that sign was not talking about the overwhelming majority of hens. Mmm, these little guys are the picture of health.


Anywho... where were we? Oh yes. To the big slide. It's really a must do when you have kids. And by that I mean you literally must do it, it's way too much fun. Tomas towards the middle, Dailah and hotflawedmama below him, Tariku almost done and Bini's little body finished first.


This is the part where I almost run over Bini. Notice Dailah's face. Pure joy.


Trysten has been under the weather for a week or so. The only Tyelenol I had were some pills you swallow. It took him about 5 minutes but he did it.


On to the alligator wrestler. For a day that was supposed to be 72 and rainy off and on, it was HOT. Binyam went topless and Dailah went Britney Spears.


It was worth it though, after 4 hours an hour the kids got to hold a real live alligator.


Tariku went to the bathroom 4,635,599 times.


Kids got some free loot that has since been mostly trashed.


Tomas ate a turkey leg.


I tried some cheese curds but ended up sharing...with Tomas.


Tomas ate a hot beef sundae.


I shuddered imagining Tariku getting his hands on one of those smoothies.


But ended up getting one for myself and my sister to share. My spirits picked up immediately.


We went on the sky lift. Trysten was with his grandpa most of this week, add to that he didn't feel well, and he just wanted to be around me. And by that I mean mostly on top of me.




We ate ourselves into comas.


Tomas ate some more. This time some of my dad's gyro.


We saw the butter cow. Tomas and Binyam's first time. They were rightfully astonished. Trysten just wanted to eat it.


Just for fun.


Then Binyam's tiny little belly staged a war against all of the fried goodness and we spent some QT in these hell holes.


Alas I found something on a stick I could enjoy. A PBJ.


We ended the night with the kids at the lego tent.


It was a really awesome day. The kids held up well despite being there for over 8 hours. After they got a final corndog and piece of pizza my parents took them home so that my sister and I could hang out with old friends. See? Generous.

Unpack your backpack

Last Thursday night the 4 kiddos heading to Elementary school had their "Unpack your backpack" night. They get to meet their teachers, see some of their friends and....unpack their backpack.

First Dailah. The kindergartner. Someone hold me.


Tariku. 1st grader. Gulp.



A book in Tariku's class. I love this school. Love, love, love.


Tomas the 2nd grader. More excited than any human ever. About anything. Ever.


Trysten leading the pack in 3rd grade. Nervous, excited. Lawdy.


The younger 3 all got teachers that we've had before, which we were so thankful for. They are proven to be amazing, hard working, loving people. Trysten's we know nothing about but we know he, of any of them, needs the least amount of "great teaching", though he still deserves it obviously.

Almost time!

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

to keep my mind

off of the fact that my eldest is in St. Louis with my father-in-law for a grandpa/grandson bonding trip and off the fact that I miss him, I'm going to post pictures of some irresistible cuteness. Consider yourself warned.

Sunday we celebrated My father-in-law's birthday and his and my mom-in-law's anniversary. First by some snuggling...of adults.


and then some of adults/kids. Or just me and Doozie.

Tomas fed baby Cash his sucker.


and Dailah was just Dailah.


birthday man dolled out suckers.


Jake vacuumed the carpet for no apparent reason.


Serious


Serious again


Zach dressed up Julio. Hilarious.


Cool dude


Terre sewed them matching dresses. Adorable.



OK I almost forgot about Trysten for a few minutes. But now I'm remembering again and am sad. :) Maybe another blog post will help?

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

but before that

we went to the fairgrounds to eat some deliciousness. It was hot. Balls Super hot.


Zach made the executive decision to take the bigs (along with my nephew Oliver and Papa Frank) golfing. Remember I talked about us having family huddles? Yeah, Zach has them too.


The littles (with my other nephew Elihu) went on a few errands and then arrived back at Elihu's house. Baby Sinta was sleeping but as soon as she woke up the camera couldn't help but take lots of pictures of her.


Still so good to have her home, and see her do normal kid things like use the blanket storage as a pretend bed. Love her.