football hall of fame grande parade

it is early. we are tired. but it is parade time! the boys and i loaded up in the backseat and we were off. we did stop to pick up some "peace, love and little donuts" on our way. we saw these donuts for the first time at the parade a few years ago and only got around to trying them in the past year. yum, yum!

before the attack.

happy, happy boys. (notice the "manning" jersey on the guy behind manning.)

each year we are a little smarter. this year we brought a football to throw in the street while we waited. mason was really excited to play catch with big pop - and maddux too.

mason outlasted big pop and maddux so daddy stepped in to relive them.

madelyn had her own way of staying busy.

manning too. this boy loves his raisins.

charger colors represented.

once the sun came over the roofs, we were blinded! that is one tip we forgot - do not cross the street so that you don't have to look into the sun. oh well.

mason finally took a break and manning saw an opportunity.

our animal lover was very excited for the ponies.

grandma is not a fan after waiting on him when she was a teenager.

maddux had to take a break from the super long parade.

excited for the angry birds.

kung fu panda! (we have never seen the movie but they love the idea of a kung fu panda.)

the highlight (for both of them, i think) every year.

it was hot this year for this long parade. we were all ready to go home and cool off. while grandma loved amish country, i think this was pretty special for big pop. love.

community market day

let's take a long walk to a pop-up market. on the hottest day of the whole summer. not our best idea with super tired, post-vbs kids but it wasn't anything that a giant otter pop couldn't fix on the way home. 

madelyn perked right up when she realized there was shopping. and was over the moon when she found a shop that made aquarium necklaces like the one our kids director wore as a mermaid during vbs. she has a live "moss ball" that she selected for her necklace. i guess they keep them as "pets" in japan and it will grow very slowly over several years.

the king-sized otter pops from a food truck did the trick of turning those frowns up-side-down.

we even saw the blimp on our walk home. a very hot, but very relaxing, way to spend a free day. love.

saturday funday

i have a million and one things to do before vbs starts on monday but these two boys were signed up for a "beach party" at the library this morning. they were pretty excited to be the only ones in the age group for the party from our family. and all of the kids LOVE these library parties.

after listening to some books about the beach and a flannel board story about a seagull, the boys jumped into the crafts. but there weren't terribly age appropriate (the cutting was way too detailed for 3-6 year olds).

i cut the legs and claws, but he did really well with the rest.

the boys, very generously, offered to let me use their sea critters for vbs decorations. they also made some paper tube octopuses and paper plane-like seagull. we took the toilet paper tube lobster supplies home. mommy didn't have enough time for the cutting.

the boys were given little stuffed animal crabs and fruit snacks to take home. and then we were off to pick-up the rest of our crew for another free kids' event today - a visit with bob and larry.

they had fun with a scavenger hunt around the store before enjoying lots of snacks and drinks. manning and madelyn were the only ones brave enough to take a picture with them.

of course, tattoos were a different story...

mason and i dropped off the rest of the family and then went to a birthday party for one of his kindergarten classmates. all of the kids were given a cute little sundae bowl to take home (after enjoying an impressive sundae spread).

her mom was kind enough to send a sundae bowl home for each of our kids! and they were very, very excited at the possibility of ice cream. now when to use them... love.

summer funfest

after a painful morning of trying to get the kids to clean up, we rewarded them (and ourselves) when they were finally done with a trip down the street where a church had a "summer funfest." we have been before and it was a nice afternoon today (other years we have cooked in their parking lot at this event). 

the petting zoo was pretty impressive this year! the kids were quite taken with the kangaroos. 

since we had missed most of the day, we only had about an hour before it ended. so we got in line for the pony rides since that was the one thing we didn't have to opportunity to try very often. madelyn was excited to see the parks department's mascot while we were waiting.

maddux decided that he was too afraid of the ponies to ride, but as mason was getting off he changed his mind at the absolute last possible minute and took a ride too! (seriously, they were bringing the family behind us up to get on the pony when he decided.) we were so proud of him and he really enjoyed it.

then manning had to take another turn at the petting zoo. the rest of the kids took to the inflatables but manning would rather be with the critters.

madelyn would rather be in the craft tent - manning soon joined her when he heard there were tattoos. and GLITTER tattoos! super exciting! madelyn got a pony and manning got an elephant holding a butterfly.

they also made paper pinwheels. maddux and mason got glitter tattoos as they were starting to pack everything up.

i am glad that the kids got their act together enough for us to get there. love.