Shenanigans out in the Country

One hot weekend in October, we visited the Palmyra County Fair.
(Who is the lovely redhead, you ask?
The most evolved of them all: Heather, Adam's bride-to-be.)

Bull rides- veeeeery country, if you ask me.

Amber rocked the bull ride-- she stayed on a whole 26 seconds.

Yee-HAW!!

Although this here deep fried Twinkie is pretty darn country.

Mmmm carnival food!

What's this? Medieval armor amidst the bull rides and caramel apples?

If memory serves, Amber's battle-cry was, "grrrrr."

Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza

The Chesterfield Berry Farm underwent a make-over last year-
now it resembles some sort of autumn/harvest/Halloween village.

The best thing about this sign is the mention of the "Scary Fun Barn:-
Lest you think that the Scary Barn won't be Fun, as well as Scary.
It's both people. So fun it's scary . . . so scary it's fun . . take your pick!

Eating lunch is way more fun when it's freezing outside and you overpaid
for BBQ chicken, beans, a hot dog, some cole slaw, and a couple cans of soda.

This is so cheesy, I just had to take a picture.

It took quite a bit of cajoling to get Parker into the moonbounce.
Suddenly, he thinks he is "too old."

Some of us aren't too old to have fun, though....

Nice shades, Farmer Joe.

This insane pumpkin patch came with a map.
Without it (and a pen) we would still be wandering around in those stalks.

I told you the kid needed braces!!!

Down to business. Time to ride out to the Patch.

Oh look, I actually DID come on this outing.

This is the Ute pumpkin, obviously.

Yay pumpkins!

One More Time with Feeling

Okay during the last 3 weeks, I think Parker had no less than 3 birthday celebrations,
I had one, Jeremy had one, we had a joint one,
and then there was our friend's baby's birthday
somewhere there in the middle.

So, last weekend we were barely able to muster up
enough enthusiasm for another birthday party;
this time with 5 middle-school boys.

There are a lot of "your mama is so fat..."
and "your mama is so dumb..." jokes.
I had no idea.

After a couple hours around our house hopped up on pizza and cupcakes,
we took them to Richmond Ice Zone where they could cool off.

Parker did awesome, this was only his 3rd time,
but he was tearin' it up out there.

Ah, boys.

First day of (gulp!) Middle School

What a cool kid, eh? Especially with those rad shoelaces!
He had a great first week in 6th grade.
He made 3 new friends right away and is fitting in just fine in his new school.
All the 8th graders seem like giants in comparison,
but he'll hit his growth spurt soon enough.
I was only a LITTLE misty-eyed when I dropped him off the first day.

End of Summer Wrap Up

So, the summer's officially over- happens every year after my birthday.

I was 31 this time. Shouldn't I have gotten 31 cupcakes?!?!

Celebrating growing old with style!

Over the summer break, Parker played with Legos
for about 6 hours every day.

We went to the zoo and saw some awesome animals,
like these baby tigers taking an afternoon nap.

Or these penguins, that seemed more than willing to pose for this picture.

Parker's favorite animals at the zoo are always the ones he gets to touch.
(And the ones with the stinkiest saliva, probably.)

Like this giraffe, who licked Parker's hand for about 10 minutes.

Jeremy is getting old, too- he turned 31 in August.

I got him a new watch. Just look at the gratitude in that expression!

Isaac, Katie, Lily and Hudson to visit one Sunday afternoon.
We took them to the awesome park designed for kids in wheelchairs,
and Lily had a blast zooming around everywhere.

And SOME of us took naps.

Parker is the big ONE ONE

Parker's birthday was yesterday!

He got a LOT of Legos.

He spent ALL DAY building those things.

Well, he did take a couple breaks to enjoy his birthday dinner
(homemade chili) and his birthday dessert
(homemade lemon pound cake).
And we took a trip to Ironbridge Sports Park to race go-karts
and hit some balls on the driving range.

What's that, you ask? A sunburn?
Oh no. That's just the RASH Parker gets when he gets so excited
about something that he can't stand it.
What, YOUR kid doesn't break out in a rash?!?!

It must be all the adrenaline or something.
This was the worst we've ever seen it!
Guess that means he was having a REALLY good time!

Happy Birthday, Parker!
(FYI, the rash disappeared about 2 minutes after the go-kart races were over.)