Carnival

Nate's parents invited us to a carnival that their neighborhood was putting on. They ended up having to do it in the community center because of the rain, but it still turned out pretty fun (and free I might add) the kids had a blast! When we got there, we quickly got our free popcorn and cotton candy (and we were glad we had because the line for them later was out the door). Then Noah and I ate everyone's leftover popcorn while we waited in the line for face painting (I can't count how many long lines we have stood in for face painting.... my kids just love it for some reason.....it was free this time though, so how could I let them down). The older kids all went with Daddy and cashed in on all the games. Bradley was the first person of the night to win the ring toss and got 2 prizes for it :) He was so proud of himself, it was cute. Then the kids all got their faces painted.

Kelly got a butterfly of course.



Brad's was spiderman.


Luke was going to get a dinosaur but ended up telling the lady, "dino-spider" and then the lady asked him if he wanted a spider or spiderman, he chose spiderman :) I thought the lady that did his did such an awesome job.

Charity got a dog.

After the face painting we headed on over to Grandma and Grandpa's bean bag toss game because the line had finally died down. The kids won way too many prizes over there :) and then Noah and I began standing in line for the balloon making clown (even though Beth warned us that she had been in that line for 40 minutes). I believe it was about 7:30 at this time. I figured we could bear to stand in line for an hour while the kids played the games a few more times. Little did I know we would be standing in that line for 2 hours! They were sweeping up the place, moving tables, getting things ready for the movie that followed while we were still standing in that line. They finally came over and passed out tickets to ONLY the people that were in line.... if you weren't in line you didn't get a balloon. Luckily my kids were right there with me when they passed out the tickets. I couldn't bear the thought of missing out on FREE balloon animals! You don't get too many opportunities like that!

My kids got a lot of practice tossing the bean bags....they'll be pros for the next carnival we go to.

(Noah stealing popcorn.... such coordination)

I did finally get Noah out of his stroller when there were less people there so he could walk around a little. He kept wanting to play with the water from the duck pond.

When we got to the front of the line they had limited the selection to butterfly, flower, or sword. Luckily Kelly had wanted a butterfly and Brad a sword. Charity had wanted a dog but was fine with her butterfly and funny little Luke used his big smile and happy little hop when asked, "butterfly, flower or sword?" to say, "SNAKE!" His cuteness won out and he got a snake :) I thought it was cute:) He made snake noises at all of us for the next 5 minutes sticking his snake in everyone's faces.... how adorable. So we finally went over and said goodnight to Grandma and Grandpa as it was now 9:30 and took a picture

and of course went potty (I love how they're all mid-potty-dance in this picture!). As we were leaving a big storm was picking up and the wind up there in Daybreak is just incredible. The kids were all a little freaked out (Charity's paranoia and questions really don't seem to help the younger kids much :)), but they were all just frantically trying to hang on to their balloons and worry about the rain and wind and lightning all at the same time. Finally I just told them to all hand their balloons to me (we were parked a little ways away) and I became the keeper of the balloons. It was a very stressful job! I don't even think Nate could have related to that moment (mainly because he was clear up ahead of us with Noah, unlocking the car LOL, jk), but it was nerve racking being responsible for those balloons. I could just see them popping from the wind or dropping and popping on the grass. And I don't know if it was all just because I knew it would devastate the kids, but I had just stood in line for 2 hours for those things, I wasn't about to see them ruined from some dumb storm!! I was tough though, and we stuck it out.... the balloons were tough and they stuck it out. In the car was another panic attack for all of my children. They weren't sure if it was better to have the windows down or up (duh) and then they didn't know if the light was going pop them or if the floor would..... it was intense! Finally we got things all figured out and there was a calm amidst the storm. Then about 4 minutes into the drive home we heard a loud POP!!! Charity's cute little butterfly had done it's time. It was done. She cried. Kelly offered Charity hers (awww!!!) which Charity refused (thank goodness!! As much as I like them to share, it's really just not a good idea..... they always want whatever they gave back! offering is just as good as sharing for my kids right now). Charity was quick to get over it though- SO IMPRESSIVE!! I was relieved and the rest of ride home we just oooohed and ahhhhed over the lightning that we could see over the whole valley. I just love lightning. The kids made Nate pull up into Grandpa's garage so that they wouldn't get struck by lightning. Someday this fear will end right??? It was a fun day. I don't want to forget it.