To the Fair

Megan is potty trained! It has been 2 weeks since a diaper has touched that girl and we are all shocked by the transformation! She runs off to the bathroom as she should and announces her progress pretty much as you would expect. 

I have been bribing the heck out of her with dollar store trips and a bag of goodies that I picked up at Target earlier. I tried to use M&M's but her sensitivity to sugar vis-a-vis yeast infections prohibited that practice fairly quickly. 

This week we got an entertaining story from Aunt Jessica.

As you can see from targets 1 and 2 above Cousin Katie has great aim. She went with her dad to the shooting range last week, for the first time.

Look at that grouping. She apparently had huge macho guys coming over to congratulate her on her shooting prowess and she was thrilled.

Go Katie. 

On Friday we went for a picnic on Sugarloaf with Aunt Carolyn. I made oven s'mores.

We went up the steep side. 

We hung out and then split up for a race to the bottom. Megan lead Aunt Carolyn down the stair side and Kiernan decided that they were the bad guys and we were the cops. We rushed down the steep side to beat them to their evil fortress. We rushed so much that both of us fell and got bloody knees and shins.

They beat us down.

Megan and Pax and LilaRay ran around and made chaos all over the deck.

I made gazpacho with fresh summer tomatoes. It was good. I must do it again. I really like gazpacho.

Our tomatoes on the deck are all sweet but cherry sized and not useful for real summer tomato things so we have decided to use the local farm stand until the big ones in the back yard are ready...or until Scearce's inundate us with their  beautiful homegrown versions. 

I can't wait.

A sure sign that it is summer is the arrival of the noisy cicadas. Pax is a little baffled by them. 

I quite like the sound and David quite hates it.

It reminds me of sitting in my backyard (usually up a tree) in Hyattsville reading an Anne McCaffery book and having the sense of infinite time or possibly a complete absence of time. This is the sort of; everything is hot and still and I am free of school and obligation with limitless potential feeling, that I feel when I think of summer break. 

David thinks of big bugs. lol

David hates bugs.

All the tall corn surrounding us convinced me that we needed some corn chowder. I usually find corn chowder a little bland so I made southwest style corn chowder with green chilies (it needs more green chilies). I made it in the slow cooker so that we had enough for three plus meals.

Aunt Lore came over for lunch and a walk and a trip to the fair.

Megan showed her the horses and her favorite cat.

This is the can that Megan would like us to have as a pet. This is also the cat that Pax gets along with. This is also that cat that used to follow us on our evening walks when she was a tiny kitten. She is very sweet and calm and affectionate.

Then it was off to the fair.

Both kids had grown so much since last year that they were allowed on the next class of rides. They of course revisited their old favorites.

Megan to the wiggly worm

and Kiernan to the roller coaster.

This time Megan also to the roller coaster (with an adult). 

David said that on the first corner she said " I'm OK. I'm OK. It's OK." but on the 2nd corner she said "I've wanted to do this for my whole life!".

Aunt Lore and I hung out and took pictures and watched crazy kids.

The kids went on the Ferris wheel with daddy. I often wonder why everyone wants to ride the Ferris wheel. The line is the longest there every year. It costs the most tickets. When I watch the faces of the people going round and round they look bored for the most part, occasionally anxious.

Kiernan tried a new ride on my recommendation. He quite liked it. It looked pretty fast but he look thrilled the whole time.

The guy running the ride was very friendly and melting in the heat.

Megan went on one by herself and was so pleased with life.

Both kids go drunk on cotton candy and spinning.

While we were gone the chowder turned to actual chowder. We ate supper and put Megan to bed.

Kiernan has 2 nights that he is allowed to stay up late.: 4th of July for the fireworks and Carnival night for the rides and the lights.

As soon as Nana got home from work  we headed straight back out to the fairgrounds.

Back to the swings!

They seemed much slower at night when full of kids but also more beautiful.

The same guy was running the ride and giving high fives to ecstatic dizzy kids.

Good stuff.

Then Kiernan took Nana on the roller coaster again.

And the Ferris wheel.

He also did the fun house and smacked his face into the mirror maze walls just like every single other person we saw go through there.

He and Nana wandered around and soaked up the atmosphere.

Then we went home and had to deal with a tired wired 6 year old. 

His sleep schedule is still not back to normal.

The next day I took the kids out to Watkins Park for a little hike.

It was another of those days when they just seemed to get along and play together so well.

Then we went to Scearce's to celebrate Aunt Licia's birthday with creek play and ice cream cake.

I admired the amazing garden that Kathryn's mom has going this year.

Then I grabbed some of these green tomatoes.

We headed home wet and sandy and full of sugar.

Both kids fell to sleep in the car.

This sweet girl has given up her naps entirely now and it was so so nice to have her take a rest in the middle of the day to spare us the melt down at the end of it.

Once home everyone was quiet and tired.

I made fried green tomatoes while David made hush-puppies ( and Pie!) and we had an early dinner.

Kiernan really loved the hush-puppies much to our surprise.

Overall it was a very tiring weekend but the kid of tiring you really want to have on a long lazy summer.

A note here to say that I think I fixed Kiernan's swim test video from last week. scroll down and see if it is working now?