County Fair...

Last week was the Madison County Fair & Rodeo....I bet you can guess which part was most popular at our house :)

The girls and I spent most of the day there on Friday. We went early in the morning for the 4h horse show. Several girls that Maggie knows were showing their horses. Maggie LOVED it, Gracie was a little bored. Thankfully the grandstands were mostly empty so she could keep herself busy climbing all over. We've had a lot of questions about when Maggie can have her own horse, since seeing all the kids in the 4h show. She's counted her allowance several times, trying to decide if it's enough to buy one :) Thankfully you can't show at the fair until you're 8, so we have a few years until it really becomes a question.

Friday night we went back with Arnie for the Rodeo. This time the stands were packed, but thankfully we got to sit in the shade and the man next to us was very patient with Gracie.  We stayed home on Saturday and Sunday evening we made a trip back to ride a few rides. Maggie had been so enamored with the horses that she hadn't even noticed the carnival. I thought it was strange she hadn't asked to go over Friday, but she said, "Wow, this is new!" When we walked in on Sunday :)

Maggie was certainly not going to the fair without being all "cowgirled"
up. Gracie was wearing sandals until she saw her sister....then she was not
going to be left out, she wanted her "FANCY BOOTS."

Ridiculous!

What happens when daddy dresses you for the fair :)

Maggie ran into her friends Rory and Riley at the fair, so they all sat
together to watch the bull riders!

"Hey Chelsea, wake up, there are rides to go on!! Wake up!!"

In line for the Ferris Wheel, Ben must have drawn the short straw, he got
to go with them.

One last County Fair treat....

The fair is exhausting, I think I'm glad it's over until next summer.

Little Visitor!

We got to keep Elsie for a few days this week. Laura has been working crazy hours, so we took it as the perfect opportunity to kidnap her. I'm sure her mom and dad missed her like crazy, but we had such a good time. I hope she isn't afraid to come back!

How can you not smile at this kid? She is so naughty and so funny, all at the same time :)

Cheese!!!

Farmer Maggie picked her first cucumber of the season, we've had 2 more already
this week.

Hannah is here this week too. It's a good thing Maggie doesn't have a
smaller bed. We tried to let one of the dogs sleep with Gracie and she freaked
out, apparently she doesn't think animals belong in beds!

"HEY, you guys know she's trying to climb in MY high chair, right?? Save me!!"

Maggie was so excited when she realized they all 3 had the
same shirt! Elsie looks pretty happy about it to. After this picture Maggie spent most
of the day in bed sick, poor thing has a sinus infection. The only good news is, I feel
like it confirms our decision to do the surgery.

"If I could just figure out this darn straw!!"

"These people are so weird!"

"First my high chair, now my bottle! Don't you people know eating is sacred??"

 

Last night was Maggie's last softball game of the year...it's been a fun season. She enjoyed it but I think she'll be glad to have a break.

Gracie made a new friend at the game.

Maggie had a great hit and of course a couple of good slides :)

Tonight Carly and Maggie did a little dance for us. They were happy to tell us they were dancing poodles :)

A few pictures...

I wish I photographed the girls more often. I dread the task, it's generally a pretty stress inducing activity. It usually ends up with someone (or all 3 of us) in tears. I always tell myself it will be easier when they are older, but I'm afraid when they're older I'll forget how beautiful and amazing they were now....

 ....and how much personality they had. This image pretty perfectly captures Gracie :)....

 And we even got one for Grandma & Grandpa....

And just because she's my beautiful niece and I can show her off if I want to, one of the smiley Miss Elsie Sue....

4th of July, and the 5th and the 6th....

The 4th of July was great, but it seemed to go on and on. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have.  We had lots of family and friends around to spend the week with. I'm looking forward to the quieter week ahead.

 

Notice Reagan's hat....Gracie was pretty proud of herself :)

We started our day at the parade with lots of friends....

Later we went to Grandma and Pops house for a 4th of July picnic. I was busy swimming with the girls and didn't get my camera out until we went to shoot some fireworks.

Surprise, surprise...Gracie loves sparklers. Both girls were a little afraid of the bigger
fireworks. Aunt Cindi was nice enough to help them find a safe place to watch (and put up
with their whining.)

Gramma Lea & Papa made the trip for the 4th. We were also celebrating their
60th wedding Anniversary. Here's to 60 more and lots more great-grandkids.

The girls loved having their cousins here to play for a few days.

Yum, Yum!

Kisses for Cooper!

Saturday was Big Bang Boom, the fireworks here in Norfolk. Mark, Elsie, Nate, Bri and my parents came to spend the afternoon with us and watch the fireworks. We did lots more swimming (and eating).



Maggie decided to watch the fireworks from inside. Gracie clung to Grandma Karen, but she watched the
whole show.
 

Happy 4th of July! I'm sure before we know it we'll be doing it all again.

Wow, I'm behind....

....I hate when that happens. It's always so hard to catch up.

Last Wednesday I took Maggie to visit the ENT. The verdict is in, the stuck tube needs to come out and unfortunately it looks like it's time to address her GIANT adenoids and tonsils as well. The GREAT news was that she passed her hearing test with flying colors, that must have been a fluke at the pediatricians office. (Now we know she's just ignoring us.)

She's scheduled for surgery on August 5th at 7am :( We could make the decision to just get the tube and take her adenoids for now, and leave the tonsils....but he says there is a 50/50 chance he'd need to go back in next summer and get the tonsils too. It's a tough decision. Adenoids are a pretty easy recovery, tonsils on the other hand sound like they can be pretty rough. He said the recovery period can easily be 10 days. It will definitely make for a crappy end to her summer, but at least they will be gone and hopefully all the puking and stuffy head she has to deal with now won't be in the way at kindergarten.

I wasn't sure what Maggie was getting from the conversation I was having with the doctor, when we got to the car I asked her about it. She knew we were talking about surgery, but the 2 things she was stuck on were that the Doctor said she couldn't swim for a week and that she could eat popsicles and ice cream for several days afterwards :) She didn't express any fear or really seem worried about being at the hospital....I hope she keeps that calm.

While we were in Omaha, the girls helped Grandpa work on the jet skis.
Who needs water??