Wisconsin State Fair, 2014!

Today we had the chance to go to the State Fair with Grandma, Aunt Carmen and Elle, so we took it!  We were also joined by our family friend, Heather, which was a great addition, since Aaron was down in Chicago today for some bank training; I loved the extra help!  It was a little frustrating getting together, getting tickets, and parking, but once inside the park, there was so much to do, the kids loved nearly every minute.

 

We first went to see a little dog show and got a bonus: Carson was picked when the performer needed some help!  I was a little worried, since he's not always the best at following direction, but he did great!  His job was to lie still with another boy while the poodle jumped over them, through the hoops held by the girls, back through the hoops and back over the boys.  He was thrilled!

 

The kids were all very excited to go down the giant slide - but since I wasn't feeling up to it, Cole had to sit it out.  He really got excited watching his brother and sisters go down!  I got pictures of Lizzie going down beside Aunt Carmen and Elle, then Heather going down with Carson, then Evie going solo.  The girls later declared that this was their very favorite part of the Fair!

 

We took a break and ate snacks brought from home, since it was almost 11.  A trip to the fair wouldn't have been complete without the fried cheese curds and a trial of the fried green beans.  We rested for a half hour or so, making sure the kids got enough to eat, and visited with Grandma's neighbors, who ran one of the food booths there.

In one of the agriculture barns, a kind soul took a picture of our whole family group.  Evie and Lizzie are farmers on the far left, Cole is a processor holding carrots, Grandma is a distributer from Wisconsin, Carson is a grocer with a  bag of potatoes, Elle is a busy chef, and Carmen and I are consumers; I'm a fast food lover, and Carmen's all farmer's market fresh.

The kids all loved the baby animals barn.  Cole wanted to stare at the calves for so long!  He kept 'moo-ing' at them.

We also loved that there were other things to do in the baby animals barn than see baby animals.  The boys particularly loved the tractors!

Carson specifically asked to be pictured with this black bird.  It was very pretty, close up.  The black feathers gleamed iridescent with purples and blues.  Carson said this was his favorite bird of all.

I thought these two roosters were really beautiful in their differences!

The kids all got to watch a woman spin on a spinning wheel.

They got to feel how this yarn, made from alpaca wool, felt different from other yarns they might find in a craft store.

In the cattle barn, we got to feel how a milker works on a cow's teats and learn how to hook it up (to a fake cow).

We also got to color!  Cole was getting pretty worn out by this time, and didn't even want to sit and color, but the older three colored and were excited to bring home pages to work on more!

Carson got in on delivery action!

 

When we were done at the cattle barn, we watched  milking demonstration and learned more about cows in general.

After learning so much about cattle and dairy products, we would have been remiss NOT to have gotten fresh ice cream!  Toppings we could get were chocolate, strawberries, cherries, or maple.  No on in our group got maple, but the other flavors were cheerfully sampled and devoured!

When a giant corn cob is walking around, you must get your picture taken by it!

Cole was SO tired!  He still held out for another 45 minutes after this.  His head was lolling quite a bit, even before this.  It was just so hard to stay awake, but so hard to get to sleep amongst such excitement!

We watched a radio DJ/talk show for a few minutes.

In the expo center, the kids took a chance to make some necklaces out of boondoggle cord and pony beads.  Lizzie was miffed that she had to limit herself to 20 beads, but for a free craft, we couldn't ask for more!

We also watched the guy at the table work on a para-cord necklace for a while.

I love so much about this picture!  Carson's face, Evie's photo-bombing, Heather looking cheerful.

I got some close-up shots, because I wanted to show the girls' favorite free thing: sparkly eye liner.  It was a demonstration, and we had to listen to a spiel for it, but they loved it!

And now I know how grown-up she looks, so NOT like my eight year old, so she will not be wearing make up again until she's 20. :)

Lizzie was still unhappy about the bead count, so wouldn't look at me, but I wanted to show he cute, sparkly necklace.

We got to do one other demo/spiel, these neat fingernail dots.  The artist/saleslady did yellow and white daisies on Evie's hand and pink and white daisies on Lizzie's.  The girls loved all the fun flair, with their cool-looking nails and glittery eyes!

Exciting Sunday

Last night, on Saturday, we made the quick decision to go to Aaron's parents' ward the today.  Aunt Katie already lives in their ward and both Uncle David and Aunt Carmen and their respective kids were visiting, so we drove down to spend Church with them.  It started out a pretty perfect day: everyone was showered and dressed early, the morning went smoothly, Cole even fell asleep on the way!

I wanted to keep him napping as long as possible, so I carefully removed him from the van and made my way to the chapel, reclining in the pew so that he could sleep with his head by my chin.  He continued sleeping through songs and ward business, waking during the Sacrament hymn.  The bread was blessed and passed and the blessing over the water was said.  When the water came to our bench, I watched as it was passed along my brother in law's family, who then held the tray for me to partake.  I took a cup for Cole, still sitting on my lap and as I went to help him drink, I realized there was a stream of blood on my arm flowing from his nose.

I can't express how fast thoughts flew through my head.  It felt like there was a lot going on in my mind, but things happened quickly.  I nudged Aaron on my other side and he reached to get the wipes for me.  In retrospect I should have taken the bloodied cup out with me and trashed it elsewhere, but my first thought was to stop the flow from his nose, so I dropped it into the bottom of the tray like the others.  Several family members commented to me later that it changed how the tray looked - Aaron said it looked like kool-aid through the bottoms of the clear plastic cups.  Once the tray passed me (in my rush for Cole, I didn't even get a cup for me and felt oddly lopsided the remainder of the day), I kept the wipe which Aaron had handed me over Cole's face and awkwardly made my way past family members to get out.

I found out very quickly that a two-year-old boy does not want his head held still with a hand and tissue clamped over his nose.  He kept swinging his head around, getting blood on both of us; probably getting it other places I didn't stop to notice at the time, too.  I kept him cuddled to me, facing forward, as I hurried down the hall to the family bathroom.  A couple of concerned people offered help as I shut the bathroom door.  I sat him on the sink and just put tissue after tissue over his nose, holding it when he'd let me and wiping when he wouldn't. We spent maybe five minutes in the bathroom this way, though it felt much longer.

Cole's nose was still bleeding when we left the bathroom, but I felt we no longer needed the sink, so I grabbed several paper towels and tissues and went to an empty room nearby.  One of the kind sisters who'd offered assistance earlier was still in the hall with her own baby to rock and she chatted with me while I ran out of paper towels and my toddler got increasingly annoyed with my attempts to keep blood off his clothing and the rest of the room.  She got me more tissue and offered an old burp cloth, saying it'd soak up more and be softer on his face, and that she didn't need so many anyway.  What a sweet woman!

After another five minutes or so, his nose finally stopped.  It never had been gushing, just bleeding persistently.  It had been hard to stay calm for him while I felt like running pell-mell back to the chapel for my keys and taking him to an urgent care.  When I felt like his nose was truly done, I took him into the women's restroom and I stripped his shirt and vest off.  I rinsed several bloody spots out of his shirt and vest, deciding that, since they were black, the pants could escape notice for the remainder of the block.  We went back into the chapel during a talk and his nose was completely fine after that.

It was a startling and confusing and scary ordeal.  I still have no idea what started the bleeding; the woman who chatted with me said it could be the dry air, but I'm not sure that's it, because it was particularly humid that morning.  Whatever it was, it had me watching him very carefully through the remainder of the talks and jumpily watching the nursery door for the next two hours.  Sometimes being a mom takes more out of you emotionally and mentally than it does physically.

I wrote briefly about this on Facebook, but I wanted to remember the entire experience.

Cole's 2nd Birthday Party

Why won't they stop growing up??

Grandma made a great cake, trying her hand at checker-board cakes!  It was green and yellow and perfect for my little two-year-old!

He was so anxious to get his hands in that cake; I felt bad for holding him back!

We all had to laugh when cousin J beat him to the punch and blew out his candle.  I have no doubt that he will learn from this experience and blow out someone else's candle in the future.

Happy Birthday Boy!

I gave him both cake and ice cream and he didn't see the need for the spoon - little cake in this hand, little ice cream in that hand and we're good to go!

He approved!

I'm glad Grandma took pictures of presents for me!  This was one Cole got from Grandma R a little while ago but we'd been hanging on to for an occasion.  He already loves having his own big kid church bag with his own special Sacrament meeting books and quiet things!

From us, Cole got some mega blocks.  His big present from Grandma and Grandpa B was a bulldozer and he LOVES it!  Naturally, his older siblings all love it, too, but Cole is good-natured enough to share.

Some of our current favorite Cole words right now are:

Run! (always while running)

milk

waya (water)

Eee-ba (Eve, from Wall-E, imitating Wall-E's speech, also Evie)

Gar-Gar (Carson)

Mom!

Dad!

Beeez! (please, nearly always said as he signs it)

canny? (candy)

ap-bole (apple)

ni-ni (goodnight)

Bye!

He-yo (hello)

sit

Ugah! (hug)

a-MEN! (frequently the last syllable is shouted, even after Sacrament prayers)

I love that Cole tries to bargain for his milk.  Not that he makes any concessions, but that I offer him water and he just says milk repeatedly until I give in or walk away - usually the latter.

Cole loves balls!  However, if no sphere is close at hand, he will cheerfully throw anything else he can get his hands on.

Cole's 2 year well-child isn't until our spring break, so I don't have those stats right now.

Treasure Chest

Four little treasure chests designed by my kids with the help of Grandma B.

I forgot to bring our paint smocks, but it worked out with Grandma's quick thinking and stash of garbage bags.  All the kids got a little 'smock' out of a quick-cut bag!  Once they were ready for the art, we adults supervised the painting of the boxes.

It was fun to see their different techniques!  Evelyn was very careful about what went onto her box, and things had to be thought out before painted.  Lizzie kept things simple with bold colors.  Carson painted multiple colors in one spot and watched them blend and drip.  Cole was all about the finger painting and made sure his whole palm got on nearly every surface of his box.

And Cousin J was perfectly content to mix colors on her styrofoam palette.

I skipped a step by forgetting to take pictures of them putting their jewels and stickers on, but here are the finished interiors.  Grandma brought out some black sticky felt  so the treasure chests would be more complete and useful!  After we got home and really let them dry, each of the kids put their own 'treasures' into their chests.  Evelyn put her jewelry, Lizzie put in a couple little ponies and a couple beads, Carson had his alligator and a car.  Cole likes to open and shut his so much that I'm never really sure what's inside it.

I love that, while I signed and dated the boys' treasure chests, the girls did their own.  It will be fun for them to look back and see how they wrote in 2nd grade and kindergarten!