Irish Fest Fun!

Our long weekend is off to a great start!We decided to head down to the Crown Center for the Irish Fest today. This festival just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. It started at 11:00 today. We were there by 12:15, and there was no parking left in the garages! We had to park up the street, a couple of blocks away. So, the bonus was that we would be getting our exercise in today too, yeeha!

we immediately headed for the food court, and chose the nearest hotdog stand. As I ordered two hotdogs, I realized the vendor didn't sell drinks,she told me drinks were across the street, so off we went. Now, at the vendor across the street,  I ordered two pops, but, I was told that I couldn't buy drinks without tokens, and that I had to go across the street again to purchase these tokens, then come back to use these tokens to purchase the pop! Talk about crazy! Finally, with our hotdogs and pop, and a few snacks we brought in our backpack, we headed inside to find Suzanne and Bill, where they were listening to some music indoors. We ate lunch w/them, then decided to head back outside. Kayli went to throw our trash away and didn't see that someone had spilled a huge drink of clear liquid on the floor, and she slipped and fell. Seriously, these people could have warned her, sheesh. She said she was ok, so we headed outdoors. We wandered around, checking out all the activities, and Irish vendors...

Kayli and I had walked by the inflatables, and I reported to her that the wristband for playing on the inflatables costs $10.00, and the face painting was $7.00. I told her that we still hadn't been to the market area, where they often sold irish jewelry, and I had a feeling that she might like something there, knowing my jewelry loving gal, so I was going to let her decide if she wanted to hold off on the inflatables to see if there was something she would rather buy at the market. Then, she could decide if she wanted me to spend money on inflatables and face painting, or spend the same money on something she just couldn't live without from the market. She was totally "on board" with this idea! So, we took our time, and looked and looked, and even spent some time inside the Crown Center, where Kayli knelt down on the floor of a shop, and knelt right on a tiny shard of glass, puncturing her knee, and coming to me with blood running down her leg! Well, a bandaid got us on our way, and back outside, where we found an irish vendor that just happened to have something perfect for us! We found ourselves a set of inexpensive matching mother-daughter silver claddagh rings! Kayli and I were both thrilled! Kayli was extra excited that she would get to have something symbolizing the Irish side of her heritage (the one that makes her Irish just because she was adopted by this Irish mom! We Irish folk can make anything true that we want because we believe in fairies and leprechauns and magic and happy endings at all costs!!!)

It was getting very, very hot! I got Kayli some dippin dots, which cooled her off for a while. We met up with Suzanne and Bill again, over in the kid section, where they were listening to an irish group play music on a stage. We pulled up some chairs and kicked back in the shade for a while...

now, we were getting ready to head home, and we were walking toward the exit, when a lady walked up to us and asked Kayli if she would like a FREE "Inflatables wrist band!" She told Kayli she would give it to her if she promised she would use it! Talk about a surprise! So, back we went for the grand finale on the inflatables...

amazing that 4 1/2 hours passed by while we were having so much fun! 

Our New Family Members

Introducing our new fish, Lennie and Oscar...

I saw this new desktop fish tank that has a water filtering tube attached, so that every time you add new water, you can immediately filter out the old water/ sediment from the bottom of the tank. I thought, what the heck, let's give it a try! It arrived in the mail, and I asked Kayli if she wanted to go to the pet store to get some fish, and she, of course, said "YES!" So, we went to the pet store and bought a couple of fish and some fish food, and as we were walking to our car, Kayli said with the giddiest of excitement "Mom, I just can't believe you just said "Let's buy some fish, and then we just came to the pet store, and you really just bought some fish!!!" We don't ever JUST buy something!" (That is, without researching, thinking, talking about it, looking at it, visiting the store a few times, etc. etc. Yep, this girl knows my obsessive nature of checking and double checking and researching beyond reason...a trait I inherited from my dear dad!) Sometimes this overthinking trait serves me well, and other times, well, it just prolongs decisions unnecessarily. Anyway, we got some pretty little fish, which Kayli is over-the-top excited about, and she wanted so badly to hold them in her hand, but I had to break the news to her that these guys are not snuggle pets!So, now she has to feed them, and admire them from afar.

Sick Already?

...2^nd day of school, 

Another great day ahead of us. We were off and runnning. That night, after dinner, things got pretty quiet upstairs so I went to investigate...

 7:30 p.m., sound asleep, slept through the night! I thought, Wow, she is worn out from all the new school activities…Nope, she went to school the next day, and kept saying that her tummy hurt, and by the time school was out for the weekend, we had "evidence" that this was no "run-of -the-mill" tummy ache! The tummy flu hit her with a vengeance! What a way to launch in the new school year!

1st Day of School

New outfit, new lunch bag, new shoes...

new backpack that has twinkling lights...

new morning hours, ohh, these early mornings again...

1st day of school donuts for breakfast should give her a boost of energy...

ok, let's get these flowers to my new teacher...

ready, mom? 

4th grade, here I come!

Ready or Not, the School Year Begins!

...and my grade-schooler is entering 4th grade this year! Yep, those years keep flying by, as I watch her move from grade to grade, in what seems like warp time speed! One minute we are greeting a new teacher, the next, we are walking out the door for another summer. Every year there are new adventures, new trials and tribulations, new skills, new friends. Our year always starts off with the big "Pop-in-for-a-peek" night where the kids get to come up to school and meet their new teacher, see their new classroom, and get a free popsicle from the popsicle truck!

Meet the new teacher...

new lockers...

a pose with the princiPAL!

we'll be back bright and early tomorrow morning!