2011 Yuma County Fair

We spent yesterday and today at the Yuma County Fair and had a good time.  Yesterday was dollar admission day, so we spent all day exploring everything there was to see.  Then today we went in the evening for the demolition derby.  They have a fun little area for the younger kids where they can do lots of hands-on stuff and crafts, and we spent quite a bit of time there.  The kids got to milk a cow, make coffee filter flowers, ride on little tractors, take care of different farm-type chores (brushing horses, scooping hay, etc).

 

I had a pretty bouquet by the time everyone had made their flowers!

The kids weren’t the only ones who had fun in this area…

They had a free arm painting booth set up where the kids got to pick a design from a chart.

There was a little petting zoo area where the kids got to pet a few different kinds of animals.  They had some BRAND new baby goats there that were super tiny and were the cutest little things we’d ever seen!!  We all just gushed over how sweet they were!  That little black and white one was the cutest, although you can’t see its face in the pictures.  Once they get older (like the brown and white one) they aren’t cute any more, but man are they precious when they’re tiny!

My girlies showed off their hula hooping skills!

 

The kiddos all got to go up on stage for a tortilla tossing contest!  I love this guy’s reaction to my girls’ names, it cracked us up!! 

And then the the demolition derby! 

We’ve seen it every year since we’ve been here, so the novelty has finally worn off (we won’t go next year).  But this part was new, and the kids thought it was way cool.

 

The weather was pretty perfect, slightly too hot but not too bad at all.  It was definitely a fun few days at the fair!  We even told the kids ahead of time that we wouldn’t be buying anything (toys, playing those games you never win, etc.), and they were all SO good about not asking for anything!  We were so proud of them, and it made it a much more enjoyable day!

Spring Break sleepover

The kiddos are on spring break this week, and they asked if they could have a sleepover in the living room. So we blew up the air mattress for Asher and Bri, and then Kyrie had the whole couch to herself. They got to eat snacks and watch a movie, and they had a blast. I went out to check on them and just had to take a picture. They were all just so sweet!!

Cambria’s impression of Tori Amos

As we were driving home, Derk put on a Tori song.  Bri decided to do her own impression of Tori’s music.  I like Bri’s version better, but maybe I’m a bit biased. 

Marine Corp Air Show

Each year the air force base here puts on an air show. It's really fun for the kids, AND it's free! They have an actual air show where they do tricks and such, but the best part is that they have all sorts of helicopters, jets, etc., that you can go inside and explore.

I was surprised at how much the girls enjoyed it! Here they are checking out all kinds of cool stuff!

And some videos! In the last one, you can hear Kyrie start yelling to tell me something. She is literally yelling at the top of her lungs, so you can get a sense of how LOUD that thing was!

Wordless Wednesday

Finger painting!

Bri woke up this morning and decided she wanted to do some finger painting. I love how she just totally spread out and took up the entire table.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

We love having visitors!  Derk's parents had been planning to come visit for a few months, but it just kept getting pushed back due to various things.  We were all finally able to coordinate it, and we are SO glad they came!  It was such fun!

They flew into San Diego on Saturday night, and we met up with them early Sunday morning at their hotel.  From there, we went to LEGOLAND!!! 

 

We spent 2 days there and had the best time!  Legoland is really geared for young kids, and the tallest height requirement there was 42 inches.  This meant even Bri got to go on nearly every ride.  We actually snuck her on one of the roller coasters.  She was literally a hair shy of 40 inches (less than a quarter inch too short), and they wouldn't let her on.  So Jean had the brilliant idea of folding up one of the park maps in Bri's shoes.  lol.  Were it not for Derk’s parents having their camera on hand, we would have zero pictures of our Legoland fun!  I charged my camera battery the night before we left, but then I forgot to put it back in before packing it in the car.  I’m so glad they had their camera and let me monopolize it for a few days!    I would have been SO sad not to have all these wonderful memories captured on picture/video!!!

This will be picture overload, I’m sure, but there are way too many cute ones to choose from!

Cambria REALLY loved this ride and made all of us ride it with her several times each. 

 

The kids even got to drive their very own lego go-carts, which they thought was SO COOL!  They were all actually really good drivers!  We were super impressed!

Up next was Mini-Land.  This was my favorite part of Leogland, by far.  The displays were incredible!  They had nearly every famous city you can imagine, all built out of legos.  Just incredible!  We saw Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington DC (among many others).  The pictures really don’t do it justice, but I think that if there weren’t people standing near all these displays you may not be able to tell they aren’t the real thing!  Some of the displays even had stuff that moved – like people, cars/buses, even fountains.

Here are some videos, too:

We also saw a fun show while we were there.  Kyrie and Asher both got to participate on stage, which was SO funny!!  Sorry about the sound cutting in and out in some parts of the video.  Like I said, it wasn’t my camera, so I didn’t quite know how to work it.  But I just love this video and think it’s hysterical!  When I think about how grateful I am to have had a camera to borrow like I said before, this is the first memory that comes to mind.  If I hadn’t been able to capture this, I would definitely have cried.  It’s priceless!

After we got back from Legoland, I didn’t get many other pictures!    We were just busy almost non-stop.  Derk had to work the whole week, Scott did lots of golfing, so that left Jean, Bri and I lots of time to spend together.  We went to story time, did some shopping, some yard work (that’s another post…), played lots of games, went bowling, ate good food, I could go on and on.  The 4 adults played games every night after the kids went to bed.  We had several really intense games of Wizard that I didn’t know could get so crazy.    And, oh, how I wish I had taken some video of Derk teaching his parents to play a new game we got called Munchkin.  Oh, man, I will never forget that!    One moment I did capture on video was when Grandpa decided to jump on the trampoline with the kiddos!  They had so much fun, and it was hilarious to watch!  He didn’t even throw his back out or anything.    I went out and joined them after taking this video – I couldn’t stand to watch them have all that fun without me. 

 

Thanks so much for the super fun visit, guys!  We had a fabulous time!!

Asher’s birthday party

Since Asher’s birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, we had his friend party this afternoon.  We ended up having 9 friends show up, so it was a full house and tons of fun!  He decided on a racecar theme this year, which I was shocked about but fully supported (so. sick. of. super heroes! ).  The party was pretty easy to plan around that theme, too.  We used the HotWheels race track he got for his birthday as one of the games, and then we played Pin the Wheel on the Racecar.  I actually had a few more things planned, but these boys had such a fun time playing with the HotWheels race track that they didn’t want to stop for any more games. 

Here he is opening some of his presents!

The weather has been so nice here that we held the party outside, which worked out great since we are leaving town for the weekend and want to keep the house clean.  I had the back patio all decorated, but the darn wind was blowing so hard that it messed everything up!  It was really a simple party  -- Asher still had some Batman plates and napkins left over from his birthday last year that he wanted to use, which worked out great for me!  Also, I finally let myself realize I am NOT a cake decorator.  It’s just not my forte.  This cake gave me such grief that I nearly threw it in the trash and sent Derk to the store to buy a new one.  Bri wanted to help, and she was so excited about it that I let her.  I quickly realized I shouldn’t have let her when the lines on the top of the cake ended up super crooked, but I didn’t have an ounce of patience left in me at that point to fix it.  Oh well, Asher kept going on and on and on about how much he LOVED his cake, so that’s all that matters!  From now on, though, I will stick to cupcakes. 

The birthday song!  He had a bit of trouble blowing out his candles, which was pretty funny.  But then the funniest part was that when all his friends started helping him, one of the boys accidentally spit his gum out on the cake.  You can hear his mom saying, “I’m SO sorry!” in the background.  I thought it was hysterical and made such a fun memory!

Many thanks to all our friends for coming and celebrating with us!  He had the BEST time!

Arf!

Kyrie had her first school performance today.  The program was called Arf! and was a funny program about dogs.  Kyrie was a poodle and had 3 different parts in the performance.  She did SO great!  Most of the other kids needed to use note cards to remember their lines, but Kyrie had hers all memorized (and her lines were MUCH harder than the others!).  She was also the only one who got up there and spoke with enthusiasm.  And last but not least, it was her very first solo!!  That was one of those parenting moments where you are SO proud of your child that your heart swells so large that you feel like it’s literally going to burst open! 

Here are some pictures!  The lady standing with her is her music teacher, Mrs. Tharp.  She and Kyrie just love each other, and Kyrie runs up and gives her a huge hug any time she sees her.  She’s such a sweet lady and sure loves our girl!  Not only were WE beaming with pride over Kyrie’s performance, but Mrs. Tharp was, too!!! 

Here’s Kyrie introducing the show!

And here she is singing her solo!!!  Out of all the 3rd graders, she was the only one who got asked to do a solo!

WAY TO GO, KYRIE!!!!  We are SO proud of you! 

Asher turns 6!

Today our sweet boy turned 6! He had a really fun day. Here he is right before heading off to school this morning. His goofy grin is a result of him wiggling a very loose front tooth!

I felt bad that he had to go to school on his birthday, but I made it special for him by meeting him for lunch. He was so excited when he saw Bri and I waiting for him in the cafeteria! The cute little girl behind Asher is his best buddy Memory from his class. They are so sweet and always give each other a huge hug when I pick Asher up every day. It’s not the best picture because I couldn’t get a single one of them to hold still long enough or give me nearly enough free space to actually snap a picture.

After school, we had Grandma and Grandpa Stephens (Derk’s grandparents) over for dinner, dessert, and presents. We had a meal full of Asher’s favorite things – chicken in a basil cream sauce, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and for dessert we had ice cream sundaes. I didn’t get many pictures of him opening gifts, but here are the 2 I did manage to get. Both these gifts were from Nana, and he sure loved them (especially the funny glasses!).

I mostly took videos of the presents because he was tearing through them too fast! Here he is opening his card from Abby, James, and cousins:

And here are a couple more of him opening the rest. Our kids all get *just a bit* excited when someone is opening presents. Asher had us just cracking up with how funny he was opening his presents!

Happy birthday to our Asher!

Kyrie’s soccer portrait

Here’s our little HotShot’s soccer portrait!  This week is her very last week of soccer.  We’re glad to have it over and have some more free time on our hands, but it’s been really a really fun season.