Monster Bag

Wouldn't you be terrified at the sight of this?  A one eyed paper bag monster who has an arm growing where the other eye should be.  It also makes some pretty awesome growling sounds and will chase you wherever you go.  Pretty awesome....

He chased us around for a good while with this paper (of course I don't let him play with plastic bags) bag on his head.

I'm thinking Halloween 2011- the perfect costume!!!

My favorite is that he stuck his hand out of the eye hole and did his best to catch us.  

Imagine a lot of Myers growling and Ruby screaming.

It was pretty fun.

Oh the things that entertain!

(as I am sitting outside writing this blog Ruby just found a worm and accidentally ripped it in half.  I think it had something to do with her and Myers fighting over it.  It looks pretty nasty- but is still alive and she thinks it is pretty awesome.  Here she is now bringing me the other half.  Gross I just got a little creeped out and scared Ruby into dropping it.  The best part is that I now have to act like it is no big deal and that creepy crawlies don't bug me so that she can form her own opinion of them. - how do you like my 'as it is happening dialogue?'  Just think of it as a up to the minute news broadcasting.)

In some other exciting news- we are headed on another family adventure!  We are off to Kalahari- probably THE BEST indoor waterpark ever invented!  We got a super awesome deal!

I'm sure you will hear more about it here soon.

I don't think I was blogging yet when we went last time.  But it was pretty epic (am I allowed to say that as a 20-something mother of 2?)

I wish we could all get together and do it again!  What about it Wiebe's and Hughes'?  If you leave right now you could make it there just in time for our fun tomorrow!!!

I really want to go on the four man tube with Justin, Mark and Jared again.  That was fun, a little scary but fun!

Carnation Festival

The carnation is my least favorite flower.

Now you all know.

I know most people don't have a least favorite flower, 'They are all beautiful' and yes I will agree that when compared to less beautiful things the carnation is beautiful.  

That being said- it is STILL my least favorite flower.

The reason I bring this up is because Alliance celebrates the carnation once a year with the Carnation Festival.

You can read all about it here.

In fact Alliance is considered the birthplace of the 'Lamborn red carnation'.

If you aren't bored of external link reading yet, you can read about it here.

So for all intents and purposes I am living in 'The Carnation City'.

I just think it is quite the coincidence.

And no- even after attending many activities to do with the carnation festival, the carnation has not risen in the ranks of favorite flowers.  It is still on the bottom.

But really, does it matter?  No.

And I am pretty sure none of you actually care- in fact the only one that might is the one person in my life who might actually give me flowers- and he already knows.

So just consider this a little bit of a 'get to know you' session.

Now you know me that much better.

Anyway- on to the festivities of the Carnation festival.

They really go all out.  

We were sure to head to the rib fest and enjoy some mighty delicious bbq beef sandwiches- and the cover bands dressed in metallic pleather.

I think our favorite activity was the air balloon lift off.

We love balloons in this house.  Noni especially- he is obsessed.  

When I heard that there was going to be a hot air balloon lift off I knew that we needed to get there- just to see his face!

The balloons didn't actually lift off- something to do with a supposed thunder storm coming with strong winds and a desire NOT to get hit by lightning when being carried in a wicker basket by nothing more than hot air.  I say- have a little guts people, we showed up here to be entertained by you- what's a little lightning in the grand scheme of things?

They didn't listen.

They did however give us the pleasure of blowing up the balloons so we could at least see them.  And they were pretty breath taking.  We still loved it.

A picture for scale- They were all about the size of Justin's head.  hahaha. 

This was the first one we saw- we were able to weasel our way into front row seats so we could get a better look.

They may or may not have had more fun just playing with the helium balloons they got from the sponsors of this event. (who happened to be a funeral home in the area)

Ok- here is one for actual scale.  They were crazy HUGE.  I had never seen one up close before- it was awesome!  Just FYI the girl on the right is the Carnation Queen this year- we were in the presence of ROYALTY...

Noni admiring the balloons.

Ruby NOT admiring the balloons.

Here we are with what may or may not be the worst family picture we have ever taken.  Ok- it is.

All blown up- this one was my favorite.  If I had my choice I would fly in that one.  Lightning or no lightning.

It was really fun!  The night was beautiful and it was great to spend the time together as a family.  We had fun.

The next activity that we attended was the parade!  It was hot and we weren't in the shade so we all got a mild case of heat stroke- but it was worth it.  Ok- it wasn't really- but they threw candy.... 

Sitting in the hot hot sun.  (and yes, those would be friends!!!)

This was them- in anticipation of the parade!  They had high hopes...

Myers was in awe.

But soon the heat and boredom overtook him....

It was fun, but hot and REALLY long.  We left before it was over- we had to go pick up our new HP tablets anyway...  That was Justin's favorite part of that day!

The carnation festival was great.  They even ended in fireworks! (which we didn't get to see because Ruby fell asleep in the car on our way there and it was insanely busy- we would have had to walk atleast 2 miles with two very crabby grumpy kids in order to get there- so we skipped it.)

Fourth Birthday Extravaganza!

I was waiting to write this post until we got the pottery we painted back from the pottery place so I could show you our creations.  You can read about how that went here.

The fourth birthday is a pretty big deal and Ruby was adamant about what she wanted for it.
She wanted a Rapunzel dress and has wanted one for probably 6 months now.
Anytime we would ask her what she wanted she would respond in the same way. 'A Rapunzel dress please'
So who am I to say no?
I got to work and gathered my materials.
My original plan was to do it patternless but when Justice found the Rapunzel dress pattern at JoAnn's for $1.99 I just couldn't say no.
And I am glad I got it.
The dress turned out amazing and Ruby loves it....

Who are we kidding?  I love it too...

Here she is doing a princess curtsy.
So equipped in her Rapunzel dress we had what she requested for dinner.
Macaroni and Cheese.
This girl could have had anything.
And she chose Mac and Cheese.

So I made homemade backed in cheese goodness.
And it was good.
Then we headed to one of our new favorite places and got Ruby a free birthday sundae- which she ate 3 bites of and had enough... But it was still fun.  Everyone admired the beautiful girl in her beautiful dress.  It was perfect for a birthday girl.

Then as a little surprise we headed to the clay painting place.
She had her choice of anything to paint.  Anything.  And, like the mac and cheese, she chose an egg.
We did our best to sway her in other directions but this four year old knows what she wants and she wanted an egg.
So she got an egg.

I painted a little cup for Noni when we have hot chocolate parties here.
Noni painted the plate- and Justin had the awesome job of wrangling Noni.  Not easy, not easy at all.

By the time we were done it was dark enough to have our final surprise for Ruby.

We headed to the park with a wide open field and lit a flying lantern (complete with the tangled sun logo) and let it go- in true Rapunzel fashion.
It was AMAZING.

I think we are going to make this a little bit more of tradition in our family.
It was a little scary at first, you know, with the floating fire and all- but once we were sure it was going up and not down toward trees it was great.
We also have an amazing video of this first 'let-go' of the lantern.  If you come visit we'll show you.  It starts out great with a lot of excitement- and then ends with the phone being dropped and a little 'floating fire' panic.
It is epic.
The next day we headed to the butterfly conservatory near us-still dressed in our Rapunzel dress- and had a great time!

We all were able to hold a butterfly.
Justin caught them all- they just seemed to like him- I guess he is pretty sweet.

He was kind enough to share his spoils with the rest of us.

Ruby was a little leery of the butterflies.  Some would say she was a little afraid....  But you could hear her talking herself out of it- 'I love butterflies' 'I'm not afraid of butterflies'.  She preferred the caterpillars.  Especially the little tiny ones.

The Chrysalis's- not cocoon.  Who knew?  We did- we read a book that told us about the monarch butterflies before we went- so we looked pretty smart.... 



What is cuter than that pudgy little hand holding that butterfly?  We loved the monarchs the best.
Myers was sad to see him go.

I even got one.... Well Justin got it and I got to hold it....

It was awesome.

Then we headed to a friends house and shared an ice cream cake with them.

It was a great birthday weekend.

The Tragedy That Is Our Painted Pottery

We took Ruby to paint some clay for her birthday.
She chose to paint an egg.

 
And she loved her egg.
I painted a cute little cup for Noni to use when we had hot chocolate parties.
I painted it mustard color and put a mustache on each side.
It was the cutest thing ever.
We get to pick up our finished and fired clay yesterday.
We decided to get some exercise and bike there and then head to Walmart to get some diapers after.
We got our pottery- enjoyed our creations and headed to Walmart.

When we got there we realized that we were missing the little parent pack that attaches to the back to the bike trailer- you know?  The place you store drinks and whatever else you want?  Like a cute little mustard colored cup with some awesome mustaches painted on it.  It was gone.  Justin- being the hero that he is- said that he would bike all the way back to look for it while I took the kids in to get the things that we needed.
So I took the kids around gathering our much needed supplies while Justin biked back.  That is when I heard it.  The crash and shatter of a cutie little egg being dropped on the hard Walmart floor.  Poor Ruby had dropped her egg- and now this is all we have left of it.

I am going to try and glue it back together- but lets face it- it won't be the same.
Then more bad news for us.
Justin didn't find the bag.  This meant my cup was gone.
And I don't even have a picture to show you of the pure creative genius that was it.  The beauty of it, the pure awesomeness.  You will just have to believe me.   You do don't you?

All we have that is still in tact is the plate that Myers painted with some small guidance from Justin....

I guess Hot Pots (the pottery place) will be getting more business from us.
One point pottery place- no points Snell girls.
If I didn't know better I would say they planned it....
At the beginning of our adventure we had an egg, a cute little tea cup, a saucer, and hope for the joy that they would bring to our future.
By the end of the trip we had a lost cup, a broken egg, still had the saucer which now became useless, and dashed hopes and dreams.
We have to go back....