Gracie's First Day of Preschool 2011

 Look at this pretty little thing!  She is going to her first day of preschool!  She will have to do two years of school, but I think she will have a blast going!

 She told me she had fun and they learned letters and played with a parachute thing!

 Meeting her teacher, Miss Martin.  She's an art teacher on Tue/Thurs when she's not teaching preschool.  So, needless to say, they are going to be doing tons of art projects!

 She is going to St.Mary's Catholic Preschool and it is Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 8:30 - 11am, which makes me a busy woman dropping and picking her up.  Not to mention, in a couple Mondays she'll also start Intro to Ballet for a half an hour every Monday!

Here's the whole class - 13 of them.  5 girls and 8 boys.  She has another Gracie in her class and a Kade (she thought it was going to be Kade Lund at first - hehee).  She had four field trips already pre-scheduled and she is really excited to go to the pumpkin patch!  Should be a fun school year for her! Gracie is third from left in the picture.

Iowa State Fair 2011

 I wanted to check out a bigger fair this year and got an itch to check this one out. After all, it supposed to be the fair of fairs and its only a couple hours away from us!  Here the girls are as horse queens!

 I thought this was a cool picture...that horse would stomp those girls!  Colleen, Mom and Dad also decided to make the trek to the fair as well and we met up with them.

 Looks at these prize winning kids...wonder who entered them into the fair?

 Gracie was brave enough to pet this pig on the nose...gross!  They also had two humongous hogs there!

 Gracie showing a hog :)

 Evie showing a hog :)

 Papa and the girls looking at a horse.

 Evie finally fell asleep after putting on a horrible display of "I'm tired and cranky and I'm already in my terrible two's" It was not pretty!

 Wow!  Look at those pumpkins! Wish I could grow some like it and by the way Gracie, it says don't touch!

 Look at that crowd! We were nuts for going on the first Saturday of opening week.  SO many people...almost drove ya nuts.  Move it people!

 Evie and I and Colleen and Gracie leading the group down the slide!  The girls had a lot of fun!

 We made it to the bottom!

 Gracie wanted to go again, so she went with Hoff and he let her go down on her own!  The guy at the top had an extra bag and Gracie wanted to go down by herself.  It made me a little nervous, but she did fine!

We watched this (stupid) circus show...Evie sat real nice with Papa and Grandma Jo and watched it.  Gracie was putting on her own show dancing crazily to the music - I liked that show the best!  We ended the day with a meal at the famed Machine shed - I had chicken pot pie that was very good.  I didn't notice, but Dad did - I seen a bus in the parking lot(walked right next to it - just thought it was a bus of old people), but it was presidental candidate Michelle Bachman - she had just one the Iowa Straw thingy.  Anywho, long but good day!

Balloon and Wine Festival 2011

 I just happened to notice some signs on my way home from a shopping trip about this festival and thought it would be really fun to attend.  So, we quickly ate supper and headed over.

 We got to watch 3 balloons take off..very interesting process and someday I will ride in one!  They also had little vendors set up that were selling stuff, food and wine/drinks. 

 We were late getting to the Macy's stand.  They were having a contest and whoever's drawing was picked was going to be the Macy's day parade balloon and you got a trip to see the parade! Darn it!

 We had fun, though, watching the balloons take off and strolling through the crowds; looking at all the neat stuff!

 Gracie and Evie showed their true selves at the festival....wild indians! Hehe!

Gracie even got her arm painted with a pretty sparkly unicorn. We didn't stay long enough to see the balloons return and glow in the darkness, but maybe that can be a sight for next year :)

Saunders County Fair 2011

 Ok, I don't know how this loaded everything backwards.  This is the girls with their beloved unicorn prizes. Poor Evie's unicorn. ;)

 What's the best part about funnel cakes?  Why licking the the sugar off the plate!

 This is Evie flirting with a little boy riding across from her.  They would just smile at one another...it was cute.

 Gracie on the tractor - I told her to get on the John Deere one, but she liked the blue tractor.

 Evie on hers.  The Saunders County fair is nice cause the county own their own rides and has people volunteer to do the rides and games.  No weird people :)

 The girls riding on the motorcycle ride.

 This was the cutest thing EVER.  Evie scooted close to Gracie during the boat ride and they both leaned their heads into one another. Then Gracie put her arm around Evie and gave her a little kiss on the forehead.  Of course, I missed the best shots, but I did get one of  Gracie with her arm around Evie.

 Petting the bunny!

 Watching the pig show!

 First ride of the night.  The all time favorite Merry go Round!

 Evie petting the chickens.  She wasn't listening to Mom or Dad and got pecked my a chicken.  She didn't cry, but she told the chicken it was naughty!

 Gracie petting the cow!

Checking out the cows at the fair.  We always have a great time up there.  See ya next year!

Summer Swimming!

 Whoo hoo! Having a bunch of fun swimming in the pool!

 Evie is such a daredevil and I think she has a mission to drown this summer! Crazy girl!

 Splish, splash!

 After our swim, the girls enjoyed some ring pops!  I had the girls show me their colorful tongues!

 Evie's was red and Gracie's was pink.

 I thought Gracie did such a great job with her sidewalk chalk drawing...she made cat in the hat with thing 1 and 2 and Nick and Sally.

And I had to share this photo cause it's just funny....Evie sure had some wild hair this morning! Hahaha!

MMMMwwwwwAAAAAAA

Gracie got these wax lips as a prize at the stir-up carnival.  They were pretty fun to play with until we tried to get a picture of Evie with huge lips and she took a big bite out of them...Oh well, fun while it lasted!