Montgomery Agriculture Fair

Today the kids and I visited the fair. We watched the 4-H intermediate goat show. If you don't know I've been wanting a goat for the last couple years after reading the book Goat Song by Brad Kessler. I know it's an extremely romantic depiction of animal husbandry but I'm still enchanted.

Afterwards we walked through the sheep, cow, poultry, rabbit, and pig barns.
We caught a raptor show which had some awesome stories about great horned owls, which are super aggressive, knocking hunters out of their own deer stands and stealing pet chihuahuas. And I thought I couldn't like owls anymore than I did already. Best animals ever.

From there we sat in on a draft horse show, visited the bee keepers, and chatted with the master gardeners. Reuben and Miriam both agreed watching the baby chicks hatch in the incubator was their favorite thing to see.

And while I was tempted to leave with a goat or at least a few of the fluffy chicks, we only spent $2.50 for a bottle of water. I love the fair!

Miriam was at the fair too but running around so fast that I never caught her in a picture.

Little Friends

Reuben and Miriam can't decide if it is more fun to feed the sparrows or chase them, so they do both in turns.

Pao de Quijo

We like to walk around the farmer's market Saturday mornings. There is a Brazilian bakery tent that sells pao de quijo (Brazilian cheese bread). Here's a picture of Miriam about 20 seconds after I handed her a fist sized roll.

Birthday Treat

I fully intended to deposit all of Miri's birthday money in her college savings account. Then on an errand at the bike shop, she found "my cat hat!!" and danced around with such glee, I couldn't resist.
She's been wearing it everywhere: in the house, walking around outside, riding in the car. If you can't tell it's a solid bike helmet (the brand is razskull) so maybe she's more protected. Ok I know, it was totally irrational.
Reuben is terribly jealous. We'll see if I go equally soft come November.

First day of school

Reuben went to school this morning. He had mixed feelings about going. Miriam kept pronouncing "I don't have to go to school!" then laughing, which wasn't helping.
I'm looking forward to hearing Reuben's report when I pick him up at 11:30.

Miriam is 2!

We had a lot of fun on Miriam's birthday. Thanks to everyone for the fun cards and presents.

The kids and I spent the day burning with fever but it gave the whole day an other world quality that was kind of magical. That's my attempt at a positive spin.

Aaron knew he'd be stuck at work at night so Miri blew out candles on some cinnamon rolls. She helped me make her cake (thanks to cousin Kari for the recipe) and we sang happy birthday to her a good 4 or five more times. She ate it all up.

Permanently Portable

This week we returned from our lively trip down South and resettled back into our usual routine.

The big event was an expedition to Home Depot to get a bag of replacement sand for Reuben's beloved sand table. We managed to leave with two camp chairs that were on clearance. For better or worse everyone has liked them so much they haven't made it outside. I'm trying to ignore that voice that is telling me camp chairs are not usually used as permanent furniture. On the other hand we move so frequently that it may be more logical to switch all our furniture to the foldable light weight variety.