We got up super early and headed over to a hot air balloon race. We got there just as the first balloon was coming over the horizon, and soon the sky was filled with them.


She made a little friend while we were there.



That little girl had a wagon just like ours, and Noah wasn't very happy when we wouldn't let him crawl inside.



Love how jeans and sweatshirts make the kids so huggable!



But anytime I get within a few inches of the ground they both tackle me. Noah was trying the bulldozer move, while Anna was bouncing up and down hoping to knock me over.



I love how they can play together now. Nothing better than running around a big field!



The view we see all day :)



By the time we left, little buster was pretty sleepy. Of course we did get there an hour before he normally wakes up!





Yay for hot air balloons!



After that we went to the farmer's market and to tour a house, but I think this is enough pictures for one day!

Tonight at dinner Anna asked me if I would like to hear her "most beautiful story". Sure. Here's what she told me:

"Once upon a time there was a princess. She lived in a house. No! A palace! One day she found a baby in a basket. It was in the river. The baby was God! (said with huge eyes for emphasis) But then....he disappeared! But when the princess finds him, she will take good care of him and he will grow up in the palace."

Now, I know she was trying to retell the story of baby Moses. It's her favorite Bible story and she's told it to me before. But she must need to brush up on the details! I just loved how she put it all together this time, and how dramatic she was in her version ;)

Here are some random pictures from our week without electricity, or as Nathan called it, our week in "olden times". And yes, I could be heard muttering, "I hate olden times" several times throughout that week ;)

Noah decided this week that he wanted to ride a bike. Well, it's actually Anna's tricycle and his legs are still too short to pedal, but he decided he could wear the helmet and sit on the bike while I push him around the driveway. The helmet was all his idea, I swear! He's really starting to want to be like Anna so if she wears the helmet then he must too! It was cracking me up.



He's younger than she was when she first wore it, but it fits about the same :p



He scares me at least once a day with the things he's trying lately, but it's so cute to watch him try and keep up with the big kids.

In an effort to stay out of the house we headed to the zoo with my sister and her boys. The zoo didn't have any power either but they were running on generators, so they let us in, along with hundreds of other moms who didn't know what to do with their kids since all schools were closed. Anna actually seemed to have an awful time, she cried because there was no food available and the only open potty was on the other side of the zoo when she needed it. At one point (on a big hill when you need to keep your stroller pushing momentum!) she stopped and with a teary face said, "I think I am going to stop walking now". Luckily we left 2 minutes later. These picture were the only time she was happy!

A crazy wind storm last weekend left us without electricity for 5 days, but now we're back in the land of the living! Anna and Noah didn't mind it at all. In fact Anna was more than happy to eat a ton of peanut butter sandwiches, and she said eating by candlelight "sure is fancy!". But Nathan and I are really happy to get back to normal. Lights are a wonderful thing at night, and I'm enjoying doing all those daytime things I couldn't do either like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Hey, they really are fun when you haven't been able to do them for a week!

No electricity does have it's good points though. We spent much more time talking to our neighbors in the evenings than we normally do, and thanks to my tiny book light I finished these two books that had been sitting on my dresser for months half read. We checked out a ton more from the library this week and we've decided to keep the TV where Anna thought it was all week, *broken*. The media break has been good for us all, even if we did feel slightly lost at times.

We took plenty of pictures and we'll blog them all. But mostly we stayed outside every night trying to get the very last speck of daylight before we had to go back into our dark house. Here are some videos of the kids sliding :)

Anna (in her Dora costume, of course):

Noah (he loves this):

She's always entertaining me!



This week on the way to school Anna was kind of singing and talking to herself when all of a sudden she said, "Hey mom, did you know that owls have silent flight?". Whoa, I was impressed! She went on to tell me how they swoop down and eat mice because they are the, "yummiest and eat-iest food for owls". I guess she really is learning from being in the owl class at preschool!



I was just telling Ashley last week that whenever Anna hears a new word she usually tries it out right away. The other day I let her use her little stamping set. When I was out of the room she rubbed the ink pad all over her hands so we had to stop stamping and head for the sink. I was explaining how ink doesn't wash off like paint and how we might need to use additional soap to get all of it off. We dried off and went into the kitchen where Anna looked up at me and said, "Umm mom, I would like additional cookies please". That little smartie!


Last night I was tucking her into bed and she was wrapping her baby doll in a blanket. I was telling her how that was nice and trying to get her to calm down, so I said, "Oh, what is your baby's name?". She looked at me all serious and said, "I don't know. Mom, he's just a pretend baby. He's made out of wood". I was cracking up as I explained that he was actually made of plastic. But she just stared at me and kept saying, "He's just pretend, mom". I think she was worried about my mental state!

Nothing exciting. We've just been at home! But we've been busy and blogging has fallen at the bottom of the list most days. My computer has also been acting crazy and not letting me into certain files, and you know I can't post without a photo!

Since we had waited in line for so long, we decided to see if Noah would like a pony ride as well. Like most events in his life, he just sort of went along for the ride.



Yay! All done!



We tried not to get too sad when our friends had to leave. Brian flew back to their new city today and Ashley and the girls will leave this week. No need to be sad because we will visit soon! Here are all the boys looking cute.



After mommy almost passed out (really) we left and went to get some lunch. Since we didn't get any at the festival, daddy bought some ice cream. Anna said, "This sure is a treat!".



Both kids fell asleep in the car, and we knew that was the only nap they would have, so we drove around for a bit. By the time we got home we were all tired and hungry again. Nathan did some yard work while I bathed and fed the kidddos. This is how Noah ate most of his dinner. So sleepy!