Colorado County Fair and Rodeo

It's a Fall Friday night in Colorado county which can only mean one thing...the Livestock Fair and Rodeo! I'm sure there was a football game going on too, but I don't think the kids are quite ready for that yet. We ate a really early dinner and headed out to the grounds. We toured the animals that were shown and Levi was invited to pet the 4th place heffer.

After checking out the goats, rabbits, chickens and pigs, we went over to the petting zoo to pet and feed the animals there.

After we walked around and checked everything out, we headed back to the rodeo arena to sign Levi up for mutton bustin'. We were only third in line so he would have made the list, but when I found out that the event wouldn't happen until about 9:15 pm (it was only 6:15 at the time), we said no way, Levi's not going to make it that long. He no longer takes naps and has always been an early to bed, early to rise kind of kid. So we didn't sign him up. We went back over to the fair and bought tickets so the kids could do some rides.

Daddy got to do this spinning monkey ride with Levi; Mattie was too short.

After the rides, Momma got her funnel cake, the kids got ice cream, and we went to get seats in the stands for the rodeo. Justin ended up taking Levi down to get a better view. (We had also run into Lanky the Clown, who fashioned Levi a sword and scabbard.)

Us girls stayed in the stands. Mattie wanted a picture of us since I took a picture of Levi and Daddy.

After a quick walk through the exhibit hall, we headed home. We managed to keeps the kids awake on the way home, but Levi was very adament that he was tired and wanted to go to bed. He was asleep in bed by 9. I'm glad we didn't waste $20 signing him up for mutton bustin'!

First Day...Finally!

I've been seeing all the first day of school pictures for the past few weeks and it was finally our turn yesterday! Levi started the mixed 4's class and Mattie is in the older 2's. Mattie is the youngest in her class because she makes the cut off date by 4 days. Levi is one of the youngest in his class as well with that July birthday. They did really well at drop off; Levi ran into his room and I had to poke my head in to say "Bye! I love you!". He replied "Bye!" back but I didn't get a hug or kiss or wave. Mattie took a couple of minutes for me to leave but there was no tears and whining. We put her stuff away and washed her hands, I got a couple of hugs and a kiss before she got distracted by some toys and I quietly slipped out. My one Mommy fail was that I forgot her baby doll for nap time so it apparently took her awhile to fall asleep. And their dolls from the home center would not do. She didn't cry about it but just kept asking where her baby doll was. On the way home I asked Levi how his day was and this was the first time I didn't get an "I don't know" response. It took him at least 20 minutes of the drive home to tell me everything they did, who got in trouble, who he played with, etc. It was very entertaining. We're off to a great start so far!