Hello Blog, I've missed you...

Wow, the last three weeks have blinked by too quickly to describe. Smoochy's project at work is in a critical phase and so he has worked the last three Saturdays. A one-day weekend is hard on all of us. There just never seems to be enough time to get it all in. But we try. There is so much I want to share from the last couple of weeks, I don't know where to start...

Our typical Saturday has begun with a trip to the Omaha Farmers Market. The kids and I wander around looking at the crafts, listening to the street musicians, and doing our grocery shopping. I don't know what it is about the farmers market that inspires me to come home, arrange and photograph my purchases... but I do all the time. 

Kinda' silly, I know. Can you imagine coming home from Hy-Vee/Safeway/Publix (pick your mart) laying out your Wheaties and your Stovetop and taking pictures? But then, meeting the people who grow your food, makes you appreciate and love it all the more. 

Anyway, then our Sundays, we have enjoyed some much needed family time... at the expense of some much needed home repair time! (Note all of my pictures display the fetching bare plaster walls in the living room.) But, I wouldn't trade our glimpses of family life for anything else. 

Last Sunday the Catholic Church in our back yard... LITERALLY in our back yard... held their annual fundraising street festival. Complete with gambling and beer tents! As a Floridian who grew up with a Baptist church on every corner, the midwest with its HUGE Catholic population has sure been a cultural change for me. No one knows how to throw a party like the Catholics. There were carnival rides, a silent auction, and even a band until 9:00 at night. This would have been awesome if we had no kids. But seeing as we do, and their bed-time is at 8:00, and the party was still rocking, IN OUR BACK YARD that was slightly problematic. All and all though, it was a great time. Here are the photographic highlights:

You can imagine what a hit this was. As soon as one helicopter ride was over, we'd get back in line to do it again. Smoochy bought Norm a ride bracelet, as opposed to tickets, so by-god we had to get our money's worth! Normy LOVED it.

OK, we didn't win the Thinking Parents of the Year Award here. I don't know how we figured Normy was old enough for this 50-gazillion foot-tall slide. I guess with all the holy draft beer, the slide didn't look so menacing at first. But then once our little two-year old got to the top... GULP! In the end, the kind teen-aged attendant had to go up and bring him down. Though Normy was giggling with delight at the apex, watching the older more appropriately-sized kids descend the slide, he wouldn't dare come down himself. Toddler sense of self-preservation is amazing! 

Georgia and I wowed the crowds with our stellar back-wrap. 

"Hmm.. what's this?"

Normy' first cotton candy!

Oh yea! We had an elephant ear, too!

OK, I have more pictures and updates to share, but this is taking longer than I anticipated... and we have a standing Monday play-date at a local kid's gym. Very fun. Think foam block-pit, sunken in-floor trampoline, and free-roaming packs of wild toddlers. Ahh, heaven!