Balloon Festival 2014

The hot air balloon festival in our town this year was just as much fun as always. This is always one of my favorite weekends of the year. I just love everything about waking up early to see the balloons with my little family. We started our weekend off with the Balloon Glow Friday night. We ended up staying on our town's side of the river because the festival on the other side of the river was really expensive to get in for just a couple of hours. We're talking $20 bucks a person. That just wasn't going to happen, so we were thrilled when we found a balloon pilot on our side of the river. Eli got to watch this balloon go up and then the balloon pilot was nice to let people take when he fired the balloon up. It was super fun! 

This was the best I could do. It was SOO bright! 

After the Balloon Glow was over, all the kids that were around got to help take the balloon down. Eli loved every minute of this and really got into it. 

Last up for the Balloon Glow night were the fireworks. They were beautiful as always! I love watching fireworks shows over the river. 

The next morning we were up very early when I received a text from our local paper saying the balloons were headed to the mall for the target drop (a competition they do for the pilots). We grabbed some coffee, bundled up, and headed to grab our spot at the mall. 

Usually this is when I get the best pictures of all the balloons because they are all so close. It's so much fun to watch them fly over the trees and drop their bean bags to try to get the closest to the target. 

At the end of the competition we found Sarah and her group of kiddos. Eli and Cooper are in the same class this year and love playing together. They quickly found a chair, snagged my phone when I wasn't looking, and started playing. I think I have several Eli and Cooper "selfies" on my camera roll now :)

Clayton, Avery, Eli and Cooper

We didn't know it at the time but this was the last time we'd get to see the balloons fly over the course of the weekend. Sunday morning the winds were gusting way too much and then the same thing that afternoon. I was really sad, but I'm glad we got to see one good flight! Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate a little better!

Finley's 1st Birthday Party

In October our family got to celebrate another first birthday for the youngest member of the family. Finley, Josh's cousin's little girl, celebrated her first birthday Minnie Mouse style. She's the sweetest baby ever and has the prettiest eyes! We are all in love with this precious little girl, but no one more than her daddy. Jeff is quite smitten with his little girl and I love watching them together. It's pretty sweet :) 

It was hard to get a picture of Addi :)

She kept wanting to put the balloons in front of her face. 

After the kids had played some, it was time for cake. Finley didn't want to let go of her bouncy ball and since it was her party we didn't make her :)

Next it was time for the gifts. Like any one year old she couldn't care less about opening presents. She just wanted down to explore. Her Aunt Tanya stepped in and helped her open some.

What really made her happy was finally getting to eat some of her cake. She sat in her daddy's lap as calm as she could be while he fed her each sugary bite. 

Her friend Tayde came by to see what she was doing and to snag a bite himself. Jeff gave him a bite and Finley watched the whole thing. Once she saw what her daddy was doing, she started screaming. She did not want to share any of her cake!

I love seeing Jeff so happy :)

This precious couple watches Finley during the day and they adore her so much and she them. It's so wonderful to see all the people who love and care for Finley. It truly does take a village to raise them :)

Happy Birthday, sweet Finley. I'm so happy that I get to be around to watch you grow up. You are the sweetest little girl ever!

Uncle Clare's Retirement Party

This fall one of our favorite people in the world, Uncle Clare, retired from his job at the Department of Agriculture. In honor of him and his retirement, a few family and friends got together at Uncle Clare and Mammy's house to celebrate Clare and this momentous occasion. We had coffee and a huge selection of desserts. Everything was so good!

Isn't Tammy's centerpiece so beautiful? 

This is one of the pumpkins from Clare's pumpkin patch.

Harley Clare was looking cute as always.

Tammy's famous bread pudding. It's DELISH!

The award Clare received from work. 

Eli also got a surprise at Clare's party. Mammy gave him his first

CD of George Strait. He was so excited and couldn't wait to sing "Check Yes or No".

After desserts and coffee, Clare opened up some of his gifts. Tammy gave him a job jar for when he gets bored now that he's retired. Clare read some of the slips inside and they said "Load the dishwasher", "Wash clothes", "Vacuum", etc. Sue was having a fit thinking Tammy had written all these things to make Clare work instead of enjoying his retirement and then he told her that they were all blank :) He was just doing that to get to Sue...totally worked like a charm :)

Clare and his family

Eli and Uncle Clare

Congratulations on your retirement, Uncle Clare! We are so excited that you get to travel, spend time with your family, and do what you want to do now :) We love you!

The Tooth Fairy Comes to Visit...Twice!

Well, it finally happened. The Tooth Fairy was finally able to make a visit to our house! What excitement!! All last year in PreK-4, Eli's bottom two teeth were very loose. I really thought it would have happened last year, but those teeth held on pretty well. Every time he would say something about them being loose, I'd wiggle them to see that they weren't quite ready to come out. I kept telling him that it would be very soon. After months and months of wiggling, it was time. One night when we were sitting on the couch, I asked him if he wanted me to try to pull the loosest of the two teeth. He agreed and with one quick tug it was out! He was shocked that he didn't feel a thing and so happy to have one of his loose teeth out! We cleaned up his tooth, rinsed his mouth out, and then sent this picture to all the grandparents. It was such an exciting time!

When Zue-Zue first found out that his bottom teeth were loose, she bought Eli a book about loosing his teeth. It came with a little tin box that he could put his teeth in for when the Tooth Fairy came to visit. She also gave Eli the Tooth Fairy pillow that his daddy used when he was little. Eli was so excited to get to use both.

He put his tooth in the tin box and tucked it inside the pillow. Then before going to bed he had me Google how much the Tooth Fairy paid for the first tooth. We found several articles that mentioned kids who had received $5 for their first tooth because it was such a special event. We read his book about loosing his teeth and then he went to bed. When he woke up in the morning, his tooth was gone and the Tooth Fairy had left him a receipt for his tooth and a sparkly $5 bill. Eli was so excited!

Then exactly a week later, this happened...

He lost his second loose tooth so the Tooth Fairy got to make a quick return trip to our house :) She didn't pay $5 again, but he was pretty excited about the two sparkly $1 bills he got for his second tooth. For now, I think we're done with visits from the Tooth Fairy. Up next are those two top teeth and I'm just not ready for that yet. He's already growing up way too fast for me. I hope those teeth hold on for a long time :) Plus, the Tooth Fairy could use a bigger space in between teeth to save some more money ;)