Foothill Fall Festival

Friday was the annual Foothill Fall Festival (at Eva's elementary school). It is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year!

Marc was out of town shooting a wedding, Max was in Salt Lake at a youth symphony rehearsal (not that he's interested anymore), and Lucas had been invited to the Haunted Forest with three girls! (I did see lots of people from his grade at the Fall Festival.)

Eva's friend Riley came with us, since her mom has a new baby and didn't want to brave the crazy crowds.

Max had the car, so we walked to the school. They decided that this rock in someone's yard was the perfect place to pose for a photo!

Incidentally, the theme this year was Going For the Gold, so Eva decided to dress in her most athletic attire, with a starry headband for good measure.

They had girls from a local hair school on hand to do hairstyles or spray color.  Eva hates getting her hair styled, but she was all about the purple stripes.

At the face painting booth, she requested an American flag. What could be more Olympian?

She finally had her first pony ride! She wanted to do it two years ago when she was in kindergarten, but chickened out at the last second. Last year was rainy, so they had to cancel the pony rides. She had already determined that, at the next opportunity, she would do it no matter what. This girl loves horses.

She noted that even though we had to wait in a long line and it cost 4 tickets, the pony ride was definitely worth it. (Riley rode a horse, and that wait was about 4 times as long!)

Another favorite attraction is always going on golf cart rides with the teachers. I think this is the school librarian.

Other events I did not get photos of (because my arms were laden with two-liter soda bottles that they had won in the soda walk): dunking booth, cotton candy, mini golf, soda walk, cake walk, making and shooting paper rockets, silent auction. I'm sure there were lots of others that I'm forgetting.

For treats, the girls both had a soda and Riley chose cotton candy, while Eva had strawberry gelato, so they were both sufficiently sugared up.

Cute photo.

Crazy photo.

Victory photo.

We didn't leave until well after dark. After walking to the school twice that day and being on my feet for 3 hours at the festival, I was exhausted. We started trudging home (and me lugging those blasted soda bottles), and then I heard Max call out to me. He had returned from Salt Lake and come straight over to drive us home. I don't know that I've ever been so happy to see someone in all my life.

a few major things

Eva lost her first tooth!

She was annoyed by the fact that it hadn't fallen out yet. It was causing her grief when she ate or brushed her teeth. So one night, I just took a tissue like my grandma used to, put it over the tooth, and yanked. It was very loose, and it came right out. She was thrilled.

I got out of bed at midnight when I realized that I had forgotten to perform my tooth fairy duties. She was happy about the money, but disappointed that the tooth fairy took her tooth away. At school the next day, the class dentist (they all have different rotating jobs in their "town") asked if anyone had lost a tooth and she was so happy to report her big event.

Lucas got a haircut!

Not his usual trim where he negotiates about how little he can get cut off, but an actual haircut. Miss Kate, the school drama director, told him he was going to have to have a new 'do for Grease. I was shocked that he opted to comply 6 weeks in advance. Thank you, Miss Kate, thank you!

Now I am trying to give him positive feedback without making a big deal out of it (so that he will want to grow it out long again just to rebel against me). I think he looks so much like my brother when he was about the same age.

Max got his driver's license!

It was shockingly easy. We went in with a pile of documentation and they never even looked at it! He didn't have to get his picture taken because he is using the one from his permit. He didn't have to take a written or a driving test because he has a certificate that he passed them in Driver's Ed. (which they didn't even look at). They just checked his vision, I paid the fee, he received a brief lecture on being responsible and staying in good with his mother (since I paid for it, I own it until he is 18) and that was it! No waiting, even. It was certainly a different experience from when I got my license—I had to take the written and the driving test and failed the driving test the first time because when I parallel parked, I wasn't close enough to the curb. Huh.

Also, he went on his first date about a week ago! He is so shy, I wondered if it might take him years to embark on this particular milestone. He planned the whole thing, arranged a group date, and had a great time. I could not be more shocked (and happy for him).

We went to our elementary school's Fall Festival on Friday. I didn't take my camera because it was stormy. Eva was disappointed that, due to inclement weather, the ponies weren't there. She was determined to ride one this year. They did, however, have a petting zoo that she thoroughly enjoyed: a 500-lb. pig, a pot-bellied pig, a llama, a cow, a baby goat, a chicken, and a rabbit on a leash. She also went on a golf cart ride, did the duck pond and fish pond games, took a couple of turns in the bounce house (a huge hit), played bean bag toss and ring toss, tried the cake walk and the soda pop walk, and ate cotton candy. It's an enormously anticipated event.

She won this in the soda pop walk.

Marc started repainting our main living area!

He spent all weekend prepping and painting one wall, and putting everything back into place. Now I'm not sure I love the color we selected. It doesn't look like the sample to me. It's cooler and just not what I pictured. Marc is so frustrated he can barely talk about it. I can't blame him a bit. And I'm pretty sure we will never paint again without getting a test quart.

I'm living with it for a couple of days before we decide how to proceed...

2 Fridays

Last Friday we went to the Fall Festival at Lucas's school. It's like a big carnival, complete with pony rides, a dunking booth, go karts, a silent auction, popcorn, cotton candy, the works. Lucas was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

He was. He really was. You just would never know it in this photo of him standing in front of the pinata he helped make.

Eva won a prize at the fish pond...

and enjoyed a snow cone with Daddy.

I think Max was feeling a little too old for the carnival. Maybe he would have had more fun if he'd taken along a friend. He ended up going home early with Marc & Eva, while I stayed to help with the rocket launches. My favorite quote of the night was Max saying, "Mom, can I just go to the library for a minute? Our library has been closed for a couple of weeks, and I just need to be in a library." Classic. Lucas stayed until it was dark.

I think maybe I was dragging my feet on documenting the Fall Festival because of my serious lack of photos. I don't know what I was thinking that night, except that I brought my big, heavy camera and it was pretty awkward to use. And then, how did this happen?, it was Friday again!

Jill worked on organizing her Paris photos in albums again, as she had printed more and needed to do a bit or shuffling. (It ended up being more time-consuming and frustrating than she planned.) I just enjoyed looking at all of her prints, especially since I haven't gotten any of my photos printed yet!


Eva also enjoying looking at the photos. Jill pointed out all the pictures that had Eva in them, and Eva had fun pointing out Mommy, Jill, Amy, Collette, Jenn, and Jana. It's so weird to think that she probably doesn't remember being in Paris anymore.

So lucky for me that Jill is willing to indulge Eva on Creative Fridays -- otherwise they would probably always end up being a bust. At least we always have a little peace when Eva takes her nap. But no matter how it turns out, I am always glad we make the effort to get together!