"hooray! the time has come...

for a day at the county fair!!"

hello again. luke here. :)

ben has a book that starts with that line. it's a pretty cheesy book mom picked up from the dollar section at target almost two years ago. ben loves it. we read it a lot. ben especially loved it last year when we went to the county fair in austin (which was really the austin rodeo, whoops) and he especially, especially loved it this year when we went to the real life county fair here in montgomery county, texas!! i liked it a lot too, and momma took a lot of pictures, so i thought i'd share. the pictures actually tell a great story about a day in the life of we matthys four, when we're out on adventure. it starts off with me upholding my title as cutest and most wonderful baby ever. looking happy and content in my stroller...

...as ben drives around on a bus carousel...

now that i'm getting older, i'm more aware of when i'm missing out on some fun that ben is having without me. and i'm starting to let on that i'm not exactly thrilled about it, but i usually don't throw a fit or anything (yet)...

i even missed out on momma and ben riding a neat airplane way up in the air...

but momma made up for that afterwards with some snuggles...

we walked around the barns and saw the kids with their show animals. ben was mesmerized by someone shearing their sheep...

i happily watched on from my stroller...

and ben and momma got to go inside a petting zoo to see goats, chickens, a donkey, and a llama...

one of the goats tried to eat my delicious and irresistible toes...

i'm not sure if you can tell from this picture or not, but i was not pleased (majorly started crying, in fact!)...

i tried to tell daddy about it (as he snapped away)...

and then remained yet again in my stroller... i did pout a little bit though...

later on we tried some cotton candy, which ben and i had never had before. needless to say, if you know anything about ben, he enjoyed it quite a bit...

momma let him go to town, and he could tell this was a special occassion. he kept looking back at her to make sure she really knew what she was doing to let him eat all that!!

and took advantage when he realized that she did...

i couldn't believe it...

i got to try some too!

i was not so sure what to think at first...

and then even decided that i didn't like it at all! (i still have an aversion to some textures of foods, and this was one food that it didn't matter what the taste was like, i was not about to get over the texture of that stuff in my mouth - blegck!!)...

ben, on the other hand, kept on going... :)

still later, he got to ride in the engine of a fun little train! he absolutely loved this...

by this time, my patience had worn out. i may still be the cutest and most wonderful baby ever, but there comes a time when enough is enough. and this was it...

overall, just like the books says, "we had a great time at the fair today." this was yet another great experience in our new hometown and we enjoyed our day together. and while it may look like i spend most of my life in a stroller (or momma's sling) watching on as ben checks out the world and has his fun, that really is hardly the case, in all honesty. i've really been getting into everything lately and love exploring and discovering whatever i can find.

we still have lots more pictures to update with from may and our visitors and just have learned to do it when we can, so thanks for being patient with us and checking in. :) bye!

our april, part two...

huwouh (that's what "hello" sounds like with sidewalk chalk in my mouth)...


yep. sidewalk chalk. it's pretty yummy...


ben and i had fun painting with chalk and water outside a couple weeks ago. we are trying to enjoy every possible minute of this spring-time weather before it gets super hot and humid here. plus, ben is a bit obsessed with mixing colors to see what new colors they make. he does it with crayons, markers, etc inside and really had fun doing it with chalk and water outside. here's momma's shadow pointing out that blue and yellow make green...

...blue and pink make purple...

...and me and a bucket of water make...

a mess!! :)

and most of you know that ben isn't usually a big fan of getting messy, actually. he's quite the interesting combination of being "all boy" in some aspects and (cough, cough) a little bit of a "sissy boy" (cough) in other aspects. but on this day, he was game for getting down and dirty. he even sat and painted his legs for a really long time... (yes, tongue out, as usual)

you should have seen those legs in person when he was all done! they looked so funny!

we also went to our hometown's "depot days" a few weeks ago, in downtown magnolia. we sure do like this town. ben was super excited because he got to walk over the railroad tracks with daddy!!! he loves when we drive our car over the tracks (which is very often, because there are two sets on our way into town) and he loves hearing the whistles off in the distance from our house. so it was super special for him to get to walk over the tracks on this day...

depot days is an annual festival with food booths, crafts, tours through the old depot, fire trucks (and i have to mention porta potties because for some odd reason ben is really into those right now, no pun intended, okay maybe a little intended...) and live music. ben likes music a lot and really enjoyed watching the men play (it was a band of middle-aged guys playing country-ish music). you can tell he's enjoying himself since he's very intently focused and has his tongue sticking out...

he even did a little dancing up on the deck by the old red caboose that sits in front of the depot. we loved going in and out of the caboose (it's always on display there)...

see - here's me loving it (actually, i was loving still being carted around by momma in the sling, and i'm a bit sleepy)...

a highlight of the day was when a real train passed by on the tracks right when we were touring the caboose - so cool!!

and we even had snow cones afterwards. :) we like it here. it's just the right balance of rural charm with close access to urban amenities. although clearly we're already picking up on maybe a little bit too much of that rural charm. can you believe that ben? momma almost fell out of her chair laughing right after she took this picture (those buck teeth! those ears! that hat up high on the head!)... somebody help us all...

thanks for checking in again. more to come soon!!!!!!!!! bye!!!!!!!