County Fair

It's become a tradition in our family that we attend the L.A. County Fair every September (it helps that we get free tickets from the kids' charter school.)  Ryan took the day off - selflessly missing the space shuttle flyover - to help out.  I didn't think I could do all four kids by myself this year.  We ate fair food, saw "safari" creatures, a cheesy magic show, and a monkey demonstration (the monkey caught grapes and got tickled, it was awesome.)  Of course, we did the farm animal thing, and the kids got picked to go onstage for a baby animal show.  If it hadn't been a million degrees we could have spent all day there.

  

Zebras and Zebra Elise

We forgot Evan's shoes.  He got carried a lot.

The cowboy was giving Connor advice about women.

Baby Goat

  

Ever since February we've been telling ourselves we were installing a pool heater.  Ryan did all kinds of research, then nothing happened.  Well, two weeks ago we finally got our solar heater!  The pool is actually comfortable to swim in, plus it's supposed to extend the swimming season through October or November.  We'll see.  Anyway, everybody is invited to come test it out!
  

Solar Tubes on the Roof

  
Evan is going through a very naughty phase.  He thinks coloring on the walls is the best way to get attention.  I tried confiscating all the ballpoint pens in the house (he used Sharpie on our closet door, sadly), and bought him some shiny new "washable" crayons just in case, but he's still tagging everything in sight.  The problem is that all my kids are constantly, constantly, working on art projects in the dining room, so I can't keep stuff out of his reach.
  

  

Other than that, we've mostly just been doing our weekly routine with a little baby in tow.  Corinne still has her ear splints on, something I'm looking forward to being done with.  They keep coming off, and I'm not supposed to give her tub baths.  I guess it's worth it to have movie-star ears, right?
  

In-Between Ear Splints
  

Corinne looks very threatening in this picture . .