Oh Yeah, We Went to See Balloons

While taking pictures at this year's Balloon Fiesta, I realized that pictures (especially the ones I take) just don't do the event justice. And at nearly that moment, the battery in our camera died. Both Jordan and I thought the previous night that we should put in a back-up charged battery, but we didn't. Here are some pictures though. So as amazing as you may think this is, in reality, it's so much more so. We were so lucky to have Jordan's sister and her family with us this year - they can tell you how cool it is!

The special shapes balloon glow. We tried to go on Thursday night, but it was cancelled, we made it to Friday night's.

This is the pre-ascension glow and the Dawn Patrol. A few balloons launch while it's still dark to test out the weather conditions.

See! We were there!

Playing Pretend

The boys got hooked on the TV show Wipeout over the summer. They started creating Wipeout courses using the couch cushions and whatever else he could get away with. Jonah especially was very into this and was always wanting me to come to Wipeout school, where he would show me how to go through the course (which included elements such as the shak-alator and the motivator) and then have me do the course. Luckily, we seemed to have passed through this phase without any major injuries, there's always next summer, I guess.





After Balloon Fiesta, the boys started playing balloon fiesta. Skyler created some VIP tags for us and they put on a balloon glow and a fireworks show. I never saw the glow, but the fireworks show consisted of them throwing all the k'nex straight up the air (a few at a time) with a random paper airplane thrown in for good measure. Essentially, things I would never allow under normal circumstances, but since they cleaned it all up without complaint, it wasn't too bad.







And a round of applause from Oliver



Yup, he approves. What's not to like about flying toys?

Last Week and the Week Before

We made these lovely Halloween candle things, but had no candles that would fit in the jars, so I put flashlights in instead.

Skyler was convinced that this craft was too easy - therefore he didn't like it. I gave him a few ideas to make it more "advanced" (cutting shapes from the tissue paper or cutting out the words), but he still didn't approve. I asked if he had any idea, but he snapped at me saying that it was my craft, so I should tell him what to do. So, for those of you keeping score, he had no desire to do what I was telling him to do, but apparently still felt it was my responsibility to magically come up with a Skyler-approved idea. I ignored him and he happily participated, eventually.

Jonah's just took a very long time to dry.

This is Jonah's monster. Its name is Jonah because Jonah made it. Though according to that logic, it should be named Alison.

This is so blurry, but it still shows the pure joy that this felt-covered quart jar brings to Jonah.

Oliver finally gets a chance to explore the catalog in peace.

Sometimes it's just easier to let them keep playing while I clean up all their toys.

Balloon Chasing

Two Sundays ago, Jordan took the older two to chase down a hot-air balloon. They were lucky enough to catch two as they were landing and help them pack up. Later that week, the younger two and I helped one pack up as well. On Friday, while Jordan's sister and her family were visiting, we hit the jackpot. A balloon landed in a neighborhood south of us and the nicest pilot ever made sure all the kids got to help with every aspect of packing up that balloon. He was actually the pilot of one the balloons that Jordan chased when he went out with the boys.

Getting all the air out of the envelope (the fabric part of the balloon)

They are holding the envelope while it's being loaded up into its bag

Here you can see the kids holding up one end of the envelope while the other end is being placed into its bag.

Sitting on the bag to get all the excess air out

The kids are trying to hoist the 350 lb. envelope into the truck