Quad Cities Balloon Festival

The QC Balloon fest is nothing in comparison to the Carolina one--it was smaller, the balloons didn't actually fly, they just tethered, and there were only about 11 balloons instead of 50+ i'd guess were at the Carolina Fest, but there were definitely some positives of this one too. 

1. Instead of a 3 hour drive it was just a 15 min drive across the river (not a lot of time invested in an event that could be called off because of weather conditions at a minutes notice) 

2. It was free (we paid quite a bit for our family of 5 plus grandparents to go to the Carolina Balloon Fest last year to not even get to see the balloons go up)

3. Easy In and Easy Out. (Don't get me started about the parking at the Carolina one) 

We arrived at the grounds right before dark settled in so we could watch the Balloon Glow.  It's sweet seeing Davis at this one--so amazed at everything.  The first balloon fest we ever went to was when he was 4 weeks old. Check that out here. 

my silly people

Balloons at night are def on my list of coolest things ever!

THREE.YEARS.OLD

It was bad timing, but Mike had a work trip that fell right around Davis' birthday.  It was definitely a bummer for all of us but we still tried to make the best of the day and make it super fun for our sweet Davis. 

I filled his room with balloons the night before so he'd wake up to surrounded. 

He had some of Mike's leftover birthday cake for breakfast and we even stuck a candle in it and sang to him...i mean, why not? 

After all the kids got home from school we had a small party with some of our friends.  

a Captain America cake!

 

Scarly, Ella and Holden 

Nora, Captain America and Jayden 

more of his favorite!

 

the party crew

Jayden, Aliya, Nora, Scarly, Macky, Ella, Davis, Holden

and me and my big boy

Then one last picture before bed, snuggling with his new Captain America doll.  He had a good day.  That smile says it all. 

How to Turn Thirty Five

1.  Have a picnic with your favorite people 

2.  Play at the park with your littles, cause their smiles are the best present you could get anyway

 

3. Go play baseball with your favorite people 

 4. Then come home and eat your weight in yummy poundcake and homemade ice cream! 

Month.Eight

Macky at Eight Months...

well, he's still cute, so that's good ;) 

But if i'm being honest it was a bit of a rough month.  He's teething, he had a cold, he still can't figure out how to crawl and that just makes him super irritated and he's obsessive about food which makes him fuss/cry through the majority of his meals.  The biggest problem though is our daily schedule and what's sad is there isn't much i can do about it.  In order to pick the twins up on time i have to wake Macky up from nap every day.  Then he is exhausted right at dinner time when i can't put him to bed and thus it makes dinner time stressful for us all.  He's either crying on the floor, crying in his chair or crying upstairs in his bed while we try to have a quiet(er) dinner, but then my heart just hurts the whole time cause i know he's upstairs upset. 

Don't get me wrong, we definitely have our sweet moments too, they were just few and far between this month.  So far between that it took me weeks to find a moment to take his pictures for this month... every time i wanted to,  he would be in a bad mood!  

What Macky did like the most this month was 1) being outside --and i don't blame him, it's been the most beautiful fall.  Who wouldn't want to be out in it?  We've made it a routine to play at the park everyday after school.  and 2) running errands. I think it's just new things to look at and a distraction from sitting on the floor and getting frustrated.  So we did a lot of errands.  

 In other news, the baby says "Daddy".  I wanted to ignore it, or blame it on just making "D sounds".  Except that he took a break from saying it for 10 days.  Like the 10 days that Mike was gone to Hawaii.  So when Mike came back and Macky said...DaDaDadddyy...well i had to accept it.  He also mimics the work "Hey".   I try to get him to say Momma.  Of course he just laughs at me and starts babbling DaDaDadddyyy more.  Stinker. 

His Likes Include: 

His Paci

Music 

His siblings 

Snuggling and Being Held

Going Outside

Food.  Like All The Foods.  ALL THE TIME. 

His Dislikes Include: 

Being alone 

Being hungry 

Bananas 

Being stuck on his tummy