4H Country Fair

We went to the 4H Country Fair today.
It was a nice little event and we had a lot of fun.
Here we are riding the cow train.

Matthew investigates the teepee.

Anna checks it out too. She didn't think it was so great.

All the cows were here today (this was a multi-day event) and the kids got to meet them up close.

At the petting zoo Matthew met a friendly llama.

And got smelled.

He liked this little cow too.

Anna loved seeing all the animals...I think.

Matthew always loves seeing the tractors.

And here he is by the cow train.

It was a warm and humid day (not Okinawa warm and humid, but still) so we didn't stay for too long, but we did have a lot of fun.

Easton's Beach

A few days ago we took an on-the-fly trip to the beach after running a few errands. They have a carousel there and Matthew couldn't wait to go on it. See his other carousel ride HERE.

Anna got to ride the carousel this time. She wasn't too sure about it.

Going around.

Part way through the ride Anna started getting really nervous. We kept looking over at her with big smiles (like, WE'RE HAVING FUN!!) and that seemed to help.

We got some frozen lemonade and walked on the beach afterwards. It was a beautiful day.

Matthew liked walking barefoot.

And even Anna tried out the water. She loved the water on her feet and kept trying to wriggle out of my arms so she could sit down in it. Another day, Anna.

Matthew-isms of the day

A neighbor lady (to Matthew): How old are you?
Matthew (very proudly): I'm Guptill!!

(Matthew is not the nursery bully)
Me: What did you do in the nursery today?
Matthew: There was a BIG Firetruck!
Me: Did you play with the big firetruck?
Matthew: No, *Timmy played with the big firetruck.
Me: Oh!
Matthew: I played with the little firetruck.
*Names have been changed :)

A lady at the YMCA (to Matthew): Hello, how are you?
Matthew: My daddy went away on the airplane

(on his bike) "Bye, I'm going to drive the Toyota to the airport to see Daddy"

Me: What was your favorite thing at the [Japanese] restaurant? Was it the edamame?
Matthew: No, it was the eda-daddy!

Moo

By special request, here's video of Anna mooing. She usually makes a more convincing moo sound, but this was pretty close. Enjoy.

Bonus video!! Here's Matthew singing Baby Beluga. I got the camera out because Matthew had gotten the Baby Beluga book out and was singing the song to Anna. Of course Anna lost interest by the time I got on the scene, so I missed some of the adorable. But Matthew still sounds great singing his song. :)

Providence Children's Museum

We went to the Providence Children's Museum a few days ago. It had a lot of things that both Anna and Matthew could enjoy. Here they are moving foamy rocks with all the little construction trucks.

Also in the building and construction area, a roller to sit on. Matthew thought it was a little too high, but also fun.

Matthew's favorite thing in the building area seemed to be this crane that he asked to revisit a few times. He also got to wear a construction vest, sit in a truck and sit in a little boat. Then he got to build a road on a big 3D table map. He loved it.

Anna found a wooden cow in one of the history of Rhode Island rooms. Here she is making a mooing sound, which she started doing, all on her own as soon as she saw the cow. She has "moo" down pretty well.

Anna and grandma hoist the sails at the big ship (also in the history of RI area)

In the Bones exhibit Matthew got to sit on a bike next to a skeleton. Creepy.

And then we sat on this big (also creepy) chair lady. Right around the corner there was a very creepy marionette exhibit, but I won't post those pictures - I don't want to scare anyone. :)

These air tubes were lots of fun. You could poke a handkerchief or ball into the tubes and use an air switch to control where the items went in the tube. Then they came shooting out an opening at the top. One of the handkerchiefs landed on Anna's head after it came shooting out. We had a lot of fun playing with this.

The water room. Matthew was a little young for some of the things in there, but he loved splashing in the water. Here he got to race some balls down the water pipes.

The big wave in the water room.

Water table fun.

The giant lite brite. Matthew thought it was sort of ok.

But Anna loved it. I think she may have bullied the bigger girls out. I tried to protect them from her.

She thought it was fun.

Playing with blocks.

Matthew and I try to walk with the BIG FEET outside. Unsuccessful.

They had a big percussion display, made of all found objects (an old bike rack, the fork of a bike, PVC pipes of different lengths) and they let the kids go at it with sticks. My mom and I had a great time hitting everything on there to see what it would sound like. I need one of these at home as a stress reliever. Oh, and the kids liked it too. :)

After the museum we stopped at the carousel at Roger Williams Park. Matthew loved the "merrick go round" and is still talking about it.

Also at Roger Williams Park - a little playground (sponsored by Hasbro, which is headquartered in RI) featuring Mr. Potato Head. After we took our picture another little boy tried to get a picture and got a pretty good head bump from Mr. Potato Head's mustache. Never has a mustache been so dangerous. Poor kid.

The roller slide. Matthew's favorite at the park. It really reminds me of the many many roller slides in Japan, except the ones in Japan are HUGE.

Running on the Candy Land trail

Matthew sits in the special swing at the playground

Matthew holds Anna's hand in the car on the way home. He does this sometimes when she cries. She really likes it. Here he's making pretend snoring sounds to help her fall asleep. It was a busy day.

Scenes from our 4th of July

Our 4th of July was very low key this year...wait, my whole life is very low key right now. We enjoyed the nice weather, played outside, made a few special red, white and blue treats, had a nice 4th of July dinner and watched fireworks. It was fun. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Matthew in his USA shirt. I kept trying to get him to show the shirt...and smile.

When I asked him to smile, he did this. :)

My mom helped the kids make sparkler flags (ribbons on the end of a stick) that they could wave when we had a little indoor parade. Anna really liked hers.

Here's our bike parade. It involved riding (or not) the bikes around the living room in no particular direction while listening to patriotic music. We listened to the Air Force song a lot. :)

Here's Anna with grandpa, playing in the yard.

Matthew likes looking at the flowers and knows many of their names (thanks to Grandma)

We had nice weather on the 4th (hooray!) and everyone was just dying to get out doors. The neighborhood was abuzz with lawn mowing.

Matthew wanted to join in. This is a little lawn mower a family in the ward gave Matthew. Their kids had gotten too old for it and they were happy to give it away to a good home, especially when they saw how much Matthew loved playing with it. Before he had this one, he would push anything around (chair, stool, bike) and pretend it was a lawnmower, so it was very exciting for him.

The kids love this little car - a great garage sale find. Matthew checks the gas tank for Anna.
Such a nice brother.

Matthew and I made these red, white and blue skewers. They were a big hit at dinner.

And I tried to make this red, white and blue dessert with blueberries, strawberries, pound cake and vanilla pudding, but once I made the pudding it turned out being very yellow. Oh well...it tasted good.

Here we are waiting for fireworks. We watched a fireworks show that one of the local farms puts on. It was fun and low key.

Here's Anna waiting for fireworks.

This is Anna's first 4th of July and she was very cool and collected about the fireworks. She didn't seem to care too much about them until the finale, then she got a little tense, but didn't cry. So brave. We had a fun day.