first day of preschool . . . and elizabethtown fair

We've been a busy family here this week! What with Brant's first day of going back to school AND this big sister here going to her first day of preschool!!

Here she is, all ready to go do some learnin'!

 I'm part of a mommy-run preschool that a bunch of friends have started for our kids this year. There's five families, and we have school once a week, rotating weeks, so we only teach once every five weeks. Annie and I are both SO excited. The units we chose and divvied up among the moms are so cool. I love this age! Most of the kids in Annie's class are 3 or about to turn 3. This year marks the first of three years of preschool for our Annie. Since she was born on the first day of the new school year, she'll be the very oldest in her grade. Anyway, her first day went well. She wasn't sad to be dropped off, probably because she's been to that friend's house many, many times. (We'll see how it goes at the others'.) And the report from her teacher was that she was very still and quiet the whole time. Hopefully she'll kick things into gear once she gets the hang of it all. But she sure wasn't quiet after I picked her up. The car ride home was filled with reports of the songs they sang and the weather they talked about and the coloring she did and the kids in her class . . .

Last night we went to the Elizabethtown Fair with Grandma and Poppy. Brant had class. Boo. :-( We met up with Nancy and Anne and Scott there, though! Yay! :) Usually our tradition is to participate in the horseshoe competition on Saturday morning, but we didn't that this year. Instead, my parents drove up and we played a rousing game of Carcassonne (our new fave!!) until the girls decided to wake up from their marathon afternoon naps. Then we headed over for some fair food, rides, and animals!

I tried to let Mabel in on the fun in these pictures, too. She was amazed at all the lights and craziness that must have been visible while lying on one's back and being rolled around the fair. She was awake most of the evening and totally happy playing with her toys.

Here they are looking at some mechanized miniature sawmill. Some people have amazing hobbies, like building something like this.

Petting zoo!!

Mabel and the sheep chowin down.

what a naughty, naughty girl

Llamas!! Also, see Anne's balloon here?

It flew up into the top of the tent. So sad.

The Joneses avoid some cow poop! :)

We couldn't keep Annie and Anne from the carnival rides any longer. After closely surveying the train ride . . .

We all decided to hop on!

 . . . twice!

And the evening ended with Poppy's traditional dunk pitch. He got SO SO close, hitting the edge of the target!

Yay for Pennsylvania fairs! We left and got home about 20 seconds before a torrential downpour. A well-timed evening, I'd say. :)


Also, Mabel has started blowing raspberries and sticking her tongue out. Here's a video of my futile attempt at trying to get her to show you . . . but Annie does a good job at the end, too! Oh, and the guy Annie's talking about that I was getting "pretty mad" at was the person driving in front of us on the way home, who was driving SO slowly, while we watched the clouds darken and the rain start drizzling.