The next five minutes...: Festival fun...

The last two weekends have been a blur, to say the least...we've had long but fun days, and I'm finally getting around to catching up on blogging...on this...don't get TOO excited...

Mickey and Sam...

We kicked off Saturday morning with a trip to Mickey's school "Family Fun Festival". It's always fun for the kids...games in the classrooms, candy and snacks to buy, fun pictures to pose for...the above picture is one Mickey gets taken with his friend Sam every year. Cracks me up. They always pose as the same characters. That was about the only picture I got of Mickey at the festival...and I didn't even take it! He hung out with his friends most of the time we were there...apparently, we have reached "un-cool status" once again. Meanwhile, we worked the game in his classroom for a while and then made the rounds ourselves. Abby got Caroline's first caricature drawn...bless her heart...she was so excited about it, but I don't think it looks that much like Caroline. She also took her to get a tattoo...she liked it for about two seconds and then proceeded to scratch it off her face...you'll see the results of that later on...

Abby grabbed a quick shot of Caroline posing for her caricature...

We perused the silent auction and raffle baskets and had Chik*fil*A for lunch...always my favorite part of the festival. In fact, it was at the festival last year where we discovered how much Caroline LOVES Chik*fil*A! She attacked my sandwich! Then we spent the obligatory 45 minutes trying to round up all the kids so we could get home and get in a quick nap for Caroline before heading out again. What is it about kids? You send one to find another, and you feel like you've sent a search party out into a blizzard and hopes of it returning are slim to none. Then you locate the missing child yourself and go searching for the search party. As you attempt to locate the search party, the found child goes missing again, trying to spend the last four tickets that magically appear in said child's pocket as we approach the door.

I know it's blurry, but I love her wink...

I am still using the Minolta point-and-shoot...

one more week...I REALLY miss my Nikon...

As we wandered, looking for missing pack members, we made a last stop at the "Duck Pond", where Caroline had almost as much fun as she did with her China sisters at the North Carolina State Fair last fall. A plastic pool, a little water and some rubber duckies are the perfect recipe for fun...and, as it turns out, a pretty good combo for a good ol' fit-throwin' on the way out the door. She was none too happy about having to leave...we were on borrowed time, anyway...and she let EVERYONE know she was hoppin' mad as she was bodily removed...I'm sure it was comical to watch me try to manhandle a screaming, writhing toddler down the hall while juggling the camera, my tote bag and all the miscellaneous junk I ended up carrying, despite my protests. I tried my best to look cool, calm and collected, completely in control as the experienced "mother of four" that I am (stop laughing). Believe me, I found a bench in the entry way, dug my cell phone out with one hand, dialed up my hubby and let Caroline do the talking...or should I say screaming? He understood the translation completely, miraculously located the other three, and we made it to the van...finally...only to hear Abby say, "Oops, I left my coat inside." Oy.