What a fun weekend! First the Fair, then the church carnival. Finn had a blast!
His favorite was the bouncy obstacle course.
The golf game was a little tricky, so he just picked up the golf ball & threw it towards the hole. :P
He did great on the baseball game though - even made it through one of the holes, without cheating. :) Needless to say, he didn't want to leave the carnival either!
Daddy & Finn playing legos. 
One random photo of sweet Cedar in his church clothes. :) He had a little blow out at in the nursery, so I'm glad I got this photo before hand.
We got into the Fair for free with our Bi-Mart cards on Friday. It was an overcast morning, but ended up being sunny & warm by the time we left. We had gone to the Fair last year, but Finn was much younger & didn't remember. We had so much fun showing him all of the big rides like the Ferris Wheel & the Zipper + some new rides that go really high & super fast! He seemed so amazed & would have been fine with just watching other people go on rides. One of my favorite moments was when a man on stilts came up & shook Finn's hand. Afterward, he told us, "That guy was really tall!" I love to think that he really thought that guy was tall & had no idea that he was wearing stilts. ;) What a fun experience for our bright boy!
We met up with Gretchen, Josh & their boys to go on some rides! Finn's first experience on rides of any sort, so we were pretty amused by his huge grins & laughs!
Ronan & Griffin were on the motorcycle behind Finn. Ronan seemed to have a great time, but Griffin seemed quite shocked & a little concerned. :( He's a much more cautious, little boy than his older brother & cousin.
Griffin decided to pass on the canoe ride. This one cracks me up because it's slow & not too exciting, in my opinion. But I heard Ronan say, "This is really fun!" :)
Me & Kenton, waiting for the canoe to make a full circle. :)
Finn's final ride was the Dragon Wagon!
I was a little worried that he would get scared on this one, cause it's a bit faster & has a little dip + all the kids were screaming. But Finn just practiced his scream while in line & had a blast!
I had a hard time narrowing down my choice of photos from this ride because Finn had a huge smile in every shot! It was totally worth the $3 we paid for this ride to see him so happy!
And I have to include this one, for Ronan's expression alone. :)
We met up with the Greens for a quick visit & Amy took a photo of our group, minus Josh who had to go back to work after lunch.
We wrapped up our Fair experience with a walk through the farm animal exhibits. Finn & Griffin loved all the little baby animals - they're checking out the chicks here. :)
We dressed Finn in his cool, Finnish sweat shirt for our trip to the Scandinavian Festival. Suomi is Finland in Finnish. :) What a dude!
We went on Friday night (it was Swedish Day) for dinner with our friends Carolyn & Jesse.
Our little, wild thing!
On Monday, August 10th, Kenton & I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary!
Kenton's parents watched our kids so that we could go to dinner at Ring of Fire! We had a gift certificate & some gift money, so we felt like we could splurge & get dessert - Ruby Island! Yumm.
It was quite indulgent, considering how well we've been doing at only eating local produce this summer. The banana, pineapple & oranges were definitely not local! But marachino cherries were invented at OSU, so that has to count for something, right?!?We had a fun visit at the Ruddick's with Matt, Jessie, Cameron, Claire & Cadia, friends that were visiting from Iowa. Matt & Becca are birthday buddies (exactly the same age) & he's been a friend of the family for many years. It was fun to meet his kids & see our kids enjoying some fun play time together!
Cedar & Cadia are only about 2 weeks apart. He was zonked & couldn't be bothered for a photo op. :P
Ethan, Claire, Griffin & Macey having a snack at the counter.
Cameron & Ronan checking out Ronan's new drum machine.
All the kids! Between 6 couples we have 14 kids!
A group shot.
We celebrated the final summer birthday - Becca's! - in the Chase's lovely back yard. Aaron got a delicious cake from Sweet Life - oh so good!
The kids enjoyed one of Becca's new gifts - a snow cone maker! Yumm!
Aaron's mom, Lynn, brough a fresh blackberry cobbler too! So much yummy-ness. :) I had a little of both!
Kenton, Dave (Aaron's dad), Josh, Papa & Aaron, posing for a photo.
The birthday girl with her gifts, including some fun, new flowers to plant in her garden.
Our family went in on a hammock with the Ruddicks & my parents. Their backyard just keeps getting cooler! :)
On Thursday, August 6th, we graduated another group of preschoolers - heading to kindergarten! We got a photo of us ladies while Matthew was running an errand...but never got a chance to get us all together. Whoops! 
We had over 100 people (parents, kids, grandparents, siblings, friends) attend the graduation. We love to have a big celebration & it's always amazing to see how many people are excited to see their favorite preschooler graduate. :)
Kenton always comes to support me & this year he had our two boys too! Finn did a pretty good job through the ceremony but really just wanted to play on the playground & eat the pizza & cupcakes we were serving afterward. :) It was a great evening & we were all so thankful that we avoided the forecasted rain. Congratulations graduates! We can't wait to see what amazing things you will all do!
He got some cool new shoes from Finland & I've been having fun picking out clothes that work with them. :)
Posing with a granola bar. Finn always can get into a fighting position!
Big kid Henry!
In other news, one of my random, scraggly bushes in the backyard decided to bloom & identify itself! 
I was so excited to discover that I have a hibiscus growing in my yard! It has purple & white flowers opening at the same time. It's also a specific breed that has blossoms that last for 3 days, instead of the typical one day. It's a little out of control, so I'll need to prune it to get it looking nice again. But I love the flowers!
Self-portrait, feeling tropical. :)
Our little family tradition is to open presents as soon as we wake up! We just can't wait. :) So on Monday, August 3rd, we let Dad open his presents quickly before heading to work.
After work, Kenton & I dropped off the boys with his parents & went out to dinner at La Perla.
We love La Perla pizzas because they are the only ones around that actually taste like the pizza we had in Italy. So yummy! Only thing wrong was that we couldn't order Cokes - only Pepsi...so not authentically Italian. :P
My handsome husband.
After dinner, we gathered at Kenton's parent's house with the Hecht group & had dessert - cookies, of course! We also watched home videos of Kenton as a little boy. What a silly kid! :)
Finn loves birthdays!
All the kids love birthdays!
My parents were creative & "made" the haz-mat suit that Kenton had requested on his list - so he can crawl under our house & check things out without getting attacked by something scary. :)
Fancy shoes from his parents - he's been wanting these shoes for awhile now!
Cedar & Pappa - Cedar's outfit had to be modified after a blow-out, I'm sure.
Our family.
The kids spent some time at the end of the evening rolling down the little hill in the backyard. Such a fun day! We love you, Kenton! So fun to celebrate you!
