the rest of the day at the iowa state fair

The Iowa state fair was so huge that we were there from 8am to 5pm, seeing as much as we could all day, and we didn't come close to seeing half of the fair. It's no wonder people camp there the whole week!
Anyway, our favorite part of the fair (apart from the boys winning a yellow ribbon) was the Little Hands on the Farm. It was this really cute, very well organized way to teach little kids about what goes on on a farm and how things get from the farm to their own houses. Kade and Ky loved it!
They started out planting "seeds" in the garden. Then they each "harvested" what they had planted and put it in their basket.

They got to pick "apples" from the tree

And ride tractors around. They even learned how some of the crops they harvested are used for the fuel for their tractors.

They learned about sheep and wool and what is made out of wool

And they got to "milk" this "cow." Then they took all their goods and "sold" them at the farmers market where they earned a "dollar" that they used at the grocery store to buy themselves a treat. It was such an awesome exhibit.

These baby ducks reminded us of our baby ducks we had last year.

Aren't these baby ostriches the cutest? I wish this picture gave you a better idea of how spiky they looked.

So the Butter Cow is a huge part of the Iowa state fair, and this year they celebrated 100 years of the butter cow, so it was an even bigger deal. Can you believe that detail, made out of butter?

What's a fair without some yummy fair food? Kade went with a classic fair corn dog.

Ky wanted a turkey leg-totally his idea. Look how it's almost as big as his head!

The boys shared this yummy lemonade,

And the huge turkey leg. It was such a fun, exhausting day. It was even a lot for my boys who never seem to run out of energy, and do not sleep in the car. They were out within minutes.

tractors!!

After the twins contest, the next thing we saw at the fair were all the tractors! The boys had a great time climbing up into each one and posing for a picture. If it had been up to them, they probably would have sat in each and every tractor at the fair. I couldn't believe how huge some of the tractors were, or the fact that some of them cost more than $500,000!

They also liked this car, and ever since, Ky has been telling me every day that when he grows up he wants a convertible!

a yellow ribbon at the state fair!

While we were in Iowa, we knew we had to check out the Iowa State Fair, which is one of the country's biggest state fairs. Seriously, I could not believe how huge it was! The day we were planning on going happened to be the day they held the Twins, Triplets, and More contest. We entered the boys in the "Most Alike" category (the other category was Most Different). It was so fun to see so many multiples, of all ages in one place! There were several sets of triplets, a set of quadruplets, and one family that had two sets of identical twins, a couple of years apart.
Kade and Ky waited for their age group, which was the 5 & 6 year olds. They started with the babies, and worked their way up.

Most of the other groups were less than 10 sets, and when they got to Kade and Ky's age group and category, there were 19 sets of twins and triplets. Here we are all lining up on the stage. The woman running the event stopped and had each of the children tell their name and where they were from. Every once in a while she would ask an additional question. Well, when we had registered that morning, she said something about their missing teeth and I told her that the week before they had lost the same tooth on the same day. So, after she asked Kade and Ky their names on stage, she asked Kade if there was a funny story about losing their teeth. He proceeded to tell a very lengthy story about how his fell out, but it took some nudging from me before Ky told about losing them the same day. It was pretty cute!

They gave the top 5 entries ribbons, and Kade and Ky came in 5th place and each got a yellow ribbon. I was such a proud mama! 5th out of 19-not too bad!

Here they are with their ribbons. I laughed when I got home and saw this picture-the picture that I took with their ribbons they won for looking the most alike, and they look totally different from each other in this picture. So, lest you think that the judges were just plain wrong, I give you the following picture, taken the same day to show that they often do look very similar:

iowa trip: part 1

A few weeks ago we went on a road trip to Iowa to visit Bart's extended family. The boys did amazing on the long car ride there, and the drive went fairly quick. Our first day there we went to Adventureland for a day of rides and playing at the water park. The boys have no fear when it comes to rides, and rode everything they were tall enough for. Even when I got worried that they wouldn't like the ride because they might be too scared, they laughed the entire ride and always said it was their favorite ride-every time!

Bart's cousin's daughter, Anna came with us for the day to show us around the park and help take the boys on the rides that I wasn't able to go on. It was fun to have her with us.

I think this may have been Bart's favorite ride. Doesn't he look thrilled to be on it?

This is the best picture of the day. This is one of the rides that I was worried would be a little too intense for Kade and Ky. But you can see by the expressions on their faces that they loved it! It was such a fun day and a great start to our little vacay!

july madison trip

We just got back from a week in Iowa visiting Bart's extended family, but I want to keep my posts in order, so stay tuned for that post later.

At the end of July, we went to Madison to spend the weekend with Bart's brother Bret, and his family. We had such a great weekend full of fun things to do and really enjoyed the time we got to spend with Bret, Charise, Cooper and Lynndon.

The men started the weekend off with a round of golf, while us moms watched the kids play around outside. Then on Saturday, we got up and went to the zoo. It's the perfect size to explore for a morning, plus it's free!

Cute Lynndon!
Bart and his brother Bret pretending to be a lion and a zebra

Ky and Kade as chicken and egg

I call this one, "how do you squish three kids and a pregnant mom into a tiny train caboose"

Later that day we went to a really fun splash park where the boys ran around and had a great time.

That evening we went to the coolest mini-golf course ever. We've been there one other time, so this time we tried the other course. I liked the first one better, but it was still a lot of fun.

There were a lot of water hazards, and Bart had to help the boys get their golf balls out of the water lots. I began to think that the boys were getting a kick out of hitting their balls into the water and were doing it on purpose.

Thanks Bret and Charise for entertaining us for the weekend. We had such a great time!