Over the weekend we took Claire to the fair near our parents' hometown. I don't think I could count the number of cowboy/cowgirl boots we saw (including Claire's). We met up with Aunt Jennifer and Alabama and saw the sights, ate the food, and rode the rides. It's so much fun to have a kid who is old enough to participate...even if she was only tall enough for the carousel. When we were leaving Claire said "What's this place?" and pointed to the carnival. We told her and she said "I need to go there." Definitely met her approval.

 The blow-up slide was a free-for-all and at one point, Claire started back up the steps before Kyle could help Alabama down. Grandma Pam had to run up to catch her and then realized that she had slide down to get to the bottom. Funny.

Last Friday, we met our son for the first time. Well, actually we met him once when he was 8 weeks in utero (but at that point he was more gummy bear than son) and he technically has been hanging out with me at all times for the past 21 weeks but on Friday, we got to see him via ultrasound and found out that he was a he.

Let me just say that I am not one of those mom's who "knew" what gender their baby was. I guessed boy for the Little Red and although I didn't have a strong feeling either way this time, if I had to put money on it, I would've predicted girl. Since I wasn't feeling super strongly in either direction, you'd think I would've been ready for either answer...but I wasn't.

The ultrasound tech, who was lovely, showed us all the bits and pieces, got the snapshots that she needed and at the end of the ultrasound she said "Okay, are you ready for the gender?". At that point, she had already moved her probe down to the area in question and there it was on the big screen in front of us. I've only done this one time before but let me tell you, it was no mystery at all. I said "Um...I think I know what I'm looking at. It's a boy, isn't it?" Yep. Like I said, no mystery. My jaw dropped. I looked at Kyle (who was grinning ear to ear) and laid there in total disbelief. A boy? It's not a boy. I'm a mother of girls! I think Kyle's mom shared in my disbelief since she asked "How sure are you?"...to which the ultrasound tech answered "99.9 to infinity percent sure".

So this girl-mom is soon to join the ranks of the boy-moms. I can't say that it has totally sunk in yet but we have a boy name, have started collecting boy hand-me-downs and I'm already imagining what my sweet little guy will look like (red-hair might be involved but we shall have to wait and see!). This morning I stopped by our neighbor's house and their 2 year old son, poked me in the belly and said "man-baby" with his signature cheesy grin. It official.

My sister-in-law, Lauren, was nice enough to take some pictures of us sporting blue for an announcement photo. I still look at these and think "Really, all blue? How is this us?". It will sink in eventually!

 

Last week, we got to enjoy one of the many perks of living in our sweet little town and spent the evening at our police department's National Night Out. The whole event is completely free. Food, games, parachuters, helicopter landing, face-paint, huge firework show, and lots of shwag...all free! Did I mention it was within walking distance from our house? Awesome. It was a beautiful evening and we ended up staying at the event from start to finish. Claire, like always, had an amazing time. The kid loves free stuff, although in her world, everything is free.

Of course, the giant slide was everyone's favorite attraction. 

The least favorite attraction (for Claire and Leeland at least) were the people in costumes. The Rainier's moose, Rhubarb was there and Claire and Leeland both headed for the hills whenever they got close. I caught her running from one of them...notice she isn't taking her eyes off it for a second! 

Face paint was a hit. I sold it to Claire is "makeup" so she was totally into it...although her expression says otherwise. Later, she was eating a hotdog and got ketchup on her butterfly and refused to let me wipe it off for fear of her "makeup" smearing. Gross but funny.

Emmett loved it too. His car and Claire's butterfly were strangely similar...

The parachuters were really cool but made me nervous! I'm a closet paranoid mother.

One of the more unique events was that people were able to take swings at an old car with sledgehammers. Seriously. The kids thought this was pretty funny. Claire decided that this was not in keeping with her girly sensibilities and chose not to participate. She cheered her friends on though...and their dads.

Such a fun night!