Puyallup Fair FUN!

We had lots of fun at the fair the several weeks it was open! One night my sister and I took just Cristian to the fair since he is tall enough for all the "bigger" kid rides! (and I had already taken Carter and Ava on all the "little" kid rides while Cristian was at school).
Cristian and I on the dragon! Bummed I forgot the camera, so I just have a couple of pictures of our night from my phone.
There's my son, way the heck up there on this ride! (had to bring Auntie because there are MANY rides at the fair that I can't go on... like this one for example, would have made me sick!!)
His favorite fair treat (and one of the few things he can eat there), corn on the cob.
Ava got a feather put in her hair at the fair beauty salon. This is the first trend that she has taken note of, and asked to be apart of. And so it begins...
Kyle and I were able to go on two date nights at the fair. One night we saw Chicago in concert, and the other night we saw Counting Crows. They were both great shows!
I went on the extreme scream :) (Ava was bummed she couldn't go with me. Cristian was only 2 inches away from the height requirement, so maybe next September he'll go on it. Somehow I doubt it, he does not like rides that "drop".)
that's me trying to wave to the camera on the right :)
Thumbs up!
For Family Fun Night one Friday, we brought the kids to the fair to go on more rides. This was the one ride in "Big" kid ride area that Ava was tall enough for :)
Ava LOVED it! Not a big shocker since she loves all the big rides at Disneyland like Tower of Terror and Space Mountain :)
Kyle and Cristian going on the Wild Cat.
Kyle, Carter, Cristian, and Ava going down the giant slide. This slide goes so fast you can actually get a little "air" after going over that 3rd bump :)
Ava and Carter on the Firetruck ride

So fun!

One chapter of our favorite time of the year is in the books. The fair has come and gone, and the month of September is about over. Time to decorate for Halloween this weekend :)

Huskies vs Cal

Saturdays = Husky Football! Kyle and Cristian throwing up their "dubs" ready for the Pac-12 opener!
Ava throwing her "dubs" up :)
Aunt Tricia helping "corral" the baby.

Happiest Little Husky!
Uncle Don and my dad
Aunt Lisa and my mom
Kyle and me
Aunt Daria, Uncle Dan, Joel, (Abby and Ava back on the chair) Aunt Beth behind the chair, Cristian, Aunt Denise and Kyle tossing Carter in the air :)
There are 22 first cousins in the Absher family, here are the book ends. Joel is the oldest at 33 years young (I say "young" because I'm about to join him in 2 weeks... AHHH), and Abby is the youngest, she just turned 11 years old last week. :)
My three Huskies
Happy Huskies, about to watch the Dawgs beat Cal to start the season 3-1.
Carter playing Angry Birds on my cousin Karly's phone.
Cousin Karly, Ava, Abby, and Karly's friend

Our littlest Husky ready for the game!! And what a game it was!!

The Bus

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, Ava decided she wanted to ride the bus too. The kids and I settled on a deal, they will ride the bus to school, and I will pick them up at the end of the day. (except one day a week Cristian rides the bus home because Ava has her dance class that ends at the same time school gets out. So we pick him up at the bus stop on Thursdays). Here are Ava and her friend Ari, ready to ride the bus for the first time. (bummer someone walked in front of them right as I took the picture... and they were not about to waste anymore time getting on that bus, haha). Kindergarteners sit in the first 3 rows of the bus, so I am glad Ava has a friend to sit with each day!

Baby Colette

My kids were so excited to have their baby cousin over for the evening while her Mommy and Daddy were at the fair. She was entertained the whole time and was a delight to have around!
Ava liked helping out with everything! She helped feed her baby food, helped change her diaper and get her jammies on, (she even put this bow in her hair).
Not a fuss out of her the entire night, she was as happy as can be!

Carter's Birthday Party

Carter has been talking about his birthday party for a couple of months now. To be honest, I thought I'd be able to get away with not having a huge party for him (just a family one) because I didn't think he'd really care. But for weeks leading up to his birthday, he kept talking about his birthday party. He had a very clear idea of how he envisioned his special day would go. He told me he wanted a tractor party, green and yellow cupcakes (which really happen to be his favorite colors), he also said he wanted crackers and humus to be served at his party (this was pretty funny to me), and he told me which friends he would want to invite. I swore I would never host another birthday party at my house because it's so much work, but it really was the only way I was going to be able to have the kind of party he had his little heart set on. Wouldn't you know, we woke up to our first real day of "fall-like" weather the morning of his party. We had to scramble last minute and make some changes, (my parents brought their Husky tent, and we hosted the party out of our garage instead of the backyard) but it all worked out in the end and Carter had a wonderful tractor party just like he wanted :)
Our neighbor let us borrow his "tractor" so we could take the kids on rides on our cul de sac. This was a big hit! Kyle was very busy playing chauffeur (in between rain showers).
Group #2 ready for their ride.
My friends brought their 2 chickens to our house to help make this game extra special! We split the kids up into two teams, and they "helped the farmer collect his eggs". Each team had a chicken and 18 eggs that they had to round up for the Farmer :)
the chickens were a big hit! Thanks Jeff and Alyssa!

Carter and his friend Greenlee waiting for the game to start

Carter waiting his turn to walk an egg to the carton

Here are Farmer Caleb and Farmer Lucas carrying eggs on a spoon to the carton.
It started to sprinkle after our egg game, so all the kids washed their hands and played/ate lunch in the playroom.
Carter wanted pizza at his birthday party, and I told him to pick 2 fruits and 2 veggies to go with it. He chose apples and grapes, and carrots and pea pods.
And Veggie tale fruit snacks (since they were in the shapes of vegetables, and went along with our "farm" theme)
After lunch we had cupcakes in the garage. here is a picture of Carter while all his friends were singing to him!
Opening presents :)
After that, the kids took turns on the little John Deere tractor
We had a pin the wheel on the tractor game
We made John Deere treat bags for the kids using stickers. While we waited for the last activity to be set up, we sang "Old MacDonald had a Farm"
Here are all the kids waiting for the green light to go find candy in the hay (if you're wondering why all the Purple in these pictures, that'd be because the Huskies had a big game at Nebraska later that day!)
and they're offCarter checking out his candy

We also handed out these cute bags of Johnny Pop Popcorn to each of the kids as a party favor. I found them at the John Deere store! They had all kinds of cool party stuff :)

Going on one last tractor ride before going home
Carter would like to say a big thank you to all his friends for coming to his party!
After his friends left, he opened more presents from Grandma Gina and Grandpa Larry. This giant Mickey was a big hit!
The birthday boy with Grandma and Grandpa.