Letchworth hot air balloon festival

In the spirit of truly experiencing western NY before we have to leave, we went touring again today, to Letchworth state park.  They have a hot air balloon festival this weekend so we took the kids to see it.  I really took a lot of pictures, like a LOT, so I will let them do the talking. 

The first balloon was a fish!

Eli was very tentative about the whole thing. 

Brian was not.  He loved it. 

He touched a balloon, he waved at the people taking off, he just had a blast. 

Eeee!  More balloons!

Eli was there too. 

But it was Brian who stole the show.

More balloons!

One guy went with no basket, just a chair!  The boys loved it. 

Oh, and I was there too!

It was a little crazy but we all had a great time.  The only downside was that there was no time to see the park itself, which is also really nice.  Maybe another day!

Niagara Falls

Grandma and Grandpa are here while Calvin is away in Colorado, so we decided to go and see Niagara falls today.  I hope the kids will remember it, at least Brian!  It was a beautiful day and I took lots of pictures. 

The first thing we did was go to the Maid of the Mist, which had a nice overlook on the way down.  You could see a rainbow in the mist below:

We donned our ponchos and watched the boat pull in:

 

Brian and I went to the top deck where we had a great view, and got SOAKED. 

 

One last look at the falls on the way out:

We walked along the path at the top, over to Goat Island. 

It was very windy!

We had a nice lunch at the Top of the Falls restaurant, and by then we were seriously tired and goofy. 

A little out of it…

… so it was great to take the trolley back!  It made one little boy’s day. 

OK, probably two little boys.  Brian says he liked the boat the best, though. 

After one last tree climb…

…and looking at the crowd control they have ready for the weekend…

… we  headed back home.  Now we’ll see if we have the energy to go to the Letchworth hot air balloon festival tomorrow!

Mother’s Day

Some pictures from today; we had a picnic dinner at Maplewood park, which we had never been to and I’ve been wanting to see before we leave the area. 

Not great pictures, unfortunately.  Brian has inherited my uncanny ability to blink right as a picture is taken.  Seriously, it is hard to get a picture of this kid!

Anyway, after dinner we hiked to see the lower and middle falls of the Genesee river.  It was pretty nice, a little on the sketchy side, but the kids really enjoyed it.  Brian asked if it was Niagara Falls. 

It was certainly very loud, and kicked up a spray of mist that had the kids talking about the mysterious “rain” that was falling right there. 

I got one nice picture with them, which is what I wanted for Mother’s day.  I even dressed them up, can you tell?

After hiking we went for ice cream!  Yay!

How cute is that picture?  When we got home I tried to get a picture of myself with the kids for facebook or something but it was hard; my arm wasn’t long enough. 

Look how cooperative they were, though, at least for a few seconds!  It was a very fun evening, and these lucky guys got to stay up till almost 9 with all the activity!

Passed out

Brian fell asleep while lying on the floor playing with his cars today.  He also is now proficient in starting and stopping on his bicycle after only a couple of sessions of practice.

The things they say

While working on a puzzle with grandpa, Eli said to him,"Hey! You have hair on your arms!" Grandpa asks him if he does too, and he looks at his arms carefully before replying, "Nope, just hands and a t-shirt!"

Driving home from school we saw a neat convertible and Brian said "Look! A classic car!" Not to be outdone, Eli said "Look! I saw a classic squirrel!"

Brian announced that his favorite animal was a skunk. Eli added, " My favorite animals are a monster and a ghost."

Driving by Gro-Moore farms (a local nursery that has a big Halloween display) Eli announced, "There's Halloween!" this was today, half a year after we saw their Halloween display; it made quite an impression!

Really everything they say is so funny, even now they are playing and I asked Brian what they were doing to play, and he said "Drop on pop." worried, I asked what this involved and he told me "Well, it's where I drop things on Eli and he laughs." Oh, OK. Aside from being messy at a time when I discourage messiness, it was pretty harmless.


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Easter Picnik

The kids and I are down in Delaware for Easter, and having somewhat less than usual to do I was a little bored and downloaded the new version of Picasa, which now includes the photo editing functions that were on Picnik.  That might not mean much to anyone reading this, but for me it was super exciting and meant that I immediately went to town applying fun effects to my pictures.  So here is our Easter, in plain old pictures and in fun, effect-laden pictures, side by side for your enjoyment.  We started yesterday by dyeing some eggs.  It was Eli’s first time doing this and I only gave him one egg to do, which was about his speed. 

Brian did a bunch, and mixed colors, and ate several along the way. 

The Easter bunny came today and the boys had a blast doing an Easter egg hunt. 

Then Brian and I got to work making hot cross buns.  He’s a great kitchen helper!

While we did that, Eli played “roll the lemon” with grandma and grandpa. 

And then after a (short) nap and a walk, we ate out hot cross buns!

Fun times!  Videos are going up on vimeo, check it out!

And he’s off!

Yesterday Calvin took the training wheels off Brian’s bike.  He also has a little balance bike that he has been doing really well on, so we thought he’d be ready.  This afternoon, we tried it out!  Starting is still a little tricky because he tries to put both feet on the pedals and then go.  But once he gets going, he can really ride!  He can stop, turn, ride off the driveway, and ride back on.  We are so proud!

This is him coming back. He started on a driveway up the street, rides into the street, and back to where Eli and I are standing (in the Hortons' driveway):

Yay Brian!  (Now it may be time for a bigger bike…)