Gearing up for the 4th!!

Despite the misgivings that I have every year about hanging out at the carnival with the kids for hours on end, I pushed the memories of rickety machinery that gave me a concussion when I was 10 years old back down inside, and decided to bring them out for Wrist Band Day this afternoon.

By myself.

That makes ME and the three little Prickly (sleep-deprived) Princes, all going to the carnival via foot and stroller in our little town by the lake.

Insane? Maybe. Ill-conceived? You'd think so. Enlightened? Oh, yeah, baby!

We ended up having a lovely two and a half hours of repeated rides that culminated with snow cones for the exhausted walk home. Not only that, I got them all showered and bathed before dinner and then The Animal fell asleep at the table at 7 p.m. on the nose. Nodding away and almost falling out of his chair in his exhaustion. I carried him to bed and he's been down ever since. The other two happily snuggled in for Harry Potter book time at 9 p.m. (a vast improvement over the 10 p.m. start time of the last two nights) and were out before 10.

I wish Daddy-007 was here for the fun, too, but he was off having his own little carnival in Wisconsin. More like a festival of gun power, actually, as he and a group of buddies headed to the clay trap shooting range (is that what you call it?) to "blow shit up." His words, not mine. ;)

Here are some fun pics of the kiddos at the carnival:

The Yo-Yo

First time on the ferris wheel!

One more thing: I just got my business cards for BlogHer! You might notice that I picked up a sponsor for my blog about a month ago, you can see their logo and link to the right there: Uprinting. com. They approached me a while ago and I thought that with my interest in photography and design, the fit might be good. Well, so far it has been great. There blog sponsorship team has been a breeze to work with, I was delighted to make a few bucks when they chose to advertise on my blog for three months, and they have some fun contests that they've been running that offer the chance to win some more money. If you are interested in this sort of thing for your blog, drop them a line. If you are just looking for cards, I have to say that I am very happy with my green business cards that I will be handing out at BlogHer.

Here is their info:

Why UPrinting.com isn't your average printing
company:

Non-Profit Sponsorships:
The U-Community'>http://www.uprinting.com/About-Community.html">U-Community Program sponsors hundreds of non-profits and education to improve our
local communities.

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The UPrinting'>http://www.kiva.org/lender/uprinting">UPrinting Kiva account promotes small business growth in developing countries.

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offering eco-friendly recycled paper stocks for business'>http://www.uprinting.com/Business-Cards.html">business cards and postcard'>http://www.uprinting.com/Postcards.html">postcard printing.