September Weekends

Last weekend was very busy and this past one was a lot more lazy. And lazy should always follow busy. It is a cosmic rule. And I for one do not like to upset cosmic rules.

Last weekend, Justin took the kids camping with David Barkley and his three kids. 2 adults, 6 kids... sounds good. For me anyway! I have never spent a night without Gilbert and Justin thought it was high time to fix that. I was nervous. Mostly about how Justin would do with three kids (perfectly fine) and a little about how I would do sleeping in my house all alone (less fine. I admit it.) I conned Olivia and Tori into having a sleepover and then it was perfectly fine. Camping went really well. They slept in a tent (wiggling all the while), ate pop-tarts (thrilling!), went for a canoe ride (occasional freak out that the boat was tipping from Orianna), went fishing (Justin was the only one who managed not to catch a fish), ate lunch around a campfire (hotdogs), went swimming (hello sunburn!), heard a lot of loons (the Adirondack touch), and thoroughly exhausted themselves. They wanted to go again this weekend.

How to keep wild 2 year olds under control

shadowy nate

Apparently Gilbert loved moving this chair around the campfire

Orianna wanted to pack by herself. So I let her.

Note the purse on Orianna. So important to take the right purse camping.

Saturday night, we went to a Gibson Brothers benefit concert. The Gibson Brothers are a homegrown bluegrass band. They grew up in Ellenburg Center. I thought there were pretty much a local big deal, but apparently they are a big deal in the bluegrass world. All kinds of nominations (Album of the year, Male vocalist of the year, etc) And they were awesome. Plus, the fact that they were dairy farm boys from Northern New York made it all that much better. If you like bluegrass, check out this youtube of them. It was a gorgeous fall evening, cool enough for a jacket, at the fair grandstand with an almost full moon rising behind them while they played. It was just awesome. 

This girl started dancing on the first song. Mostly shuffling.

And then appears this old guy over the fence to twirl her and dance her proper. He was a favorite with most of the grandstand, since everyone would cheer when he would see his duty clear to dancing with whoever was dancing. 

Livie wanting her camera back. Ha.

Our row

Flying all three of our flags. NY, USA, and Canada.

The back of Anthony.

This boy was marching around in a too large Gibson brothers hat.

They pulled their Gibson sister our of the crowd and had her come up to do a couple songs. She lives around here and apparently doesn't perform except when they are local. Her husband came in late, so the Gibson brothers had to stop their song to announce that their brother-in-law was late. 

On the way out of the grandstand, Owen and Anthony saw fit to run up each aisle and slide down the banisters. 

On Sunday, we went to town after meeting to the Down Syndrom Society's annual fundraising walk. We have sort have been unsure about participating in the Downs group, mostly because we feel sort of imposterish. Since Gilbert doesn't technically have regular Downs, just a partial case, he is different from a lot of the kids there. I was talking to two Downs mothers at convention and both of them said they hesitated too, not wanting to label their kid or put him in some sort of box. So maybe this is normal. I still can't help feeling slightly out of place. The best I can describe it is like going to a Breast Cancer society meeting because you have had breast cysts--a lot of similar symptoms, fear, etc, but not dealing with the real thing for the long haul. We just feel like these other people are facing something so much MORE than we are and we don't deserve to be there. Not because of anything anyone has said or done, they have been very inclusive and welcoming, just our own little issue.  

Despite our worries of being posers, we had a great time. It was a gorgeous fall day, cool enough for a walk, warm enough to enjoy a walk. There was a barbeque, face painting for the kids, a bounce house, raffles. It was great! And the Downs Society raised $3,000 some dollars. 

I am going to win this quilt. Sometime next May.

Lots of people in the downs society's blue shirt

Fall leaves already

Snowball bush. Are snowballs hydrangeas? 

The bounce house slide

The Downs people picture

Orianna getting her face painted by Bellybutton the clown.

Lily was scared to get her face painted, but decided to do it after she saw Orianna's fab butterfly.

She has a rainbow!

Orianna on the other hand was scared of this, but finally did it because Lily wouldn't do it without her.

Sleeping butterfly

Then, when we came home, we went to Owen and Ashley's for supper. 

Capt Cody

Mom, imparting wisdom to someone. 

Anthony and Livie

Ashley waving goodbye

Plums

Walking home with Tori

Clover and the kids came up this weekend. Evan is still in AK helping Lindsey. It seems like I shopped these past few days. I met Shelly, from Lancaster, ONT at the mall on Friday. TJ Maxx is moving out of the Massena mall into the Harte Haven plaza, so a lot of their stuff was 60% off. Oh yeah! What is better than TJ Maxx? 60% off at TJ Maxx. Got some great things and had a good time with Shelly. Then on Saturday, we went to the local junk shop and got some big pyrex bowls, huge metal bowls and assorted stuff. We were supposed to go to Malone after this, but due to complications, such as me taking Justin's keys, we had to turn around half way to Malone, go through one lane construction on Rt 11 AGAIN and give him his keys. It put a damper on the Malone thing. And then this week, Rite Aid has an awesome deal on diapers. About $4 something for Huggies without a coupon, or $3 with coupon. I stocked up. AND I got some Watkins lotion, which is all natural and smells fabulous for about 80% off, $1.50.    And that is just a sale, so go get some. You won't regret it. Particularly the lemon cream version. 

After a lazy Sunday afternoon, we went for a bit of a walk. Very fall-y.

Sort of hard to see, but the ground has been completely plowed by pig snouts. 

Wild apple trees

This apple was so super tart/sweet it would curl your hair. But oh so good!

Dirt covered snout

Sleeping boy-o