The Saturday 7

1. This is one of my favorite weeks of summer: Sparta Town and Country Days. I'm not sure why I love it so much. It is invariably the hottest week of the year, and we don't even attend that many activities. But I love traditions and making memories. This year we did the carnival and parade as usual, but added in the Kids' Fun Run for the first time. Lena and Levi love running so I decided to sign them up this year. Thankfully, it was at 8:30 in the morning before the heat got too intense. They both did so well. I had to wake Levi up to be there on time and he was not happy, but once he saw all the other kids he started to perk up. He lined right up with his age group and took off before the announcer got to "Go!" Haha. #falsestart He just had to do one lap around the park, but it was a pretty big lap! He ran the whole way, and finished solidly in the middle of the pack. (The age group was 3-4, so he was on the younger end.) The best part was how he breathed while he ran. He was practically doing Lamaze. Lol. (He's in the red shirt in the video below.)

I thought Lena would be way too nervous to run without me by her side, but she was so excited, and did the two laps around the park with only 2 short walking breaks. She surprised me by being the first girl in her age group to finish!

Lena and Levi were both so excited about their "medals." It was adorable.

Thumbs up at the starting line.

2. On Friday afternoon, Justin's dad was kind enough to pay for the kids to go to the carnival. Of course it was 100 degrees and sunny. Poor Lucy cannot handle the heat. Her face got all red and blotchy and she started to complain of a headache, so we stepped into Dollar General for a while. She literally opened the cooler and stuck her head in to cool off. Haha. Levi wasn't crazy about the rides. I don't think he minded the ride part, he just can't handle the noise.

Before the ride started.

During the ride. Eventually he started shouting, "I want to stop!!" The nice thing about the heat was that the carnival was empty, so the operators let the rides go extra long.

Fortunately, Uncle Jesse came along to ride with the kids. He's such a good sport with all those spinny rides.

Levi was NOT interested in riding a horse on the carousel - only the bench.

The girls had fun with Persephone and Jesse. Lena was terrified of the first ride she went on, but got braver as the day went on.

Can you see Lena's face? Lol.

3. And today was the parade. Again, it was insanely hot, we got out the door too late so the road was closed and we had to park in Timbuktu, and the girls thought they would die on the long walk. But we survived, got to our shaded spot (that Niki had reserved hours earlier), drank lots of water, and caught lots of candy. We also wised up for the first time this year and brought ear protection for our poor sensitive kids!

The cousin crew + our friend Aubrey

Can you see Lena's orange ear plugs? Haha

4. There was stuff going on all day in town after the parade, but we were all so hot that we decided to spend the day at Niki's pool. This is the stuff summer dreams are made of. Memories of this are what will get me through the next eternal winter. Even when a crazy line of storms ripped through, we all grabbed our towels and phones and snacks and ran inside. We ate hot dogs, played cards, laughed at the antics of all our babies, ate wayyyyyy too much parade candy (Levi), and talked over each other loudly to tell story after story.

5. I watched the first Harry Potter movie after finishing the book last week. It was fun to see some of the story come to life, but it's true that the book is so much richer than the movie.

Mostly, I was amazed by how outdated the movie looked. I finally googled when it came out and was surprised to see it was 2001. In my mind, 2001 is about 10 years ago. I was astonished when I did the math and realized that was 18 years ago!! Next year, the 90s will be 30 years ago! How is this happening?!

6. So I've been thinking about getting a new phone. I've had my current one for years and it's suddenly out of storage all the time no matter how many apps or pictures I delete. I've also noticed that my picture quality isn't great, and I hate that I can never print anything without it coming out grainy. For instance, look at this picture I took at the fun run versus the one my friend Missy took with her iPhone:

My phone

Missy's phone

Is it possible to get a phone with a better quality camera without spending over $200? Preferably an Android? C'mon techy people. Hook me up.

7. More pictures!

I got Lucy a new dress from Once Upon a Child during their dollar sale, and she paired it with her sparkly heels and jewelry, then actually asked me to do her hair! Doesn't she look about 14?!?!