The three little snackers

Once upon a time there were three little snackers.  One rainy day, after naptime, their Momma decided to give them a snack.  She got out three little bowls, filled them with nutritious fruit and, as a treat, some organic Bunny Grahams.  

 The first little snacker was the oldest and specially requested blueberries.  His bowl was filled just right.

This little snacker then decided blueberries and Bunny Grahams were not what he wanted and he decided instead to get out crackers.
This little snacker promised his Momma he would eat his blueberries and bunny grahams.  This little snacker lied.

The second little snacker is a sneaky little snacker.  Again, Momma diligently prepared a bowl of fruit and bunny grahams.  As you can see by this bowl, this second little snacker prefers chocolately treats to her yummy nutritious grapes.  Her Momma had to beg, plead and cajole her to eat her yummy, nutritious grapes.

This is the face you get from the second little snacker when you beg, plead and cajole.  The second little snacker also hurridly turned over her bowl to hide the fact that she managed to give the baby snacker all of the grapes she was supposed to eat.The third little snacker is a good little snacker.  He obediently started to eat his nutritious and yummy fruit before he started eating his bunny grahams.  Unfortunately, being an obedient little snacker, he was overwhelmed by the amount of yummy and nutritious fruit his sister was pawning off on him and he never got around to eating his bunny grahams.  This picture is evidence of the third helping of fruit he ate.  First, he ate a bowl of grapes, but he was still hungry, so his Momma asked him if he wanted to eat the blueberries the first little snacker was not eating.  Our good little baby snacker replied, "Uh huh," and shook his head yes.  After eating the blueberries, he found himself left with a bowl full of grapes, which he diligently and obediently ate before eating the chocolately treat.  
What are you eating, third little snacker?  

Another grape.  It's just my size.  

And Momma lived happily ever after because the three little snackers each got the snack they wanted and left the table with their bellies full.  

For now at least.  Momma could swear she just heard one of the little snackers say "I'm hungry." 

The End. 

VFD Water battle

Tonight, the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Department sponsored a water battle.  For those of you not familiar, this is basically tug of war - except instead of rope, the fireman use the water in their hoses - and instead of tugging, they push.  The object they push is a large red keg suspended in the sky on heavy duty wire.  

The children (and adults) lined the streets to watch the local fire departments battle it out.  It was a gorgeous evening for it and I was so glad I brought my camera to take pictures of the event.  

Here is just a few of my favorite pictures.  If you'd like to see more, check them out at www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferschwalm

How cute are these brothers?  They were so excited to watch - and were hoping to get a little wetter than they did.

I thought this was a cool one of the firemen and the rainbow.
This fireman is charging ahead - he had gotten a good start on pushing that keg to the opposing side.
What is cuter than little girls splashing in the puddles?
Shaking hands after a match.
This guy was ready.  He knew how to handle his hose.  
More kids frolicking in the water.

This guy is in charge of moving the keg into place before each battle.






I love living in a rural area.  Especially this little Saxonburg community.  I wish that we truly had a Saxonburg address so we could officially be affiliated with this fun little community.  There's really nothing better than small town America.  Everyone cheered for their local fire department, there was laughter and a sense of comradarie - these guys not only have to trust their own co-workers, but they know that they can call any one of the seven fire departments there to compete to help them battle a blaze.  People underestimate how much work and sacrifice goes into manning and keeping a volunteer fire department.  In communities such as ours, where you have so much rural land and countryside to deal with, knowing how to fight a fire properly is so important.  And in our little neck of the woods, we rely soley on volunteers to fight those fires.  Kudos to all the volunteer fireman and firewomen out there.  I am very grateful for these rural departments and for their equipment.  And I had a great time watching them battle it out where it didn't really matter.  It was a lot of fun!

Pet Parade 2009

One of the greatest things about living in (or near) a small town is that there are wonderful local carnivals to attend.   The town we are closest to, Saxonburg, is hosting its Volunteer Firemans Carnival this week.  It is tradition to kick off the week with a pet parade.  Erik participated in the pet parades when he was a young boy and I'm carrying on the tradition with my kiddos.  I guess in years past, there were themes for the parade for you to dress up for  - like one year the theme was "great duos" and Erik & his dog dressed up as superheros.  Fun.  There don't seem to be many rules to the parade these days but many folks do still try to come up with fun themes.  

Here is the local High School Marching Band getting ready to lead the parade.  The poor kids are still in school because of the teachers strike from earlier this school year.  They look kind of miserable that they have to participate in an event that is typically the KICK OFF for summer vacation.

Here are a bunch of folks getting their pets pampered and prepped to step out onto Main Street and the awaiting crowds.

More folks lining their pets up.

Here is Miss Maggie May.  She is posing as the Queen of England with her Pembroke Welsh Corgi.  Hank did a great job of staying in the wagon with the Queen.  I even brought the ipod with a trumpet voluntary to enhance the effect, but you couldn't really hear it with my wimpy little TJ Maxx speakers.
Here are the boys.  I had wanted to dress them as the British Royal Guard - I even found Walker a red blazer to wear - but when I showed him the photo, he balked telling me he did not like the hat and he wasn't dressing as one of "those."  Knowing Will undoubtedly would not wear the costume if Walker wasn't (and let's face it, where was I going to find a red 18 month blazer in June?) so I scrapped the Royal Guard idea and had an epiphany in church.  I decided to dress Walker as a chef and we would bring some chickens in a wagon.  Erik thought of the cleaver - I got together the materials to make it and Erik took over - hence the blood on it.  You can't believe the chuckles we got from Walker's "menu" sign.  Walker's dinner specials were:  Roasted Chicken, Chicken Cordon Bleu and Chicken Noodle Soup.  

Willie James was dressed as a hobo.  I thought he would jump at the chance to walk with Chloe but he jumped right into the wagon Walker was pulling and wouldn't get out for anything.  

We had a lot of fun - the kids were so good and so cute, but unfortunately, we didn't win a thing.  I think there should be some rules about winning - for the last few years, the winners were the same people and they don't seem to actually have any children attached to their entries.  

And that folks, is the sad commentary of my life.  I'm actually picking apart the judging of a local pet parade.  It did break my heart a bit when Walker asked, "Momma, did I win anything?"  How long will the, "No, but it was so much fun to dress up and participate" line work?  I think that must be how Oscar nominees feel when they say, "It's a privilege to be nominated." 

I saw some old dance or baton twirling trophies at the thrift store last week when I went looking for Walker's royal guard costume - maybe I'll go buy those up and make my own trophies for my kids.  

But right now, I've got to go drafting plans for next years parade costumes . . .