early

Why am I up before 7?

I almost got up at 6:12, but I was able to make myself fall back asleep for a half hour.

Harp's birthday was fine. We dont have anything planned for celebrating until his party on Sunday.
Wednesday we walked to Ty's and ate and got ice cream. I cant figure out if he likes ice cream or not. He doesnt know what to think of it.
On Thursday (his actual birthday) Spencer came home from work early. He got up super early to drive to his brothers in Madison and pick up our *new* car. Im not sure how long we get to borrow it for. Anyway, after he did that he went to Kohl's and picked out & wrapped some outfits for Harper all by his self which was really cute I thought.

What do you want? "A purple tiger."

Yesterday we met up with my mom, Heather and Luke at Strawberry Fest. We will probably never go again. We were expecting more activities for the kids. All it really was was walking through insanely crowded streets & spending money. Alikah lost it at the end and I had to carry her away screaming. I walked into a parking lot but there was a random pile of benches so I just set her down there and let her scream for awhile. She was hysterical for no reason, kicking, gasping, etc. I got her calmed down a little and walked back out but she was one comment away from another disaster so we left. 
Shes done this before and it only happens when she gets extremely overwhelmed/too many people/too much going on. And she gets it from me, so I cant yell at her without feeling bad.
On the walk back to the car she said, "Im sorry mom."
Me: "Its okay. We will probably just skip the fairs this summer." (This is our plan for how, so far the age 3 sucks.)
Her: "Ok. Can I still go to the beach?"

ANYWAY. 
Spencer has a 2 week vacation from work! We have lots of plans & high hopes.
Tuesday: A festival in the next town (Ha. Remember how I JUST said we werent going to any more fairs?) Our landlord/friend told us we should go to it so we are going to check it out.
Thursday: it is supposed to be 100+ degrees. We will either go to the lake or find a store with A/C and hide for the day.
Depending on how close to death we are in our Sauna House, we are going to my parents Friday or Saturday to get ready for Harper's party. Then his actual party is on Sunday :)

Next week were going up to our cabin. The plan is to just pack up and see how long we can stay. Ideally it would be all week, but realistically well see how the kids do. However long it is, were all really excited to get away. I need it, my heads not right. 

rides, bounceys and dresses

Sunday we went to State Fair. We parked by Maddie and Tommy and went straight to the rides for Alikah.
We had some mozzarella sticks and chicken tenders which Im sure was just great for my diet :) Spencer's parents met up with us after awhile and we walked around with them and went through all the animal buildings. Alikah made a button and watched some vegetable races too. We got on one of the rides and then a couple minutes later the same exact guy told us we couldnt go on it...I was like...dude, you JUST let us on. And hes was like, "I had my back turned." It was stupid. It pissed me off haha.
Anyways....
besides that dumb guy we had a really great time. We left and came home and Alikah napped and Spencer took Harper to his grandma's and I just relaxed.

Monday after Spencer got off work we dropped off Alikah by his Mom, he went to cut his grandmas grass and I took Alikah to Monkey Joe's. (Its like 2 blocks from his Grandma's house) It was awesome to have some alone and fun time with just her. I went on all of them with her once and after that she was brave enough to go alone. We stayed til closing at 7 then picked up Spencer and stopped at my parents on the way home. Got home by 9 to watch Intervention and eat some chinese food. Another good night...
This morning Alikah spilled chocolate milk all of her bed and Harper spit up all over ours so I ended up doing 2 loads of laundry along with a bunch more cleaning. Thankfully Harper was great all day - I got the dishes done in one shot while he just laid on the floor looking around, perfectly content. That has never happened before! During Alikah's naptime I should have cleaned the bathrooms but instead I snuggled Harper and watched SVU.
I had an appointment at Savvy Bride at 6 and my mom and Heather met us there. I tried on like 10 dresses and narrowed it down to 3 pretty easily. But I loved the last 3. Eventually we got it to 2 and now that Ive thought about it more Im pretty positive Ive decided on the one I want for sure. I love it and it fits better with the "style" of our wedding. I am still in love with the one I wanted last year, but this one is the same designer, same style, just a bit different. Oh and of course it had to be the most expensive of the three finalists!

Spencer brought this spinning night-light box type thing home the other week from his parents. It was his when he was little and we finally put it on last night and Harper LOVES it. He just stares. He was screaming earlier and Spencer turned it on and set him on our bed and he stopped right away and just stared and stared. I love it already!

The 4th

Parade! We stayed for an hour..


..then left and went to my parents to swim. It was too hot. I borrowed a suit from Heather and went in too. I was told no swimming in pools or lakes for 6 weeks but HA!




After we went to the fair. Alikah loved it. She was fearless, I was so happy that she went on the rides. This one was fast - she held on tight and had a completely serious face the whole ride, but she didnt want to get off. She stayed in her seat and we gave the guy more tickets :)


She went on the carousel (twice, once with each of us), a turtle ride, a small "roller coaster" and in a bounce house! She wouldnt go near the bounce house at our big June 25th party but of course she crawled right in at the fair.


The ferris wheel was the last thing we did. I hate ferris wheels. All I saw was the "Do Not Rock The Seats" sign in front of us. I panicked every time Alikah wiggled, it looks kinda like I was hugging her here but I was probably just trying to hold her still lol. I was definitely more scared than she was.

The little kid swing ride wasnt running but the fair was set up around the park that I wrote about in May that we loved, so Alikah went on the regular swings for awhile.

Spencer fell asleep around 9 but Harper and I watched the fireworks from our balcony at 10.


Today is cleaning, SVU, cuddling and relaxing.