The week is getting away from me!  Yikes.

On Saturday I took the boys to the county fair.  It has been probably 6 years since we have been.  I asked the younger two (Benjamin was at camp) early last week if they would like to do some jobs around the house to earn some money for our anticipated fair visit.  I think one of them did a $2 chore.  Since the fair was 'my idea' I decided to spring for admission.  The boys enjoyed looking at the displays.  There was a kid's tractor pull that I signed all three of them up for.  They mounted a smaller John Deere kid tractor that had some type of wagon/cart behind it (forgot the name).  Weights were added to the wagon based on their age. With every pedal of the tractor the weight moved up the inclined wagon.  So when they first started pedaling it was pretty easy but by the time they reached 10-15 feet, it became harder and harder.  25 feet was the starting line.  All the kids went 2 at a time and if you made 25 feet, you advanced to the next round.  Jacob was one of about 8 to advance.  He pulled 75 pounds the first time and then had to pull 150 the second time.  He made about 10 feet the second time.  It was a lot of fun and everyone cheered them on.

After the novelty of walking around the fair wore off, they started asking to ride rides.  I asked if they had money and the obvious reply was no.  They figured out most of the rides were 4 or 5 tickets and tickets were $1 a piece.  At one point, in frustration, Jacob said, 'why is everything so expensive'.  Yes, they are starting to get it!!!   How easy it is for them to say 'can we do such and such' but the cost of it has never really meant anything to them.  Now, if they would just get motivated to do some jobs consistently and earn some money.

I am not sure if the fair had any impact on little Joseph or not, but he came home and found his temporary tattoos and proceeded to put on 19 of them, mostly on his arms but one on his forehead, back and stomach.

Just some pictures we recently took at the pond.  Jose was able to join us after work and they gave him a workout - asking to be thrown.  He did a better job of throwing them than I would have.