The Melon Festival

We went to the Melon Festival this weekend. The kids had a blast! I was really surprised by Levi. He wanted to ride EVERYTHING. I figured we'd be lucky to get him on the carousel, let alone anything else. But no - he jumped right out of the stroller and walked right up to all the rides. And he didn't get scared when the ride started up. He got a little impatient a couple of times waiting for the ride to start, but other than that, the rides were awesome for Levi. Do I even need to mention that Sierra and Sienna rode everything (and still wanted more)?

Levi wanted more rides too. This is a picture of Levi refusing to move away from one of the rides. I think all of the excitement was alot for Levi to deal with. He threw several fits during our trip to the festival. When David is home, Levi would prefer to be with him. This used to hurt my feelings because I had to be the one to deal with all of his fits, behavior issues, diaper changes (wrestling match) and then Dave would come home and get 'happy' Levi. But David got to see a different side of Levi at the festival. I think it was alot for Dave to deal with. Levi would scream and kick and hit and scratch each time he had to get back in the stroller. (this picture shows what Levi did when we tried to let him walk) It took Dave and I working together to get him back in his stroller. When Levi saw the van he started screaming GO which was accompanied by whatever thrashing he could accomplish in his stroller. He did not want to get in the van. Dave was so aggravated (and a bit frazzled) with Levi. I couldn't help but giggle a little to myself because I saw me 6 months ago in Dave's approach to dealing with Levi. There is no 'stopping' a Levi fit. Once the fit is started it must run it's course. It's almost like an entity of it's own. The more you try to talk to Levi the worse the fit becomes (even if you're giving in to him). The only hope you have is to be silent and do what you need to do and hope for the best. I give the fit ZERO reaction and somehow that helps me stay calm. This was not Dave's approach. Dave was exhausted when we got home from the festival and I felt like a million bucks. I think he was so whooped because he's not used to dealing with Levi's extremes. I felt good because I finally had a little help dealing with Levi's extremes. It's kind of like only doing half your workout. But even with his fits I still had a ton of fun with him. He LOVED the carousel. He's really into horses (and john deer) right now. Levi's good out shines his bad by far.

The girls love everything about the festivals. And they do pretty much everything. They were really good with Levi too. Especially Sierra since she's the one who has to 'hang on' to him. The last couple of things they did I decided to leave Levi in the stroller. Dave agreed when I asked him if he wanted to deal with putting Levi back in the stroller again. The girls were very patient waiting and helping Levi all day so I thought they deserved a couple fun things without having to deal with Levi.

I've got great kids and a great guy. Dave loves taking the kids to the festivals and he spoils them there from start to finish. Especially this year since this is the only one we've done (except the Basket Festival where they don't have rides so that kind of doesn't count). The girls wanted to make the sand art stuff and Dave couldn't say no. I was waiting hanging out with Levi and I looked over and had to get a picture of Dave. It was one of those moments where you know 'I love this man'. I won't mention that right after I took this picture everything got thrown to the ground to answer his phone. Still, I captured the moment.

We had a great time. Here's some more shots of the kids having a ton of fun!