we live to play

Ok, it seems like all we do is play. It's really not that way, but play-pictures make better blogs than random, day-to-day stuff pictures. Every year around International Labor Day (which my local friends were surprised to learn that America does not celebrate International Labor Day in May, but rather in the fall), the sports stadium in our city hosts a big, inflatable-type carnival. It's actually very un-carnivalish, but I can't think of a better way to describe it.

We went last year, and then for the big National Day celebration last fall they had another one that we went to. Usually, these types of activities are prohibitively expensive for locals. The $5 admission per child is actually fairly expensive for them. (For us, it's great because it means we have the place mostly to ourselves!)

This May, however, admission was only $2.50 (or four yellow poker chips!) and we were all over that. It's funny comparing pictures from last year and seeing how much they've grown and changed. Emma was WAY more interested the more physical part of it this year and really enjoyed it. Mantha kind of bounced around and went in and out of tunnels, but got tired and disinterested pretty fast.

Looking for emma...

...we found mantha!At this time last year, emma did not yet have the coordination to actually jump...so she loved the feeling this time around!Playing hide-and-seek with the camera - also known as running from getting your picture taken. But, alas, we are sneaky parents...It was H-O-T that day; you can see the redness in their faces! To our extreme delight, the weather has suddenly gotten cooler (as in, we had to wear layers one day last week!) but this day was way hot. Mantha tried her best to make friends and be nice to the other kids......but really she just wanted that ball!Emma tried a few more difficult toys - this one with the rope was so hard, I couldn't even do it! But, a few days later we went back with all the little friends (clara, chloe, peter, alex, savannah) and emma was encouraged by the bigger kids' abilities and was able to do it!This one was a little easier - and she had help from behind......whoa, easy there......princess emma, making it up the ladder, over the bridge, and finally into her little "castle" overlooking everything...ok, all I know is that if I were a kid, this would scare me. Big googly eyes with a red snout? I think not. and then you slide out the back? ok, wierd. But I love thic picture of mantha's flying hair....take 2...We had a great time, and a few days later (as I said earlier) we went back with all the other kids we know.

It's always easier to be adventurous when you're not alone! (and since baby christin was unable to play with these toys, emma was delighted to spend all her time with clara anne!) And I'll leave you with hilarously funny picture of samantha actually being willing to pose in the red snout of the freaky dragon...