Married With Instruments: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Happy Birthday Columbia Mall!

Sometime in August the Mall in Columbia had their birthday party. We went up and had a spectacular time. They had balloon guys making things for the kids, face painters and free cupcakes for all. I have to admit the women doing the face painting did a pretty incredible job!

Brooke chose to become a princess, surprise!

And Jake chose a knight

Rocket!

At some point last summer when I was in Pittsburgh I twisted my Mom's arm and got her to come out to the barn with me. (haha, for anyone that knows my Mom she is always dying to get out there so there was really no twisting involved!) I let her have charge of my little digital camera and we got some decent shots from the day. It was cute though that I told her to take as many pictures as she wanted and I kept emphasizing this wasn't like her 35mm, it's all free until we get them printed! Even with that she only took about 25 pictures (or what would have been a roll for her). Just a month ago I had Meg out at the barn with me and she snapped off over 500.

This day I lunged Rocket (a necessary unless I get to work him on a regular basis), we jumped and then took a little trail ride! It was like the good old days with my pony, Secret!

My Mom got distracted by the many pretty butterflies!

Howard County Fair

Last August, Jake, Brooke and I had a blast the day we went to the Howard County Fair! We already have our date picked out for this summer.

The day started off going through all the animal barns. One of my favorite quotes came from Jake as we walked through the meat cow barn (they were all alive). I pointed to the cows and asked Jake if he knew what we used these kinds of cows for. He smiled back and said "Yes, mmmm cows taste good!"

There was also a little horse show going on. I tried to get the kids to stop and watch for a bit but admittedly it wasn't very exciting since it was in hand confirmation judging.

We of course also hit up the midway for a game (I refused to waste our money on lots of games) and lots of rides. The day we were there was $1 ride day and we still went through an amazing amount of tickets. This year we will go on discounted wristband unlimited ride day so I don't have to worry about the tickets.

Brooke's favorite part was actually the pig and duck races. She loved being able to scream as loud as she wanted and not get in trouble!

Enjoy the pictures :)

They loved the cornbox...think sandbox with no sand and all corn

Yes they were both up there!

Overview from the Ferris Wheel

I love the look of intensity on Jake's face!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Go Pirates, Go Pirates, Go.............oh nevermind!

(remember we are still in August of 2011!) So as I mentioned in my Father's Day post I bought my Dad tickets to a Pirates game so the whole family could go. The main reason my Dad wanted tickets was so he could sit in the "all you can eat" section. Anyone that knows my Father knows that PNC Park lost some serious money that day!
I doubt many outside of Pittsburgh payed much attention but last year the Pirates actually started out the season REALLY well! It was looking like we might actually finished above .500 for the first time in 18 years! Of course our beloved Pirates couldn't quite keep that going and our tickets landed us there right around the time the Pirates started sliding....reallllllllllllllly bad. I forget the exact score of the game we saw but it was something like 7-3 (not in our favor).
Losing aside, we did have a really nice time. It was Kris's first time in PNC Park and Kris and I combined almost kept up with my father's eating. We did keep track and I believe Kris and I finished only 2 or 3 food items behind my Dad.