the paquettes

We ventured out to the Austin rodeo on Friday for our last official day of Spring Break!  I made Asher wear his sisters’ boots because they technically are “unisex”, and he can finally fit in them, (I bought them almost 4 years ago), and I thought it was cute that all of my kids have now worn the same article of clothing!  No matter that he only wore them for about 2 of the 5 hours we were there, I got a picture of him wearing them, and that is that. 🙂

I make this fence look good!  😉

We headed into the petting zoo first, and like I thought, my dear son who is deathly afraid of dogs, did NOT like the idea of going into a giant cage with gnawing goats and deer. (Even Rilyn is still unsure of how she feels, but hides it a lot better!)  Here is Asher hanging on daddy for dear life…

hold me daddy!

Ella-same old Ella, she tells the animals who she will feed, and who she will not feed!

“I will NOT give you any food, you are rude!”

Finally, we headed to the carnival side of the rodeo, which is really the only reason we go each year. I grew up going to the Orange County fair every summer and have fond memories of all the fun houses and crazy rides. It is neat to see it through my kid’s eyes now.

Fun House #1:

Fun House #2:

the floor was so hard to walk on throughout this one!

I love how James swooped Asher up before falling into my camera out of the spinning exit!

Fun House #3:

I loved the mirror maze when I was a kid!

I could audibly hear Ella’s head thumping against the mirrors as she smashed into them!

Can you see Asher sliding down the yellow slide?

Fun House #4:

Ella sliding down!

Ella was finally tall enough to ride the swings this year. I rode with them, and James used his iphone to take pictures from the ground. We cover all angles in this family! 😉

wheeeeeeeeeeeee

This is how I must always look everywhere I go with my kids…camera in front of my face! Can you see me between the girls?

We tried a “haunted house”! (It was SO LAME!!)

but the kids were still scared!

The girls had to do the potato sack slide!  (One of my favorites when I was a kid too!)

Ella is screaming of course!

Asher’s favorite ride was the ferris wheel!

momma’s boy!

Ella’s favorite thing was the cotton candy, I’m sure!

treat time!

But then daddy took her on some fast rides and she had to keep her mouth closed “in case the throw up would come out!”

love how Rilyn and Ella have such opposite expressions!

about to fly!

Rilyn loves fast, spinning rides!

The chaos of the day was all worth it for James when he got this:

mmmmmm

Last stop was the pig races which is pretty cheesy, (Brad PIG vs. Kevin BACON vs. Justin BeiBOAR), but the kids love it.

these pigs are racing for an oreo as their “prize”

And after 5 hours at the rodeo, Asher was ready to go. Not even a picture with the Rodeo pig would cheer him up! Can you tell?