Fall Festivus for the Rest of Us

Last weekend was spent in WV with cousins, cousins, and more cousins, and some grandparents-and great-grandparents-thrown in there, too. (And a Desitin-caked chair, but more on that later.)

Here are some of these cousins enjoying a day at the Wayne Fall Festival/Festivus (I added the Festivus part myself):

Please notice that Will has been cursed by my lack of height. He will always be the shortest amongst this crowd, except for his sister who will likely end up about my size. Also please notice that there is candy being eaten, a cheese face being made (with bonus head-tilt) and a screaming baby being held up by her daddy (it's kind of like Where's Waldo?). With seven little ones age four and under, getting a good picture of everyone takes the planets aligning, a waning or waxing crescent moon, the appearance of Haley's comet (see, my online astronomy class taught me something after all!) and an Act of Congress. But we try anyway.

We got there just in time to watch the parade, which Will was surprisingly ambivalent about. He had talked all morning about seeing elephants and clowns at the parade so he may have just been a little underwhelmed about it all when he realized that it was mainly cars, trucks pulling trailers with people on them, a horse, a tractor, and, for the absolutely deafening finale, every fire truck, ambulance, and assorted emergency service vehicle within a 25-mile radius blaring their sirens. Seriously, I had to walk down the street a ways to get Laura's ears out of the din. But here we are at the parade. Nothing says small-town America, at least to me anyway, like a parade.

(Please don't judge my sunglasses. They are not intended to be of the Cool persuasion. They are prescription and there weren't many options. I realized that all my squinting was probably aging me rapidly, so I broke down and got some sunglasses. They have changed my life. I will never be sunglassless again. Also, a tip:  for the illusion of a flatish postpartum stomach, wear your baby in a front carrier. Never take her off. It's better than Spanx, except that Spanx tend not to have explosive bowel movements or the ever-present spit-up stench.)

While it appears not to be so, Will actually enjoyed the rides.

More rides, more cousins, more fun.

Since Laura hasn't been fairly represented by these pictures, here she is. I dare you to look at that and not smile.

(PS. For anyone who doesn't know the origin of Festivus, it's from a Seinfeld episode. I'll let Mr. Costanza further explain:

Frank Costanza: "Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way."
Cosmo Kramer: "What happened to the doll?"
Frank Costanza: "It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born: a Festivus for the rest of us!"
Kramer: "That must have been some kind of doll."

"As I rained blows upon him" could be one of my favorite phrases ever . . .)