Festival Fun

We had a blast at the festival yesterday. We met up with two of my best friends with their children. Yes, I did get to have a bloomin' onion, but I shared with Big Buckaroo. A festival food junkie has to have boundaries you know.

Here is the thing about festival food, you get so excited about ordering it, but then after you eat the grease you think, "why in the world did I get that?" Needless to say, we had a vegetable heavy salad for dinner last night to alleviate some of my guilt and to balance out the Crisco heavy lunch.

Littlest Buckaroo loved jumping in the dinosaur, yes, dinosaur (I can't escape them) jumping thing-a-ma-jiggy.

Of course the dinosaur loving Little Buckaroo had a blast too. That smile says it all! Behind him is a little boy whose family has a booth at the festival selling wonderful handmade wood products. We met them on Thursday as they were setting up and of course Little Buckaroo befriended him and he went to the jumping thing-a-ma-jiggy with us. Case in point: my homeschooled little boy has NO problem with socialization.

This is the Divine Miss M with Littlest Buckaroo.

Alright, if you don't want my child-rearing philosophy, please skip on down to the next picture because I am about to give MY opinion, this does not mean that everyone agrees, but it is MY opinion (and this is my blog, and I am the one typing here).

When children are this small it really bothers me when adults come up and see scene like the above picture and say "oh, look how cute, is that your boyfriend?" People, they are 4 and 2! If you allow them to give their hearts away at this age and start talking about boyfriends and girlfriends you are setting them up for a lifetime of heartbreak. I pray that our boys save their heart for their wives, not continually giving it away to every little girl that comes along. We are actively training them toward this goal.

Divine Miss M's mom and I talk about this often and are teaching our children that it is the job of the older children to take care of the younger one (as Miss M is doing above) and never even putting into their minds anything remotely close to boyfriends and girlfriends. I hear kids at church talking (as little as 6 years old) about who they are dating and talking about getting a kiss on the playground. Those kisses are for their future spouse. Parents who think it is cute, do you want your daughter to marry a young man that has been kissing every girl on the playground, making out with any and every girl in the movie theatre, or doing a lot more in the backseat of a car?

Then don't set your daughter up to be one of those girls that these boys are doing those things with. If you think it is cute when they are little, that will encourage it and you will have a big problem on your hands when they are teenagers. Please teach them (boys and girls) to protect their hearts and not only honor God's design for marriage but to honor themselves and their bodies.

Little Buckaroo and Ri pretending to be crashing choo-choo trains (they had to do something to pass the time while Big Buckaroo and I were eating the bloomin' onion).

Big Buckaroo took some time out of his BUSY day to sit with his boys while they ate. What an incredible daddy! And, he is rewarded with complete adoration from his little guys, look how Little Buckaroo looks at him.

Uh Oh! A radio call gets him back to festival reality.

We are heading out this morning for more festival fun, but no bloomin onion today. Not only is it too much grease but festival food and jumping thing -a-ma-jiggy will break the bank.

The Park Wife