Chili and Bounce Houses

It was a pretty uneventful week, for the Niemans at least. Seth won the work chili cookoff as per usual (after Jayne's win last year, this is starting to look suspicious...)

although, with highs over 100 it seemed a little ridiculous to be celebrating fall. 

Not that anyone is complaining about a longer pool season. 

Which, on Wednesday night, unexpectedly ended with a jubilant but completely unclothed front porch dance-off.

The 600 lb. bounce house was procured and eventually unloaded and set up just in time for it to rain the night before T3's wild Nerf gun birthday party,

which survived the weather and was a total blast for all involved. 

Pay no attention to Ford's weird blue head scarf, which he was certain made him look like a bad guy and which actually made him look like little blue riding hood.

Naturally, the party devolved

and eventually resulted in injury

which also led to Ford's having discovered that blood gets you lots of attention.

Also naturally, Finley and Mikayla jumped in the pool with their clothes on.

It was a Saturday for the record books, which ended as such Saturdays do,

and gave way to a much-needed PJ-clad "life admin" Sunday.
Not that these "helpers" were conducive to much actual cleaning.

We wrapped up our weekend with a trip to Southern Pines to see friends and hang out with miniature horses

and swing by a decent grocery store. (Pictured is Ford and the only vegetable we can get him to eat, at least pretending to be excited about them.)

Oh, and we verified that Finley and her Mom feel the same way about birds.

Update: the temperature fell below 80 and I capitulated. Bring it on, fall.

Oktoberfesting in the Dead of Summer.

Saturday morning Seth and I slept in a little bit, since F+F are getting big enough to- sometimes- be left to their own devices. They made crashing noises (and apparently helped themselves to ice cream, because whoever designed bottom drawer freezers definitely did not have kids) for about a half hour before I got up and discovered this funny scene on an already 85 degree day:

Like everybody else in this part of the world, F+F are ready for fall. And the weather is not cooperating.

I had to make a brutal down-and-back to Fort Benning for work this week, so Dad Night commenced, and I got hilarious photos like these. No kidding there was also a round two of ice cream (Seth said "the first one was a sno cone!" as if that made perfect sense, and I now have no question as to why he's the favorite parent.)

We were triple booked on Saturday, with a birthday party (no pictures because we were too busy sweating to actual death) and a baby shower, to which Finley was beside-herself-thrilled to be invited

followed by the Fort Bragg Oktoberfest, put on by the German Army liason team. The beer and food are allegedly flown in from Munich, but Natalie and I were just there for the kid photos:

OK, we also enjoyed the beer. But  the last minute trip to the costume store paid off big time (and we couldn't stop reflecting on how lucky these Army kids are to have friends-who-are-family.)

This might be my favorite photo of Handsome Ford and T3, ever. They were very proud of those lederhosen,

which- incredibly- survived more than an hour in the bounce house.

For Sunday Funday we finally gave into the fact that "fall" is a misnomer, and fled for the pool

which yielded this apropos photographic commentary on the Nieman interpretation of a "lazy weekend at home." 

Never a dull moment!

Dollywood!

This weekend was one of those blissful creations of the FORSCOM Gods you forget about when you're languishing in DC or at a TRADOC installation: the absolutely random and no less appreciated four-day. There was no reason for it, it corresponded with zero holidays, nobody else got two weekends after Labor Day off work, and that made it even better. We decamped to Dollywood, hoping to beat the crowds, as we had promised Ford we'd do ever since he- also for absolutely zero reason- came home from school begging to go.

First off, Dollywood is so. far. Almost six hours, to be exact, although you can see the hazy blue outline of the Smokies in only about four. Seth was beyond thrilled with a 7am wakeup on his day off. Second, we didn't realize it was Harvest Fest- a major planning fail- and apparently even on a non-holiday Friday, the allure is undeniable. Dollywood is crowded.

Third, it was hot. Like, North Carolina in late September, stupid hot.
Luckily, Dollywood had thought of everything and had mini-splash parks everywhere (this is Ford shooting Finley in the water gun fight of the century),

and I had decided to "go big or go home," and combined the trip with a stay at last year's greatest hit, Wilderness at the Smokies.

We got the two day Dollywood ticket (best plan ever, happened upon accidentally), and spent our days enjoying terrific shows and vintage cars,

historic carousels and yet another blasted steam locomotive (Ford's fave and the literal worst thing ever),

rides that everyone loved,

super creepy characters that exactly 1/2 of the family enjoyed (and the other half eyed suspiciously),

and a really incredible Birds of Prey show at the completely unexpected American Eagle Foundation, which turns out to be headquartered at Dollywood,

and which took all our money.

Birds collected the donations, what do you want from us?

Seth renewed his- very strong- application for Dad of the Year,

and we loved every second of cooling off at the only waterpark I've ever run across that doesn't make me want to bleach myself.

Which has all kinds of death defying slides for Finley (this isn't one of them, she just liked this one, and so did her very indulgent father)

and plenty for our cautious big guy, who is always eying stuff Finley is doing and informing us that "that looks dang'rous." (He can easily swim the width of the pool after diving in but wears a life jacket, you know, just in case.)

Also, we can highly endorse waterparks with tiki bars that open at hours that decent people aren't even awake yet. Key to vacation success.

Somewhere in there we even managed to discover a local joint- hard to come by in the Pigeon Forge metropolis- in Sevierville called Graze, which had these hilariously gigantic kid menu items,

and terrific live music. Which yielded this adorable dance

and the less-so production of Finley needing a "microphone" to put on her own show.

After this absolutely apropos mic drop marching out of the park

Seth the trooper drove all six hours home last night, as we were desperate for a "reset day" after three long ones of fun in the sun. We spent today doing laundry and wondering why you can't celebrate surviving Dollywood (and Wilderness at the Smokies) every day:

Although we sure are glad we did it.

One of my favorite photos of the week has nothing to do with our epic Smokies adventure and everything to do with the fact that F+F are currently obsessed with "The Descendants" and Finley made Ford a crown so he could be like "Prince Ben." And he wears it everywhere. And tells people "my sister made it."