{ajm}

Second to the farm, but not by much, is our delight at the midway rides. Last year she was hesitant to go on any ride by herself. In fact, the
one ride she went on (Nemo) was not a glowing success. Fast forward 12
months and she was running to the next ride to see how many tickets and
coming back to tell us before we could get the stroller over to her.
Even Mark enjoyed watching all the fun and soaked up the excitement. 

Her all time favorite ride-the carousel is a must.

Mallory talks about the Ferris wheel all year long, not that she will
ride it. She told me she wanted to see it but not ride it because it was
too tall at the top.

A quick Daddy daughter pic-she was in a hurry to get back to the action.

We LOVE our fair. They do a great job connecting children with farming food and animals. This "farm" is one of the highlights of Mallory's year. We went back SEVERAL times so she could "be a farmer" (her words not mine) and she's already asking when can we go back.

She was so into digging the hole, pouring in the seeds, and watering her planting.

This Super A makes me think of my Daddy.

Picking apples and gathering vegetables and milking "Bessie" are all important tasks at the farm.

After all the "work"of being a farmer, the harvest is sorted and sold at the farmer's market.

This darling photo op happens after the treats "paid for" by the farmer's earnings are enjoyed(Purity donates milk and ice cream, apples and animal crackers were also options.) Mallory choose the flower more often than not. I guess the milking shed made an impression this go around. Thank you Ben for being such a great Daddy and participating in the photo :) 

Sunday was family dedication day for us. John Mark Preston in all is glory was held up and prayed over as was our family of four. It's so great knowing who our family is 🙂 Our sweet children's minister Danette snapped a picture of us at church, naturally Mallory was NOT cooperative. We took these after coming home later.

His name means (John) God is gracious, (Mark) warrior, and (Preston) priest. The John and Preston are both family names and we choose Mark. We read Romans 8:28 over him.

    We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his            purpose.

We pray and hope many things for you little love and we thank God daily for the blessings of your life.

It is HOT here. Today it was over 100 degrees (my vehicle said 103)and the heat index was 116. Really REALLY hot. So we made popsicles. It had nothing to do with discovering Bree's fabulous (new to me) food blog. Or the fact that I already had the cool popsicle molds from this same idea last year, but never got around to doing anything about it.

I even decided to take LOTS of pictures, like of every step to remember for posterity, and next summer, how easy it is. Then I managed to delete all the good ones. I have no idea what key strokes I managed to hit deleting the photos beyond the recycle bin. Yes, they are really gone. So these 3 pictures are the not great ones I hadn't chosen to use, but still have. 

We even made the berry purees, and swirled them together. Mallory was OVER THE MOON when I told her we could have popsicles for breakfast, these are basically smoothies after all. Sadly, they aren't quite sweet enough for her. I however LOVE them. Seriously yummy. And so is Bree's blog! 

Several Saturday's back, we stumbled onto this Farmer's Market. It happens on Saturday's, in the summertime I guess, at the Factory in Franklin. So much goodness and plenty and beauty and abundance.

A literal rainbow of colors and flavors.

I think I want to knit something in these colors…a scarf maybe and I want to try planting zinnias next year!

The top left picture is a a CSA box from Delvin farms. It was voted the top CSA's for 2009 in the Nashville Scene. I can totally see why and wow, I really want to participate. Like starting yesterday!! What's not to like about a box of fresh from a local garden produce every week. 

Seeing and photographing all this abundance was pure serendipity as we actually went to the Factory for Daddy Ben to get his monthly hair cut. 

Fresh hair cut…check

Delightful family outing……double check.