Always Expect A Train

In Houston, you don’t actually have to go to the rodeo to participate in the western festivity that is the month of March.  You might just dress up for Cowboy Day at school and eat hotdogs and s’mores at the Cowboy Party.  If you’re Tate, you might choose to bypass the dressing up like a cowboy altogether.  If you’re Rush, cowboy of course means Woody from Toy Story. 

That vest is one giant piece of felt with two seams across the shoulders .    It came from a little pattern called staring at the Woody doll and thinking, that’s just one piece of fabric with two seams across the shoulders…  I wrapped the felt around Rush and held it together with binder clips while I marked arm holes and pinned, then sewed, then cut and pinned again, then sewed.  I stitched on the black spots while the boys played outside and took baths and it was done just in time for Cowboy Day.  Too bad we don’t have more uses for felt vests, because that was ea-sy.

After a two year rodeo hiatus called newborn baby and everyone was sick, we didn’t limit ourselves to just the school cowboy lunch this year.  Last night, we went to the rodeo.  Although, technically we went to the every part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo except the actual rodeo part, because thanks to the concerts, it is exponentially more expensive to actually make it into the rodeo area.  So besides the fact that we went to the rodeo and didn’t see a single horse, we had a fantastic time.

Fun Things About The Rodeo

Cows, goats, newly shorn sheep in sweaters, hatching baby chicks, rabbits (you go, Flemish Giant!), Elsie and Beauregard, the Brazoria County Beekeepers

Petting Zoo

That guy

Trent immediately becoming a cowboy just by adding a cowboy hat to his normal clothes, and steak sandwiches and nachos

Rides, riding and watching

Cotton Candy

Tate wanting to snuggle in when he gets tired

Running around a small grassy patch next to the food booths and picnic tables blowing whistles

Thanks to Operation Lifesaver for giving each of the boys their own ear piercing whistle.  Trent and I have joked about how often we see STOP FOR TRAINS THEY CAN’T STOP FOR YOU train warnings lately, but it’s not like a disease that you can eradicate through vaccination.  Like stop, drop, and roll, each new generation of children and college students must be taught not to climb between the cars of a stopped train.  The train safety people also gave Trent and I koozies, which I only took because it had my new worldview of the day:

ALWAYS EXPECT A TRAIN

It’s a half full-half empty thing.  Glass half empty, a train is going to barrel through your life, destroying and scattering.  But glass half full, every time you drive over an overpass, you might see a train!  Will the excitement ever end?!