The Basham Family: Fall Festival 2014.

Welp, the Fonner sisters converged on Evansville this weekend for the annual West Side Nut Club Fall Festival. Otherwise known as the "Eat Yourself Stupid Festival" or also sometimes referred to as the "Can you BELIEVE that s/he is wearing THAT Festival?!"

It would be way, way, way too embarrassing to recap everything I ate. So I won't go there. But rest assured the only part of my "diet" that made it to Franklin street was my portion control. As in, we shared everything we got so my portions of each thing I had were in check. Unfortunately, I did not then take it one step further and limit the number of things we got.

Saturday morning we caught the Pet Parade. As per usual, the parade is advertised to begin at 9am.... but it doesn't start until 10. At least this year, we've finally figured that out and didn't get there quite as early as we have in years past. But there was still enough time before the parade for 6 out of 6 kids to have a meltdown. At one point, Tyler is dragging me down Franklin Street and Lily is following behind crying at the top of her lungs. It was awesome and not at all embarrassing.

"Hey kids, let's get a picture of you with Grams!" Bahahahaahhahahahahahaha. Sometimes I have THE BEST ideas EVER.

I did manage to get a decent shot of me and the kiddos before the meltdowns intensified too much.

Then the parade finally started and then you remember why it's worth the meltdowns and crying and fighting. "MOMMY! Mommy, look! Look, Mommy, look! LOOK!!" Their crazy excitement over seeing some dogs wearing costumes is totally contagious and I find myself hollering, "LOOK, Tyler, LOOK! A PIRATE DOG!! Lily, look, Lily, LOOK! An Elsa with her OLAF BUNNY RABBIT!!"

All the yummy goodness at the Fall Festival and I wasn't successful at getting the kids to try much of anything. Lily got cotton candy (which Tyler enjoyed too) and that was it for her. The only other thing I got Tyler to try was the Monster Ear. I told him it was like a cinnamon roll with syrup on it. He was all over that.

That concludes Fall Festival 2014. Good thing too cause my pants are cutting off the circulation to my brain.

Besides eating until we busted our guts, Mom graciously offered to watch ALL SIX GRANDBABIES (plus Jason) by herself on TWO separate occasions so Jenny, Katie and I could shop til we dropped. I don't think I've ever spent that much money in one day shopping in my life. Having your sisters, who have very honest opinions, coupled with the freedom and options that come with weight loss was a very bad combination for my wallet....and my closet.... It was awesome. And now I'm cut off.

The kiddos played pretty well together though 6 kids and 4 adults in one room is enough to test anyone's sanity. We are slowly working on getting the older kids more comfortable with playing in the basement (by themselves) in order to preserve what's left of our wits. At one point, they were playing hide and seek. Jackson was counting while Lily, Tyler and Ayden "hid." Check out Lily and Tyler's hiding spot. Cause if I can't see you, you can't see me, right?