NC State Fair!

On Sunday we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take the kids to the State Fair in Raleigh as it was the last day it was in town. In case you haven't known before now… I'm not much of a planner and I love it when Ken goes along with one of my harebrained plans!

We went to Church and then headed down the road, luckily Grey slept most of the way and Skylar let him sleep! Well, truthfully, she tried to wake him up, but wasn't aloud to talk above a whisper and he was out cold!

Neither one of them knew what to expect and (although you can't tell from this photo) were excited when they saw all the people and rides. Here is their, "I'm ready to get on those rides" faces.

The petting zoo was the first thing we came to on the way to Kiddieland and we went through to see all of the goats, cows, camels, zebra and turtles. Grey was yelling out, "moo" which comes out more as an "ooo" the whole time, but was a little timid to get down with all the other people in there at first. We bought a bag of carrots and fed the animals, and he was a little mad he couldn't eat the carrots too. Eventually he got the hang of it! Skylar was in heaven!

And who/what is this guy? Cow? Bull? He reminded me of a bad 80's haircut.

After that we headed into kiddieland. Skylar was afraid of the larger/faster rides and wanted to check out the scene before deciding what to ride. She started on this 1-mile-per-hour train and I think she might have been a little disappointed.

Then she thought she could handle the jumping worm thing by herself. It was quite a bit faster and she said she loved it.

Grey finally got to ride one too, the teacups.

As you can see, he loved it! He got a little sideways there, but that happens to the best of us in the teacups.

Skylar ended with the carousel. She has a very serious face when she is about to start a ride… not a very good time to get a picture!

Grey wanted to ride the roller coasters. He was pretty adamant about it too… one day little dude. When you're about five feet taller.

Skylar got to play one game and she chose the duck game. For two dollars, you get to pick up a duck. And then pick a ball out of the two dollar bin. Dumbest game ever.

After she got her ball she said, "Is that it?"

Grey wanted to get a duck too, but he's still little enough that it didn't bother him too much. He was much happier with the cotton candy anyway!

Holiday photos

For the three of you who read this who are not family members… I like to give presents containing photos for Christmas and birthdays. Perhaps its getting old this year? Who knows!

But, this afternoon, we went to a nearby park and took our family Christmas photo and I have strong plans on sending out a Christmas card this year. I usually have plans that fall through, but this year I am determined to get those cards out!

Here are some outtakes from the day. And don't worry, they did not wear their little hats for the "photo".

There was a man fishing near where we were on the bridge, and the kids loved watching him throw his hook in. We felt bad after the photo and left him in peace!

We walked down the trail a little ways until we found another bridge and lots of ducks! The kids started running and quacking away, obnoxiously...

I tried to take some shots on the bridge, but they both kept sticking their heads in the bars and that don't make a purty picture.

Here's what they looked like from the other side:

I did really love the light here though, if I had brought anything to help balance out the backlighting. I love the flare though!

They kept running up and down the bridge as the ducks were swimming around.

First haircuts

Skylar has been asking to get her haircut for months now and I kept telling her we would get it cut for her birthday… hoping she would forget. :(

Well, she didn't forget.

So, we made a trip to the salon today and decided it was time to get Grey's mullet cut while we were there. Skylar kept telling me she wanted it short and so I was showing her pictures of other girls' haircuts and she kept saying she didn't like those. I asked her what she wanted and she said, "I want it short, like Grey's." Absolutely not.

We compromised with an in-between stage…

She did great sitting still and holding her head down and to the side for the lady. If only she would do the same for me when I'm trying to brush it.

Grey was equally enthralled with getting his haircut and sat in the chair like a pro. He did keep looking back at the lady when she would cut the sides, but overall, he did great!

They were both very serious about this business!

The juice and teddy grahams helped...

No more baby curls!

After bath tonight, I brushed his hair back and this is what it did. All on its own!

Razz and Tazz Par-to-the-tay

Last Saturday we had a joined party for Skylar, Jaxon and JJ since they were all going to be celebrating their birthdays on the same weekend. We went out to the Razz and Tazz farm in Gibsonville, and it turned out to be a great place to have a younger child's birthday party (although don't go by what the manager tells you… go ahead and get tix for everyone at the beginning of the party instead of waiting to pay at the end. They will hunt you down periodically throughout the party and make you feel like you are doing something wrong). That being said, it was a beautiful, albeit windy day and the kids had a blast.

Skylar started off with her favorite game: catch. I'm 99% certain that Pa-paw slept really well that night!

Ruh-roh- she got caught!

They all had fun on the swings. And the corn bins. And haystacks. And tractors. And corn-maze. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of those activities!

But, I did take my camera when we went to ride the cow train! First up: Mackenzy and Aftynne!

Me thinks Aftynne was a lil' bit more excited than Mackenzy! ;) Actually, from what I hear, Kenzy was super excited about the cow train!

Then Skylar rode with Bella. Ya think it might've been a little bright that time of day? The sun was setting right into their eyes!

Grey was also really excited about the cow train and kept yelling out "cow" and "moo" while waiting for his turn. He also loves to wave bye-bye to everything and everyone. He has a royal wave.

Next up: Mama and Grey get to ride! He tried really hard to get his little feet up on the sides of the cow to lounge during the ride, but sorry charlie, Mama's belly has gotten a little too big for all that. Belle didn't have the largest stomach as it were.

I did manage to capture these pictures of Aftynne and Mackenzy on the hay-tractor. The light was perfect for these!

Skylar was back and forth between wanting me to take pictures of her and then not. When she did, she had to come over and see each one. This was her modeling shot.

At some point, we had food and cakes. A few years ago, we combined birthdays like we did this year and all three moms got cakes for their child. Huge mistake. Skylar ate one cupcake from her cake, but then only one cake was served to everyone else. My students were thrilled the next day with all the leftovers. So, this year, Michelle made a cupcake cake for JJ and Nikki made browny-cake for Jaxon and I went super cheap and made just a couple of super-easy cakes-in-a-jar for Skylar. I wasn't going to do anything, but she really, really wanted a blue cake. And then she saw a picture on my pinterest account of a rainbow cake in a jar and wanted that, only just have one color in each jar. Done and done, very easy!

Present time! Skylar got money from some of her grandparents and was like, "oooh, look mom, tickets!" But, I did take her on Sunday to the store to pick out some candy with her birthday money. Still not sure she totally gets it, but she's working on it. Its a lifestyle hazard since I hardly ever have or use cash on me.

But, betcha bottom-dolla that she knows what a debit card is.

This isn't the best picture of Skylar, but I love Grey in the background! This is what happens when your youngest chases your mom around all night stealing sweets off of her plate. Sugar high anyone?

And, just a side note: I have not found a good niche for hosting parties. I feel like you either have to be an active participant with your children, or you have to stand guard by the food to organize the food table and keep everyone on a schedule. I did that with Skylar and Grey's birthday parties last year, but really missed most of their parties. This year, I left the food table and went around with the kids… and the food time was chaotic. One day, I learn the art of hosting!