Don't panic, friends, but I may skip the meal/recipe post this week because I have so much to catch up on blog-wise. It's Halloween week, after all! I need to blog about all of the fun themed activities we've done this month (pumpkin patch, cookie baking, pumpkin painting, pumpkin carving) not to mention Halloween itself. How I will find the time (especially this week, which is crazy), I do not know! Anyway, before I get ahead of myself, I thought I'd do a weekend roundup because it was a busy (but fun!) one.
On Thursday, Dan and I took off for a few hours during the day to take Lilly to the North Carolina State Fair. I remember making the trip to Raleigh for the fair when I was younger, and since I've lived here we've tried to go every year (sometimes just for lunch, no lie). We haven't been able to make it for the past few years for various reasons, but I wanted to at least take Lilly this year because I thought if nothing else, she'd like to people watch. We were only there for 2 hours but we had the best time, and L was highly amused (And her baby brother was very happy from all of the fair food mama consumed. Mama's doctor, on the other hand, surely won't be as amused in 3 weeks.).
First, we played a game. Literally all you had to do in this game was pick up a duck and win a prize. Lilly was excited about the ducks so it seemed like a good choice, but in the back of my mind I was worried that she wouldn't understand why she couldn't keep the duck she picked. My suspicions were confirmed when she wanted nothing to do with the prizes and cried for the duck that we had to give back to the game attendant. Sad.
After a quick pit stop for a ham biscuit (I may have eaten 2, whoops) from FUMC, we went in search of kiddie rides.
There really were not very many rides that Lilly could ride on, even with an adult. There were several slides but they wouldn't let Dan take her down. We found a swing set that looked like it was perfect for Daddy and Lilly to ride together, but she was about half the size of the required height to ride with an adult. Luckily for us the ride attendant let us go anyway (or maybe unluckily for us after the ride malfunction incident?).
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| L had a blast and didn't want to get off! |
Next, we found a kiddie train for L and Dan to ride together.
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| She liked it, but the one at Pullen is better. :-) |
After we rode the two rides, we made a quick pit stop for more food: Al's fries, fried cheese (for Dan not me, I wasn't feeling it) and a funnel cake (Also not for me - for baby boy. HA!). YUM fried food. I tried really hard to save room for some roasted corn and some kettle corn to take home, but I just couldn't do it. L was a fried food fan, too.
We took our food and went to get a seat for the pig, duck and goat races. I was glad we did, because at 12:40 the place was PACKED and there were only a few seats left (the show didn't start until 1). This was the one thing I wanted to make sure we got to see, because I just knew L would LOVE it.
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| Selfies gone wrong, as L was decidedly uncooperative. |
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| The nice lady in front of us did a better job, even though the sun was in L's eyes! |
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| Soooooo excited to see the animals. |
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| Yay pigs! |
Aside from the fact that L thought the pigs were dogs (they went by pretty quickly!), that was definitely her favorite attraction.
We had a great day together, and I'm so glad we got to go even though it was only for a few hours! Next year I'm betting we'll have to make at least a half day out of it.
After the fair, Dan went back to the office to finish out his day and L and I headed home where I put her down for a nap and then worked for a few hours before we headed to Charlotte.
We spent Thursday night with Mimi & Pawpaw and then headed to Concord on Friday to visit with Dan's family and meet Baby Dorothy. I somehow only managed to take one photo on Friday, and it was of L's cute outfit because I was dying (you may recognize this pic if you follow me on Instagram but I couldn't help but post it here, too).
Seriously, the child has better clothes than I do. Love her little cardi and ballet flats!
Saturday morning, we headed back to Concord for the remainder of the weekend. We were able to make it to part of Ryan's soccer game, and Lilly had a blast playing with her cousins as well as Grandma Susie and Papa.
Back at the house, Lilly and cousin Erica played dress-up and were hysterical. We went up at one point and Lilly was sitting the most still I have ever seen her and Erica was saying, "Lilly sit still while I comb your hair." I told Andrea that I would like to purchase her 5-year-old to come entertain my 21-month-old at all times. They were so sweet together!
Lilly loved playing with Erica in her room, particularly with all of her "makeups," as Lilly called them (read: a variety of chapstick, which Baby Grace apparently loved as well as it was ALL OVER her face).
We also finally got to meet Lilly's new cousin, Baby Dottie. She is so cute and sweet and snuggly. Lilly was not amused by her, and I was a little surprised since she normally loves babies...I think that she was jealous because she likes being the baby. T-minus four months and she'll get another taste - hopefully she'll get used to it, and quickly!
On Saturday afternoon, there was a Halloween festival in Chris and Andrea's neighborhood, so the kids all put on their costumes and had a blast.
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| The football player, the witch and Captain America! |
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| Lilly the piggy. Cutest little pig I ever did see! |
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| Photo op for my sweet little family of 3.5. |
My sister-in-law, Andrea, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier in the year. She is amazing and one of the strongest people I know, and after the Halloween carnival we had a dinner party to celebrate the end of her chemo treatments. She is not quite done with all of her treatments - she still has surgery and radiation to complete - but this was a big milestone in her journey that we wanted to celebrate. In honor of the occasion, we all wore pink and Grandma Susie got all of the kids matching outfits.
We had a grand time playing cards (Spades, a new one for Dan and I which we really liked!) with the grown-ups on Saturday night.
Sunday morning, we had breakfast and let the kids play for a while longer before we hit the road. There was more dress up. Lord, are those girls cute together!
We tried to get a Baum grandchildren group photo. Of course, not everyone was ever looking at the camera at the same time and Lilly was feeling uncooperative, but it still turned out cute, I think. As my SIL Meredith put it, "I think if we get all of them to sit in the same place for longer than 30 seconds we have to call it a win." Agreed.
We left Concord in time to get home to Raleigh around lunch time. Syd was in town for the weekend with some girlfriends to go to the fair, so she was able to swing by and spend a few minutes with Lilly, who was so excited!
After nap time, we had a birthday party to go to! It was a joint birthday for Natalie (1) and Emma (3), and it was circus-themed so the kids were encouraged to wear their costumes. It just so happens that the party was held in our neighborhood's clubhouse, so it was nice and convenient. There were a ton of kids (three of which were also wearing the same pig costume as Lilly, ha!) and lots of games. I was surprised that Lilly wanted to get her face painted (after Daddy went first, of course), but it looked really cute until she accidentally smeared it while sucking her thumb.
And of course the cupcakes were a huge hit. Notice Lilly's face plant into hers. She is her mother's child!
Surprisingly, L made it about an hour at the party before asking to take her pig hat off, so I hope that means that trick-or-treating will go smoothly and she'll wear it without incident.
It was another busy, but fun weekend! I am happy to be home for a few days before we head back out to celebrate my "little brother" Jason and his beautiful fiance Becca's engagement. This week is insane between work and Halloween festivities, so hopefully I can survive until then!
Hope your weekend was great, too.
Sarah
