Hasty Fall Carnival, BBQ Festival, and More Fun Around the House

As you know, Landis was out of town for a week on a business trip to Canada.  During that week, Luke and I kept busy with some visits to Chick-fil-a, play dates with Memaw, and afternoons just playing around the house. 

Here are some of our adventures here at home...

Painting pumpkins....

One night, while we were playing outside, Luke said, "Mommy, I want to go to the park uptown....you know the one that Mammaw takes me too."  Well, alright, I said...and so we went to the park "uptown" (as Luke described it). We had a blast! We raced down the slides, played in the mulch, and then on our way to the car, stopped to play in a huge pile of leaves. It was awesome!  (Then, we ended our night together with dinner at McDonalds - just me and Luke!) 

Here are the pics...

One afternoon, we played with sidewalk chalk...Luke wrote an L all by himself - I didn't even tell him to write it...he just picked up the chalk and made this L....

One afternoon we played "fishing for letters".... I made a "pond" with blankets and a chair and made Luke a fishing pole with a stick and string. He cast his pole over the chair into the pond, I stuck a letter sticker on his pole, pulled hard, and then he looked at the letter that he had and matched it with a bunch of letters written on a pumpkin.  I thought this would be a fun way to work on that letter identification!

My mom works hard on the PTO at Hasty Elementary, where Lexi and my cousins attend AND Mrs. Withers, the principal, goes to my church SO I am a big Hasty Wildcat supporter.  Last weekend, Luke and I, along with my neighbors, Wiliam and Caren, went to the Hasty Fall Carnival.

When we arrived, it was already very crowded. We attempted to let the boys jump in some of the bouncy things but Luke was nervous because there were so many big kids in each one.  I was able to get him to jump on one that had no big kids - but, for the most part, he stuck to me like glue.  Because he saw Memaw standing beside of the door of the Spooky House, he said that he wanted to go in.  I was a little apprehensive but since my aunt Sonya, uncle Jack, and close family friend, Becca were the "scary characters" inside, I figured we would be okay - and we were!  Luke enjoyed seeing the costumes and LOVED seeing Lexi and Lauren when he reached the in - he wasn't scared at all.  Thanks guys for not scaring the little ones!

After the spooky house, the boys played on the playground for a little while.  Both boys enjoyed that - they went down the slides head first - side by side and loved climbing the walls and ladders.

We attempted one last bounce house that looked like the boys would like. Luke still wouldn't go inside because he was afraid of the big kids.  Finally, Lexi came over and said that she would go in with him and he went in.  He still wasn't too interested in staying in there too long SO we headed inside for snow cones....Luke and Lexi ate a yummy snow cone together and then we ate a slice of pizza (yeah, a little backwards, I know!)  :)

Then, probably the best part of all....we went back outside and Luke played a few games. He played pin the mouth on the skeleton.  My nephew, Caleb, helped Luke with the blindfold and then spun him around a few times. Luke just smiled and smiled. Then, Lexi helped him with the bean bag toss. At both games, he won some suckers and Smarties so Luke and myself, along with some Cheetos and candy, sat down on the steps to eat!  By this point, some sugar had settled in so Luke was in the silliest mood.  He started wiggling and dancing to the very loud music. He even did the chicken dance!  At one point, for no reason, he leaned over and nose kissed me - THAT WAS MY FAVORITE PART - I love those "all of sudden just because I love you" kisses!

Before leaving, Luke hugged Memaw and then we headed to the car. On the way to the car, I said, "My favorite part was sitting down and eating and dancing with you. What was your favorite part?" He said, "My favorite part was being with you too Mommy."  So sweet!  :)  As usual, he passed out sound asleep on the way home.

Here are some pictures....

Later (in the same afternoon), Luke, Daddy, and I went to the BBQ Festival in Lexington.  We didn't stay long - we just went long enough to ride a few rides, get Luke some lemonade (which he loves), and then ate dinner at Main St. Deli - YUM!  

Here are some pictures...

The train ride - Luke was the only person on the train so he drove! 

The flying cars....always love these!

Oh yeah....before we left, we found a good leave pile to play in and then Luke ran around an empty parking lot while I chased him.  Anytime Luke is running, he is happy!  :)

That night, Luke and Landis decided to see how big of a tower they could build....they had a blast trying to get it taller and taller.  Luke thought it was hilarious when the tower fell.  Here are some pics...

Love this one!!!

So sorry for the delay in posting.....I hope to have Halloween pics and museum pics posted in the next week or so.  No work on Monday so maybe, just maybe, I will get some things done.  :) 

Enjoy this gorgeous weekend. 

Toddy