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 

Gibsonville Pumpkin Patch, Pumpkin Carving, & Birthday Celebrations

So, I'm SUPER behind in blog posting! I am just now posting about our last pumpkin patch visit, my birthday and mom's birthday and Halloween has already come and gone without any pictures posted! I'll get there, I promise. 

But, first....a few weeks ago, Luke and I met Heather and Silas Lohr at the pumpkin patch in Gibsonville. It was a gorgeous Saturday morning and we had a great time!  

Luke's favorite parts included: 

-walking through the mini corn maze and pulling down the corn stalks. He would pull them down across the paths. He also liked squeezing through the corn stalks that weren't meant to be the paths.  He found him a few pieces of corn that he wanted to carry around.  I didn't want to keep up with them so I helped him hide them between some corn stalks. When we went back to get them, he remembered exactly where they were. Thank goodness, I convinced him to bring only one home. 

-running through the tunnel that was under the huge hay mountain 

-playing in the corn pile - he loved burying his big piece of corn and then finding it. 

-jumping over the hay bales 

-climbing the big hay mountain and then jumping down from as far up as I would let him - he is such a dare devil 

-racing me to the old lawn mowers - we ran across a huge area to get to the lawn mowers - so far that he stopped and told me that he was tired about half way there. I can't believe he was tired BEFORE me.  :)

-sitting on the lawn mowers - while sitting on one of the old tractors, Luke said, "Mommy, we are having an emergency meeting. We are going to sale the tractors." (Maybe he already knows that those things are worth a lot of money!-LOL!)  

-climbing on the big tractor made of hay bales - he liked sliding off of the huge hay bales and then pulled a string out of one of the hay bales and pulled it around the corn maze 

-riding the mini hayride with his best bud, Silas

-chasing Silas around the hay bale path (that was meant for tricycles) - Silas and Luke had way more fun running 

-taking a snack break by sitting on the little tiny metal chairs (our bottoms sure were cold!)

-riding the cow train - one of my favorite parts was snuggling with him while we waited in line for the cow train.  :)  

-swinging in the beautiful open field 

It was a great morning! Here are some pictures....   

On the Sunday before Daddy left (for his WEEK LONG Canada trip), Daddy and Luke carved our pumpkin! Luke helped dump the stuffing into the field and then helped Daddy "carve"....

See....

After dumping the pumpkin stuffing.....

Daddy's proud of his creation OR is he trying to LOOK LIKE the jack o'lantern??? Not sure...

My mom's birthday was on October 16th....we had a blast celebrating with her....here are some pictures...

Daddy and Luke with the jack o'lantern....

As I stated earlier. Landis was out of town for a whole week - the week that he was gone just happened to be my birthday AND while he was gone, Luke was sick for 3 days including ON MY BIRTHDAY!  Matter of fact, around midnight (the night before my birthday), Luke woke up with a 101 temperature so I stayed home from work on my birthday to take care of him and to decide whether or not he needed to go to the doctor or not. His fever stayed around 100 all day so the doctor's office didn't recommend bringing him in unless his fever went up to 101 during the day.  So....for most of the day on my birthday, Luke and I were quarantined to the house....in between coughs, nose wipes, and temperature checks, we were able to have a little fun.

Luke rode his lawn mower, I pulled him in the red wagon, we played soccer at Papa Dale's house with the soccer goal, we built towers with blocks outside and then laughed when the wind blew them down, we chased bubbles, we read a ton of books, we ate lunch on the big bed while we watched tv, we played hide and seek and pretended to be the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.  We had a parade of toys and we read Luke's new tractor book and pushed the tractor along its path as we read.  I enjoyed every extra squeeze, kiss, and snuggle that I got.  I enjoyed laying with him at naptime and being there to hug him when he woke up.  On my 33rd birthday, I spent every second with my favorite person - sweet Luke - the day was perfect! Just perfect!

Here are some pictures....

Playing "Big Bad Wolf" in the kitchen cabinets...

Hiding in Papa's bushes....

Playing soccer....

With Landis being out of town, my parents and grandparents pulled together to make sure that I had someone with me to celebrate my birthday.  My mom, mammaw, and grandaddy took me and Luke out to eat at our favorite pizza restaurant and then my dad, Taylor, and Blaine brought me cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to me.  It was very sweet!  

Here are some pictures of Luke and I celebrating with some cupcakes - yummy! 

I ended my birthday back beside sweet Luke - whose fever went back up so much so that we ended up at the doctor the very next day! :)  Thank the Lord - it was a virus - no ear infection, strep throat, or chest congestion. Luke was back to normal on the third day!  

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Saturday! Luke and I have enjoyed doing NOTHING except playing outside and around the house! It's been an awesome, relaxing Saturday.  I hope to post soon with pics from last weekend's Hasty Carnival and BBQ Festival pics and HALLOWEEN! 

Toddy