Hill Ridge Farm & The NC State Fair

This past weekend we had more fun than should be allowed in one 3 day period.  Saturday we visited Hill Ridge Farms in Youngsville, Sunday we went to the NC State Fair, and Monday we met Meme at Ganyard Hill Farms in Durham.  What a whirlwind, but oh my, Thomas had a blast!!  The experience is best shared in pictures, so I'm putting them in two separate posts.  Enjoy!

Hill Ridge Farms, Youngsville, NC

We went with The Williams to Hill Ridge Farms, which is a pumpkin patch on steroids.  It has every sort of fun thing you could think of.  It's open all year, but this time of year is great because you get to enjoy all the fall-ish fun and pick out your own pumpkin.

Thomas gave us a photo op at every single animal on this sign (and there were two more not in this picture), but I'll only post this one.

He was excited to get his face painted again.  We let him pick out whatever he wanted and all he wanted was an American flag.  He pointed at the big flag flying at the top of the hill where the slide was and said, "I want a flag like that one"

They have a real Native American tee-pee.  We checked it out.

Sorry for the blur, but he was a blur the whole time in this hay pit.  Mama's allergies didn't enjoy the hay pit but Thomas did!!

My pumpkin, picking out a pumpkin.

We picked our pumpkins and then took the hay ride back to the fun stuff.

Only one of my FAVORITE pictures. A little boy that looks up to his Daddy.

We rode the train.  Choo Choo!!!

 NC State Fair, Raleigh, NC

We decided to head to the state fair on the last day - it's gonna be crowded.  Oh yeah, and it's 80 degrees!!!  REALLY crowded!  Can't say it's one of my favorite places to be, but Thomas had a great time, so it was worth it.

He rode lots of rides, thanks for Nama & Nandaddy.  Here he's rockin the 4-wheelers.

We ate much less junk food than I thought we would - made it out with a lemonade and some cotton candy, which Thomas obviously enjoyed. :)

This was the only roller coaster-type ride in the kiddie area.  Looked a little "jerky" so I suggested that Mr. Williams ride with him.  Glad he did.  Don't know if you can tell, but Thomas was NOT having a blast on this one.  He went from holding on lightly to grasping the bar for his life.  When asked whether he had fun on that one, the reply was "no".

He rode the hot-air balloon ride with another little girl.  They had fun together and were just each other's speed.  They were the only balloon not spinning wildly the entire time.  Isn't this just the sweetest picture??



We capped the day off with some ice cream.

Thank you Nama and Nandaddy for a great weekend!!

Where's Thomas?

Humor me.  See if you can find my son in this picture.

Can't find him??.....

How about now?

Yes, he fell asleep right in front of the door.  After I took pictures, I had to gently nudge him with the door so that I could get in and get him tucked into his bed....his perfectly comfortable bed.

Red Rally

On a Friday night, at the last minute, we decided to go to the NCSU Red Rally.  It is a sort of pep rally for the upcoming basketball seasons (men's & women's).  It was held at Reynolds Coliseum and hosted by a local radio host and Julius Hodge.  They had inflatable games, displays for different era's of the NCSU basketball program, face painting, and also team introductions, scrimmages, a dunk contest and even a dance contest.  We looked at all of the fun stuff until the "show" started.  Then we took our seats and were introduced to the women's team.  After that we got to see the men's team come in to fireworks and all kinds of cheering and applause.  We only made it through the dance contest, which was interesting.  No WAY would you have gotten me out there if I was a player, but anyway.  It was funny and embarrassing, but quality entertainment.  Here are some pics from the event.

Interesting fact: Did you know that Mr. & Ms. Wuf were married by the Demon Deacon on Feb 28, 1981?

I think this is the first time Thomas has gotten his face painted.  We let him sleep with it still on but cleaned it off the next day. He continued to ask, after looking in the mirror, where his "n-da-state" was.

Julius Hodge and some guy from the radio.  They even got out the old applause-o-meter.  See it?

VeggieTales Live - "Sing Yourself Silly"

Yes, we saw Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber live and in (ahem) person!!!!  The new church we've been going to hosted this event and we went back and forth on whether to buy tickets or not.  Dave Ramsey and our Total Money Makeover said "no".  Then, my friend Lindsey came to the rescue.  She forwarded an email about volunteer opportunities.  I volunteered to help break down the set and load the truck that night, so we got two free tickets to the 2:00pm show. 



Here we are waiting to go in and find our seats.

So, I picked Thomas up from preschool, grabbed a quick lunch and headed for the auditorium.  We sat with Maria, who is in my bible study small group, and her son, Angelo.  Maria was kind enough to purchase both boys these cool lights.  Thomas really did enjoy his light, and still is enjoying it around the house, even though he looks a little questionable here.

Thomas enjoyed the show and so did I!  It was a countdown of the top 10 silly songs, with a few lesson songs thrown in.  They even threw in a few 80's songs for the adults.  Don't ask me how they worked 80's music into a kids show, but they made it work!  We got to sing along to I'm Walking On Sunshine and Gourds Just Want To Have Fun.  The characters are HUGE!  The feet of the "actors" are covered up by the costume so it appears as though these gigantic vegetables with smiling faces are floating around the stage.  There are even costume changes!!  At one point, there was a close call.... Larry's pupil fell off.  Crisis averted - he apparently knew what had happened so he sang part of the song with his back to the audience until the friendly host rescued his pupil from the front of the stage and reapplied it, at which point the parents chuckled and he turned around to finish his number.

I was actually pretty nervous about behavior, especially considering the time of day, and making sure that Thomas stayed with me in the crowd, knowing that he would want to be up and running around the entire time.  So, after getting all of his misbehaving done during lunch, he behaved for the most part and started really slowing down towards the end.  He spent the last two songs in my lap and started to fade during the last song.  When the lights came up, he didn't move and Maria said that he was out.  Poor guy.  It was his nap time, after all.  I woke him up and we headed on our way.


Here is Thomas being an attentive audience member

Because we had so much fun (and we had some time to kill before picking Daddy up from work) we went to get a treat at Marmalade Skies.  It's one of those make-your-own frozen yogurt places.  They are apparently very popular and they're popping up everywhere.  You pick up your cup, pick your own frozen yogurt, as many flavors as you want.  Mommy chose a swirl of Pumpkin Pie and Marshmallow.  Then you move down the line and pick your toppings.  I let Thomas pick whatever he wanted, so we ended up with gummy bears, peanut butter cups (an ode to Daddy), chocolate sauce & M&M's.  It was pretty good, enough to satisfy both of us and only $3.50!  My kind of place....


Yummmm!!!

So, all in all, we had a great time and Thomas enjoyed it!!!  .........I think.

Hyco Lake Trip

While Daddy was away on business, Thomas and I were able to take a quick weekend trip to Hyco Lake with Papa & Oopsy.  What a great little getaway it was.  It was cool in the morning, but progressively got warmer as the day went on.  Papa & Oopsy bought Thomas this sweatshirt when they were at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.  Now, it also reminds us to think of my cousin Keyes!

The house was right at the lake and had a little boat house with a canoe and dock.  Here is the crew going down to check it out.

Even though I was a bit nervous about having a 2 year old in a canoe, I bit the bullet and did it!  He was in a life jacket and my death grip on the straps of the jacket eventually loosened as I got more confident that he wouldn't stand up, throw a tantrum, try to jump out, or all three. :)  We had fun being chauffeured around that part of the lake by Papa.  I would have helped paddle....but the death grip on the life jacket kind of made that difficult.

We went to a local restaurant to have supper and got a great picture of three generations.  Papa, we sure do love you and Oopsy!  Thanks for taking us with you!

September Notes

I've been keeping little notes about things I wanted to include in our blog.  They are random, but so sweet.  Enjoy!

• Thomas really loves the Disney movie "Cars".  He now has MANY of the toy cars and we watch the movie pretty often.  A month or so ago, I was in the kitchen and I heard Thomas playing with his cars in the living room.  He whispered, "Come on Doc, Drive!" while acting out the scene in the movie with Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson. Didn't know he was paying that much attention.....He is.
• Thomas has been saying the blessing before all of our meals.  It goes a little something like this: "Dear Dod, thank you food, aaaaaaamen!"
• When Thomas hears me or Shawn ask each other "you ok?", he immediately responds "I'm o-tay, Mama" or "I'm o-tay, Daddy"  Well we weren't asking you, son, but we're glad to hear it!
• We've been watching a lot of football lately.  Haven't made it to an actual game yet, but hopefully sometime this season we will.  Thomas loves to "ta-tle" Daddy.  We're working on discerning who, where and when to tackle.  i.e. - not at school, please. :)
• Big news! Thomas is now in a toddler bed.  For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is essentially his crib, just with the front rail taken off and replaced by a short half-rail so that he is able to get in (& out) by himself.  One Sunday night at 6:00pm (1.5 hours before bedtime), Shawn said "let's go ahead and change over his bed" and, as freaked out as I was, I said "okie dokie".  We're all about just ripping the band aid off instead of taking it slow. :)
• Lately, if I suggest something to Thomas he responds with "that be fine, mama."  Like, ok, that'll work Ma.  Just sounds so grown up coming out of that little mouth.
• If you ask what Thomas wants for lunch, you will usually hear "peanut butter and jellybeans, please."  If that's not the cutest thing in the world, I don't know what is....

Things are well in the Williams' household.  Lots of new things going on.  Shawn has started with a men's group at church that meets 6-7:30 on Wednesday MORNINGS!  Thomas is doing really well in preschool.  No more tears for the most part.  In fact, he actually had quite the tantrum the other day because he didn't want to leave!  Wow, what a change.  I've joined a women's bible study at church once a week while Thomas is in preschool.  What a blessing that has been so far! ...and it's only been a few weeks!!!  It is definitely where God wants me to be right now.  I'm sure of that.

I almost wrote a post the other day titled "I love my son, but I don't like him right now."  That is what the last week or so have been like around here.  We are in the throws of the terrible two's (I hope) and I am frantically trying to figure out what in the world I'm supposed to do in those really uncomfortable but really important teaching moments.  I'm also trying to lower my volume.  I've learned, since becoming a mom, that I'm a yeller.  I don't like that about myself, but I'm working on it.  Any other yellers out there have advice for me??  Whew.... nobody said this would be easy. :)

Here's a cute pic of Thomas coloring before supper the other night.

As an aside, my cousin Keyes became an officer in the Navy this morning.  He graduated from Navy OCS today!!  Way to go Keyes!!  We couldn't be more proud of you. :)

First Day of Preschool

That was my big boy this morning on his first day of preschool.

He is attending two days a week at a church down the road from our house.  We had an open house last week where all three of us were able to meet the teachers, other children and some of the other parents as well.  That went well as soon as Thomas realized that we were staying to play with him.

I cleaned out his book bag, which has served as our diaper bag for many months now, last night and left in there only the things that he needed for school - a change of clothes in a Ziploc bag with his name on it, extra diapers and his sippy cup, well labeled, of course.  I decided to try to do this without E or Blankie.  Seemed mighty empty to me, but he's a big boy and doesn't need a ton of stuff anymore, especially when he's going somewhere that has toys and people to play with!

We talked about school some last night and a lot this morning and he was looking forward to it, but peppered the conversation with "mommy leaving" in the most pitiful pouty voice you've ever heard.  Here is a short video - "Preschool Day 1 - Before":

After our experience at VBS a few months ago, I was a little nervous but confident that both of us could handle this.  So, we left right on time and arrived at school right on time.  We walked to his classroom and the tears started.  It was a quick drop-off, which seems to work best for everyone involved, but I stood in the hallway to take care of some paperwork at the front desk.  I heard him cry a little but not NEAR as bad as VBS.  He seemed to be okay, so off I went.

When I returned, he was doing fine and waiting at the door with all the other children.  When he saw me he cried a little, but that's the usual, even at church.  Mrs. Amanda said that he did great, especially considering it was the first day.  I'm so proud of my big boy and I can't believe he's big enough to be doing this already.  I feel like real school will be here in the blink of an eye.

Here is another video "Preschool Day 1 - After":