A Goofy Halloween

Halloween has come and gone.  I'm glad.  I ate WAY too much candy.  Two bags of Brach's Autumn Mix, you know the bag with chocolate candy corn, regular candy corn and those pumpkins, to be exact.  I ate so much that I really got sick of it and it started to taste yucky...but then I kept eating it.  I need to work on my self-control. :)

We had a Dave Ramsey approved costume this year.  (Don't know Dave Ramsey?  More about him to come soon.)  We borrowed a Goofy costume from some friends.  Thomas was afraid of the hat part at first, but he warmed up to it.  We went trick-or-treating at Shawn's office on Friday afternoon.  Then, that night, our church had a fall festival.  Thomas' favorite part was hugging the Chick-Fil-A cow.  We visited him a number of times and Thomas got to hug him one of those times.  The hug lasted so long that we had to ask him to let go.  He loves the cow!  On Saturday the Museum of Natural Sciences in Downtown Raleigh had a Halloween event where the kids could wear their costumes and there were display tables of lots of Halloween-y animals and creepy-crawlies.  Shawn stood on the other side of the hallway with another mom while Thomas and I touched the snakes.  It was fun.

By Sunday night, which was actually Halloween, we were all Halloweened out and decided to stay home, relax and carve our pumpkins.  I think they turned out pretty well, don't you?

The Father Knows Best

Just wanted to pen a quick note in support of my very best friend in the world.  Kendal has ventured into the world of blogging.  She is not doing a "keep the family updated on my kids, etc." blog, she is doing what I call a "mommy blog".  I've been spending more time lately reading some of the good blogs out there that are supportive of Christian women and moms.  There is really some quality info out there and sometimes the little posts become somewhat of a devotional time for me, as they can be very thought provoking.

Kendal's new blog is titled "The Father Knows Best".  She will be be discussing "God's will for our lives as women, wives and mothers."  If you have any interest, or even if you don't, hop over and support her blog.  I've put her button on the bottom right hand side of this blog or you can find her at http://www.thefatherknowsbest.com/.  Enjoy!  I know I will...  :)

Ganyard Hill Farm

Ganyard Hill Farm, Durham, NC

So, after the weekend, the fun didn't stop.  We met Meme at Ganyard Hill Farm in Durham on Monday morning.

If you go to Ganyard, I think this picture is a requirement. :)

We checked out the animals.  This is a bunny named Lazy.

Played in the barn.

Went down the slide a time or two (hundred).

Said hi to the goats.

Picked some cotton.

Played in the corn pit, where Meme body slammed Thomas into the corn (in the nicest, most grandmotherly way possible, of course).  No really, he had a blast and kept coming back for more. :)

Milked a "cow"

Rode on the hayride.

Picked pumpkins.

...And even posed for a picture with Mama.

Meme, we had a blast!  Looking forward to next year.  Thank you for spending the morning with us. :)

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.