Happy Halloween!

The kids were a little crazy today. Benita arrived right before lunch today, so they were excited about her visit. And they were super-excited about trick-or-treating tonight. Rain was predicted to start sometime between 6 and 7 pm - prime time for the main event. We were prepared. The kids started out sitting in the red wagon, holding a big umbrella that kept them both dry. That didn't last too long. They didn't care about getting a little wet and truthfully, it didn't rain that hard for very long. Lots of people were out in their cars, but so were others walking like us. It made for a little bit of a mess around the neighborhood. Again, the kids didn't care.

Payton had no fear. She would walk up to the door and say loudly 'trick or treat'. Ian was a little shyer. Plus, he still has that 2 year old speech impediment that comes out sounding like 'twick o tweet'. It was very sweet. Ian tired out about 3 houses before we were done. I think Payton could have gone all night.

Carving the Pumpkin

Daddy got the task this year to lead the pumpkin carving. Payton seemed interested for about 5 minutes. Ian couldn't have care less. In fact, the think he was rather put off by the whole thing. He adamantly yelled, 'NO!' when asked if he wanted to participate. Payton watched Daddy, but she didn't participate too much. She didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts - I don't really blame her.

Daddy decided to be creative this year and not do the traditional. He also chose a non-traditional method for carving.

Did I mention that Daddy's been into his power tools lately?

I thought it turned out great. Ian said it was 'spooooky!'

Fall Festival

Today, Payton's class had their Fall Festival (aka Halloween Party). Payton is a princess fairy this year. (Ian didn't dress up, but he is a dragon this year.) I helped lead a group of girls (and Ian) around to 10 stations around the school. There was pumpkin bowling, hot pumpkin, painting pumpkins, pumpkin sack races - you get the idea. Everyone dressed up and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Fall trip

Last Saturday, we were thinking about going to the Lexington BBQ festival. It's ranked in the top 10 festivals in the country by some Leisure magazine (that I'm too lazy to look up the title to). But, the fall colors were calling Scott and I to take a trip to look at them before they fall to the ground. Scott and I realize that this could be our last Fall to live in a place with such a glorious show of color right outside our back door. So, we headed up into Virginia. We went to Fairy Stone State park. We didn't find any fairy stones, but we saw lots of pretty color. We had a nice picnic lunch and the kids got to play on a little playground at the park.

The kids were getting antsy with all the driving and I was getting a little sick from all the curvy roads, so we headed back home. The whole trip actually took about 5 hours, but it was so beautiful!

Homeland Creamery

Last Friday morning, Jill invited us to go to Homeland Creamery with them that afternoon. Homeland Creamery is a dairy farm about an hour from here in the little community of Julian, NC. They only deliver milk (and I think some ice cream) to central and northwestern NC. I had never been to a creamery before and I figured the kids might enjoy it, so I packed a quick lunch for all of us, picked Payton up from school, and drove out there for a 1:30 pm tour of the place.

We had a little time to explore before the tour. We visited the turkeys, the calf, and the chickens. We milked the fake cow and took pictures next to the sign. What next, you might ask, do you do at a creamery. Well, they had a 20 minute hayride that took us on a tour.

We first went up the road a little ways to meet the pregnant cows and their lama (the lama wasn't pregnant). Then we went off-roading into an area to visit the 2 year old cows. Then we went down another little road to the juvenile cows (under age 2) - they came up to the fence to check us out. They were the most curious. Then we enjoyed the hayride down a longer dirt road to take a peak at, yup you guessed it, more cows. The last cows were the older cows that had already had a calf. There were 2 bulls with this bunch - they seemed happy

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Then we headed back to the creamery and saw where they milk the cows. We saw the turkeys, calf, chickens, fake milking cow, and sign one more time before we got to have our ice cream sample - yum! The kids enjoyed the hayride, but got a little tired of the cows. When Ian tried to milk the cow, he was very intense. It was almost like he knew what he needed to do and he was going to get to it.

The chocolate ice cream was one of the best that I've ever tasted. Scott thinks the milk is really good too. He says he can tell a difference between Homeland's milk and the everyday milk I buy. Homeland follows organic practices, but isn't certified organic. I couldn't tell a difference, but I'm no connoisseur.

H1N1 Vaccinations

The Health Department had flu vaccinations on Tuesday. They were open to the public and started at 1 pm. Scott and I had been on the fence as to how proactive we were going to be about getting the vaccine. Then, on Monday, Scott attended a lecture at the hospital by an infectious disease doctor and concluded that we should get the kids vaccinated as soon as possible.

Thus, I took Payton out of school about a half hour early, packed a lunch, and arrived at the health dept. at about 11:30 am. There was already a line, but it wasn't too bad yet (maybe 50 in front of us).

Ian was asleep on my shoulder. I brought the diaper bag and my big purse with our lunch and snacks. Payton ate and lounged around while Ian slept for the first 30-40 minutes. A very nice man was in line behind us. He was saving a place for a 7 year old girl and her grandmother. We struck up a nice conversation which made the time pass pretty easily.

Ian woke up, ate a little and then the little girl arrived. Payton found a new friend right away. They kept each other busy and I kept Ian busy until we started moving.

One the line started moving, it still took us 50 minutes till the kids got their vaccines. They both got the spray and didn't mind a bit. It was so much easier than a shot - no crying kids.

We were back in the car at 2 pm. I was pretty tired, but the kids were great. At least the weather was beautiful - 55 and sunny.

Catherine's Wedding

This past weekend was Catherine's wedding in Augusta, Ga. She and I attended Rice together. When I got the save the date card, I was supper excited for this weekend to come around. Catherine is one of those special friends that you can not talk to for months at a time, but pick right back up like it was yesterday.

So Friday, Scott got home around 3 pm and I headed out. It's a 4 hour drive to Augusta. I stayed with another grad school friend, Kim, at the Marriott downtown which is right by the Savanna River. Of course, no road trip would be complete without a minor detour. When I got close to Augusta, Google maps said I needed to take exit 3. Unfortunately, for me, there was construction and there was no exit 3. When I got to exit 1, I pulled over and called my good friend Jill, who used to live in Augusta. She was so nice as to stay on the phone and navigate me to my hotel.

Kim was already there (in her PJs!), but I persuaded her to get dressed so that we could go have dessert at the Boll Weevil Cafe. I had a huge (foot tall) slice of chocolate cake and Kim had the berry tart. Both were very yummy - I ate on mine for the next two days.

Catherine's wedding was at 11 am on Saturday. We were almost late, but it wasn't our fault. There just happened to be a breast cancer walk going on right outside our hotel. The walkers were not too pleased when we had to navigate through the parade.

Everything was simple and very elegant. The ceremony was over at 11:17 am - short and sweet.

The reception was at the Marbury Center which is a converted old fire station. It was pretty cool. The food was very southern. There were cheese straws, ham biscuits and a cheese tray for appetizer. The lunch was BBQ chicken breast, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, asparagus, rolls and shrimp grits. The biggest surprise was the shrimp grits - they were hmmmm scrumptious!

After the reception, Kim and I went back to the hotel for a nap. We met Catherine and her husband and other friends out Saturday night at the Pizza Joint. It was a great opportunity to catch up and hang out with Kim and Catherine. And it was a nice little get-away for Mommy.

I got home Sunday at 2:30 pm. When I called Scott and told him I was on my way home he sounded so relieved. The kids were giving him the full court press Sunday morning.