2014 NC State Fair

Grant was jazzed about the idea of going to the fair this year. Since he remembers some of what we did last year at the fair, when he found out we were going this year he talked a lot about what he wanted to do. This year's trip was a little shorter than years past. I work at the fair for my job and I've spent entirely too many days at fairs this year. But I couldn't not take him, he was just too excited.

Usually we go on the last Sunday. This year I decided we should go on the last Saturday and I could have Sunday to recoup before work on Monday. Bad idea. Saturday at the fair when you're already anti-fair is just plain silly. 

Grant's Fair To-Do List:

• See animals
• Eat a hot dog
• Eat ice cream

I used our staff parking (yay!) and the poultry stuff was closest to us, so we visited that stuff first.

Checking out the pond

This thing was big and mouthy 

Check out the one-legged guy in the middle (it's not
standing on one leg...it only has one leg)

And there was more interesting stuff inside the poultry tent:

Purdy duck

Baby things

Fun spotted things

Poultry with fun hair-dos

Grant's favorite were the big turkeys. Loved 'em and had
to point out all of them for us.

I find them creepy and slightly ugly.

We made our way towards the kids tent which was pretty crowded but Grant got to see the T-Rex skull in there so that was exciting for him.

We meandered through the building with the dairy cows (and to say hi to my co-worker)...

Best seat in the house!

And then over to the Expo building to get a better view of animals and some over-sized produce.

Fun balloon display!

Huge pumpkins!

My friend & co-worker, Penny, was set up in the Expo building which is also where the milking booth is. She asked Grant if he wanted to pet a cow. Of course he did. So Grant got to go behind-the-scenes to see the dairy cows that weren't being milked right then.

See animals: check.

Telling Penny "It's so soft!"

I was kind of amazed that he was so willing to pet her. Penny asked if he wanted to milk one and he said yes. Again...kind of amazed. So after his VIP cow petting experience, we hopped in line to milk one. He'd been very shy that day, maybe the crowd intimidated him. But he sat right down with the girl and she showed him how to do it.

He says he sort of got milk to come out :)

After that we got some lunch and walked around trying to avoid the busier spots.

Hot dog: check.

There was a fireman giving out hats...he wears it all the time now.

Grant remembered going on the kiddie roller coaster last year so we stood in a crazy long line to do that again. It acutally moved pretty fast though.

Sadly, that's where our fair experience ends. One ride. We were there for about 3 hours and after walking back through a crowd...I just kind of had had it. I felt terrible because Grant was disappointed but I had to go. We didn't get ice cream at the fair so we took Grant to Cold Stone when we left. As it turns out, chocolate ice cream makes you forget that mean Mama made you leave the fair early :)

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week. 

1) After surviving my first Fair of the year (with my sanity mostly intact), I got to enjoy my first day off in over two weeks. We really made the most of this weekend and had so much fun! Saturday I fixed us some really yummy ham & cheese omelets for breakfast and then enjoyed some coffee and games with Grant. Later on we took him to his first movie -Planes Fire & Rescue (finally able to convince him that movie theaters are not horrible scary places filled with evil). Now, he can't wait to go again! Had to run to Target after that so Grant & I had some fun embarrassing Husband in the Halloween section and since we were all still full from our movie food...we had ice cream for dinner :)

Yummy cup of Green Mountain coffee and some Busy Busy Airport

Waiting patiently for our cheese fries at Raleighwood Cinema & Grill
(I think this was a really neat place for his first movie!)

Enjoying Target's new Halloween items!

2) Sunday was a little more relaxing. We had an early lunch with my Mother-in-law to celebrate her birthday. Later I took Grant out for a bike ride (I was walking and he left me in his dust!) followed by some good ol' sandbox play. And we made some fun marshmallow treats for Grant and his classmates the next day.

It was such a gorgeous day!

Mama's kitchen helper!

3) Since I work downtown next to the Science Museum, I see a lot of what goes on there. This past weekend was Bugfest, which we didn't go to, but they always do a sand sculpture for it and I always look forward to seeing what it is. Monday on my way into the office I got to check out this year's sculpture.

4) I made some really yummy baked potato soup to celebrate the arrival of Fall :) 
{recipe here}

5) I surprised my little Ninja Turtle lover with a fun hoodie I thought he might like. With it being a little chilly this week, he's been able to wear it every day and couldn't be happier about it!

This was taken when he first tried it on. I promise he
does wear pants when he leaves the house.

6) After about a month of no desire to exercise from my crazy schedule, I'm going to try to get back into some running and walking. It sure felt great out there this week!

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

Leaves!

A couple Saturdays ago, a gorgeous weekend day, was the perfect day for some fun you can only have in the fall. When I was a kid, my sister and I looooved to rake leaves so we could jump in them. So much fun! I knew Grant would love it and we just happened to have a ton of leaves around our yard.

So I grabbed a rake (next time I'll use work gloves too...a thought I had only after getting a giant blister on my hand) and got Grant's tractor too and we set to work on our "big" pile.

Helping me gather leaves

After we started I remembered how much raking sucks. But I kept going. Every time I added more leaves Grant would ask "Can I jump in it now?" I'd say no and we'd work on getting more leaves. We don't have nearly the amount of leaves that some people do so I was gathering from all over the yard. Usually if I had some leaves that I was raking toward the pile, Grant would run over and grab an armload then take off toward his tractor to fill his loader...scattering the leaves all over again. He was having a ball. Eventually we had a pile big enough for jumping.

Now it was time to jump...

When the pile would flatten out enough, we'd build it back up...then more running and jumping.

Before we went inside to get ready for a nap, we pretty much dismantled the pile. Ok, Grant did. I think that was just as much fun for him as the jumping was. He ran through them, ran around in a circle in them, and was super excited to watch them fall when I told him to take big handfuls and throw them in the air.

I think this might have been my favorite fall day ever with Grant. He had so much fun! Later on when I took him for a bike ride, he kept pointing to the remains of our pile and asking to do it again the next and talking about how much fun it was. There are some things you just have to do as a kid and jumping in a big pile of leaves on a fall day is one of them!