Happy Birthday/Thanksgiving

Well, when you haven't posted in forever, you feel like you should post a really long post to make up for it. But I started typing and got too lazy, so I was in a tough spot. It occurred to me, however, that "a picture is worth a thousand words," so, in that spirit, here's a 13,000 word essay on what we've been doing:

That's right - it was Steven's birthday! He turned 4, so of course we repeated our tradition of burying all the presents underneath piles of balloons for him to search out. Then we went outside and played on the playset with all the friends who came over.

Poppa was nice enough to make some burgers and hot dogs for everyone.

Which everyone loved:

The birthday boy enjoying some of his presents:

And blowing out the candles on his cake:

Trying to figure out the pen/computer thing that Bobbie's parents gave him:

All of that happened on Saturday. On Monday, which was his actual birthday, Mommy took Steven and cousin Aubrey out for ice cream and a playtime on the McDonald's playroom thing.

The other big event to happen since we last posted was Thanksgiving. I asked Bobbie for a picture to post representing Thanksgiving and this is what she gave me. Food, of course.

In other news, I've been trying to supplement the family larder with my best efforts at hunting, which had proven a failure on the first two or three attempts. Finally, last week, I killed what I thought was a doe but turned out to be a small buck. Don't worry, we don't believe in killing things we're not going to eat. We've already enjoyed one meal of venison, and there are a lot more in the freezer.

I thought that we had missed our chance to see my Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Carolyn and their daughter Alicia when we had to shorten our trip, but they were able to come down for a visit here! We had a great time hanging out with the whole family over and Mom and Dad's house (remind me to tell you about how they got hooked up with a great house for their stay sometime).

It's been SO fun having the boys together with their grandparents these past few months. Here my mom is pulling them in the wagon as we all cleaned up the leaves from my in-laws' yard the other day.

And that will about do it. Tune in next week (or so; I promise I won't let it go this long again) for the latest adventures of the Wandering Family.

State Fair!

Ok, Ok, Ok. I know. Several of you have already reminded me that this blog needs to be updated with the State Fair and my award winning table. So, without further ado, here it is (warning: there are a LOT of pictures).

Since we last blogged, the North Carolina State Fair has come and gone. It's one of my favorite times of year here because it kicks off the start of all the festivities of the fall/winter. I took advantage of entering as many competitions as I could since it was free to enter. First, I entered the fine dining table-decorating contest. After much planning and a week of decorating, this was the finished product:

Luckily, the judges liked it as well since it won 2nd place. I'm selling autographed napkins online for the low cost of $29.99 but one of them can be yours for only $19.99 if you call now!

Well, winning just pumped me up further and I kept entering competitions (much to my family's dismay since they were my guinea pigs). The biggest one was the sweet potato cooking contest. There were 53 entrees and I came in 5th with my sweet potato dip and fried sweet potato chips. They said I would have won 1st if the chips had held up a little better (they were soggy by the time they actually got around to trying mine). Oh well, I'll still take 5th place!

So, what else did I do at the State Fair? Only my favorite pastime ever: EAT!!! And boy did I eat:

Deep fried mac and cheese

barbecue

roasted corn

and drink:

a North Carolina drink

I don't have pictures of all the foods I ate. That would make this blog too long!

Even dad got into it. Those of you who know him probably have a big smile on your face because you know how this man eats corn (kerrnels flying everywhere). Why do you think I was standing so far away to take this picture?

Of course, there is the food that I wanted to eat but didn't because I ran out of money. Like deep fried honey buns (yes Erin, people actually eat this) :)

There was also the famous Krispy Kreme doughnut bacon cheeseburger. I didn't edit this picture. Even God smiles on this (see the sparkle on the burger?).

And, there was always the interesting booths in between eating. Like this one:

the south will rise again

One day, we took the boys to the State Fair and I think they had a good time. Unfortunately, they were tired and were in bad moods (doesn't that always happen).

Once the State Fair was over, we prepared for Halloween. Since I didn't want to spend money on a costume, I decided to make my own. And, here is what I came up with:

NC State fans

I also wanted to try my hand at carving pumpkins. Not too bad for my first time (boy, I'm so modest).

Steven and Matthew were introduced to Trick or Treat at an event from a local family group. They needed a little guiding but once they got the hang of it, there was no stopping them.

Of course, Steven had to go down the ginormous bouncy slide thing a couple of hundred times. And, there was a costume contest. Steven didn't win.

And, what is Halloween without food?

Matching outfits.

Steven's first gun lesson:

That is it. I hope you made it this far. I had a lot to update. I hope you guys had a fun few days. Now, on to THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!