Monday, November 6, 2017

NC State Fair 2017

Thursday is one of my "days off," so I decided to take the boys to the fair that day. It was also Free Can Day (bring in 5 cans for donation and you receive a free entry ticket) - I may have to research which day is the best in the future!

After walking around for a bit to get my bearings, we headed to the Old Time area and stopped for some fresh apple cider. $3 a cup means we all share one cup Brock! The sun was in Kade's eyes (my Seattle babies). :(

We explored the rabbit exhibit and Brock pointed excitedly to this "Cow Rabbit". He even asked to take a picture with it!


And this is for my WA friends - that right there is tobacco! Yup, proud North Carolinians we are. ;)

Brotherly love - Kade was trying to get Brock to hold his hand.

While waiting in line for some french fries, I turned to find Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A were also in attendance!

The fries were really good hot, but as they cooled down, they were ehh. One plate for fries, one plate for our ketchup please!

After checking out the blue ribbon pumpkin, we headed over to check out the baby animals. One section of baby chicks under the heat lamp and behind the cardboard wall were eggs just hatching!

As promised, we headed to the kiddie ride section to find out most rides were 36" and up! Poor Kade was definitely under that measurement!! What to do, what to do.... and then we found just three rides that were 32" and up! Thank goodness! Brock would not ride without Kade so he went on all those rides as well. Hopefully next year Kade will be able to ride on the "big ones."

Video of them going around and around and around....

Look at that smile on Kade! They seem to both have that smirky smile.... I wonder where they got it from.....

Ride Two.... tractors.

Ride Three..... Jeeps!

Finish our morning with a lovely ice cream covered with sprinkles!!

It looked so tasty with all those rainbow sprinkles! ...... but as you can imagine....and as I knew would happen one of these days..... one of those ice cream cones found its way to the ground and we had one very unhappy little boy.
No picture was taken of the carnage, but Brock's ice cream met its demise on the grass, ice cream side down. I tried to recover the cone and slopped some of Kade's very large ice cream (that he had no business eating all of) to cover the damage, but unfortunately the mood was irreversible. That ended our very happy and busy day at the fair.

Thank you to Papa for purchasing our tickets - the boys loved seeing all the animals, exhibits and rides. And we really did have a great time up to the ice cream event. Perhaps next time we'll be able to stay a little longer!

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Miscellaneous October Fun


Brent was struggling with some bad luck fishing lately.... so we were all SO PROUD of him for finally catching some good quality fish!! He usually cleans and filets the fish at the dock, but he brought it home so the kids could see the actual fish he caught - nope, not doing that again. Fish guts = complete mess!


Diesel enjoyed the fish though. He laid claim to it right away!

Numerous poses with the first real great catch!!

I couldn't find Kade one day.... calling him, calling him.... and I open Brent's closet to find him like this on Oscar. What a family dog you turned out to be!

The pumpkins we picked out from the family farm we visited were just not big enough for one we wanted to carve, so up the street we went (with Brent) to pick up a BIG one. My goodness was this a hard decision for my boys!

Totally lost with so many choices.

We finally chose one!!

Happy smiles with our little pumpkins too!

Two days later, Kade was quarantined for coming down with croup. This is now the third time he's had it in less than 12 months - we will be making an appointment with an allergy doctor again soon.

Of course that was the same weekend Brian, Nancy, and Maddox came up to visit. Brock was excited to meet his little cousin. I just don't think he knew what to do!

Love this picture - Maddox is ready to give some fist bumps!

Maddox was getting ready for bathtime and hanging out on his playmat.

I showed Brock how to let Maddox hold his finger. He did like that interaction a lot more than just holding him.

Brock also liked poking (very gently, I made sure) his very squishy belly. I think Maddox liked it too!

Lastly, there are some big changes in the Eason household. I re-entered the workforce, working part-time at my previous NC employer.  I love it - being able to talk to other adults, use my brain, contribute to the community and financially to the household. The boys are getting used to the changes too, but I think they love breakfast with Daddy and how Daddy takes them to school now!

Another perk of my job.... when I accidentally print duplicate pages of plans, they make awesome coloring pages for the boys!

Friday, November 3, 2017

Naylor Family Farm Fun

The boys and I headed way south of Fuquay-Varina for a pumpkin patch/farm activities in early October. The first thing that caught Brock's eye was this HUGE inflatable bouncy pad! Brock loved it, but it was a little hard for Kade to maneuver.

Here's a great action shot of Brock and shows a bit of the wooden platform they have above part of the corn maze. (No, I did not think entering the corn maze with those two by myself would have been a good idea!) There's also a cool foam blaster game that Brock was literally 1" too short to play - he needed that one more inch to load the ball in to the blaster (photo below).

It was also a really hot day. It's a little different for us to go pumpkin picking and wear shorts/t-shirts and still be SWEATING. There was no relief from the sun on that walkway - the silos on each corner were like mini saunas!

While Brock jumped, Kade was keeping his eyes on this chicken that apparently escaped his enclosure and would pursue you if you turned your back on it!

Thankfully the animals were in the shade (but so were the flies).

We really need to get him out more. Asking my two year old what animal this was, he responded "horse!" Ummm.... no.

Kade the cowboy!

Not really for riding, but whatevs.

I am one person. I can only lift one child up at a time. Brock so wanted to be able to do it himself.

Finally what I thought was the coolest part (figuratively and literally). They took us on a tractor ride (no hay here). Naylor's Farm has a cute 15 minute route to the pumpkin patch through the woods with spiders and "pumpkin monster heads" - Kade must have reminded me of that particular feature about 100 times since that day! It was great because it was just scary enough for Brock that he really enjoyed it. At one point Kade actually buried his head in to me because he was scared of the spiders.

Do you see spider hanging down from a branch over the tractor? Some of them moved as we drove by or were positioned low enough that the spider legs brushed in to your head. I guess it could be scary for a 2 year old!

We made it out of the spooky forest and in to the pumpkin patch!!

The boys would barely stay still for a photo!

We picked out two pumpkins (because that's all I could carry back to the tractor) and loaded them right in the Highlander when our tractor returned. I promised Brock one more jump on the bouncy pad, then we were all sweaty and ready for some air conditioning!

What a different landscape from Seattle! Still getting used to these warmer days lasting longer through the year!

And one more really great picture of Brock and Brent smiling for the camera.