Fall Festival

We got to go to our church's fall festival on Saturday night. Hailey was a farmer this year. She is SO into animals that we knew we needed to find a costume to reflect that. I figured that dressing her like a farmer meant she could also carry some kind of farm animal stuffed animal, which is her other favorite thing.
This is the best I could get before we left the house...

But here are a few better ones, just without the pig.

I absolutely loved this on her! And to make it even better we didn't have to buy anything! She already had the jeans and boots, and we found the stuffed pig at Grams house. And I was telling our neighbor about her costume and she said that she had a plaid shirt we could borrow so I didn't even have to buy that! Score!

Anyways...at the fall festival we immediately got in line for the pony rides. We knew Hailey would want to do that first. Well, it was a long line so Ryan and I took turns standing in it while the other one took her to the bounce houses. Let me tell you, this girl loves to bounce! I'm pretty sure we spent almost half of our time here. And this one had a slide which made it even better!

Look at that happy face!

We finally made it to the pony ride. Hailey had to know the names of all of them and then choose the one she wanted. The whole time she was talking about their mane and how to hold onto the horn so she didn't fall.

After the pony rides we went inside to play games and get candy! Hailey did pretty well with the games and actually played almost all of them.

After the games, they had face painting in the lobby and we knew that Hailey would want to do that. She actually told the girl that she wanted to be a cat. Totally decided by herself!

I tried to get a selfie with my farmer before the face painting but no luck...

We ran into one of the other pastor's and his little girl who was dressed like a pig so we had to take a picture of them together. They were so cute!

 After the pictures we went on a hayride around the parking lot and then decided to call it a night. We all had a blast at the fall festival with our friends and are looking forward to more dress up fun this Friday night!

NC State Fair

Friday morning we visited the NC State Fair. We took Hailey the first year we lived here,

but last year left her at home and made it a date night.

This year, we knew we had to take her because she would love it. She loves people watching, walking around anywhere and we thought she might even enjoy the rides. Well she loved it all! We got to see lots of animals: chickens, roosters, baby chicks, goats, horses, cows and bunnies to name a few.

getting a better view of the goats

I had heard good things about the UNC TV tent; that they had free games for kids and PBS characters stuff so we made sure to stop by. Hailey had a ball playing their games, seeing her favorite characters and she even got a bag with Curious George on it!

She was obsessed with this waterfall. We had to go back and see it about 6 times while we were at the fair. I think she liked feeling the mist coming off of it.

If you ask Hailey what her favorite part of the fair was she will tell you riding the ferris wheel. When we told her Friday morning that we were going to the fair she immediately asked if she could ride the ferris wheel. I didn't even know that she knew what a ferris wheel was! Apparently, a Calliou book that we saw at the library had one in it...So Ryan got a few ride tickets and we got in line for the ferris wheel. I honestly didn't think she would go through with it but she did! Ryan rode with her and said she loved it! He said she had no fear of heights and wanted to look out over the edge. I kept reminding him to hold on tight to her as they were getting on!

This was actually as they were getting ready to get off

they're about halfway up in this picture

Ryan's view

She came off the ride ready for more! Since we had a few tickets left we searched for one that she was tall enough to ride. The teacups won! She loved this one too! Ryan said she didn't get dizzy at all and kept asking him to spin it.

As we were leaving the kid area, Hailey saw this little fishing game and asked to play it. After we saw that it was a guaranteed win we agreed to let her play.

 She chose a stuffed shark as her prize and immediately tried to give it to Daddy. She is so giving and loves to share with her Daddy!

 I think it's safe to say that a trip to the State Fair is now a part of our yearly traditions here in Raleigh!

Off to Tennessee!

Last week/weekend we traveled to Charlotte and Tennessee again. It will be our last trip for a little while...I've loved seeing family, but am ready for a few weekends at home! Anyways, we drove to Charlotte on Wednesday in preparation for our drive to Tennessee on Thursday. Wednesday night we stayed at Grams and Das' house and Hailey had to try out Grams' rollers.

And then Das built her and Tucker a fort and let her use a flashlight!

Thursday we left around lunchtime for Tennessee. But that morning Hailey got a special treat...going thru the car wash! She just giggled the whole time!

Thankfully we rode with my parents so I could entertain Hailey while someone else drove. The highlight of her car trip was stopping at the giant Bass Pro store. Girly girl had to bring her purse in with us.

 And of course drive the boats.

Before we even went to Granny's house and unloaded our stuff, we had to stop at BJ's to ride Ting Ting. Hailey's only been talking about it since last Christmas.

She may have almost fallen off once. I was right beside her and caught her before she totally fell. But the "cowgirl" that she is got back on and rode some more!
She also got to watch the cows,

 and visit the chickens and goats while we were there.

Friday afternoon we drove to Nashville to Gigi's house. While we were there we made a worm friend,

 played with the scarecrow and saw Jacob and Mitsey!

She was so funny with this scarecrow. She was looking at it and said, "It has a carrot nose. That's silly! Scarecrows don't have carrot noses. Only snowmen do!"

Saturday morning Mary Katherine, Justin, Julie, Trey, Mack and Tucker arrived. Hailey spent like half an hour playing in Justin's car with him. It was hilarious! Then a little cousin bonding time...

That afternoon we went to David (my uncle's) reception for he and his new wife Pat. Unfortunately it was right at naptime and I had a very grouchy girl so I didn't get any pictures of her in her cute dress. Oh well... After the reception we went back to Jamestown to Granny's house and fed the fish.

Then we were up and out of there early Sunday morning for the trip back to Charlotte. Hailey did ok in the car, considering how much we were in it (at least 2 hours everyday for 5 days). But that morning we had to pull out all the stops. We stopped a rest stop for new "books"

and she even got to go on a treasure hunt in Grams' purse where she found a measuring tape that kept her entertained for a good 10 minutes.

When we got back to Charlotte we went up to Mimi and Poppi's house to spend the next two days. Mimi was gracious enough to watch Hailey while I attended a conference to keep up my teaching certificate. She had a ball making breakfast for the dinosaurs (the same dinosaurs Daddy played with as a kid)

 playing with Mimi's antique high chair/stroller,

and making cute turkey crafts!

We had so much fun visiting family in Charlotte and Tennessee but we were glad to get home Tuesday afternoon! Truth be told, Mommy was glad to get home and back on a normal sleep schedule... We had a big surprise waiting for us when we got back. Daddy had finished Hailey's big girl bedroom! Pictures of that to come...