Fall Festival & Fair

On Friday night I took the kids to their Fall Festival at school. They have a pumpkin decorating contest each year and it has been a lot of fun to design and create pumpkins. Grace has hers facing wrong in this picture, the orange spot is on the bottom and didn't show. She won 2nd place! Super fun.  Painting pumpkins seems so much easier and more fun then carving. I tried to convince the kids we didn't need to do any others. But really, I love Halloween and carving pumpkins is just part of the fun.

Friends at the Festival  Nora, Grace, Abby & Sophie  

A few weeks ago Luke asked me if he had ever been to a fair. Made me sad! I love the fair! Just not the lame Greensboro one that is really a trashy carnival with a few chickens and rabbits. I was determined this year to take the kids to the State Fair in Raleigh. Of course life got in the way a bit and we made it on the next to last day. It was packed. So, so, so many people. But it was a beautiful Fall day and we made the best of it and had a good time. 

 

 Noah is having some smile issues with his retainer. This is what he does when you ask him to smile on demand. I guess his mouth really does feel different.

 Sophie and Luke on a ride I would have loved as a kid.

 I couldn't pass up this photo opportunity. When Jason was a kids is family would call him the Hulk when he got mad. Just thought it was fun. And silly. And I am a Smith. Too bad no one ever makes this picture scenes with room for 10 faces.


 My kids sampling their first funnel cake. Sophie and Grace wouldn't even look up for the picture! We also had cotton candy. Well, Grace and Noah had a whole bag to themselves. Sophie and Luke discovered they take after me and don't like it. Fair food. Sophie asked me to explain what a corn dog was. The lines were way too long. I wished I could have just gone and gotten one for her. We were all pretty exhausted at that point in the day. I saw advertisments for things I had no idea of or even what they meant. Like Krispy Kreme hamburgers? Really? Donut hamburgers? They also had Krispy Kreme breakfast sandwiches. Something called Frito pie and lots of others I don't remember. Sophie was upset we passed by the deep fried oreos. Our neighbor made some once and shared them with us. I told her maybe we could make some for FHE sometime.

I love this picture of Sophie and Grace. The very best part of the day for me was hearing my kids laugh and have fun. Grace and Noah just giggle and laugh their whole way through rides. Luke and Sophie are more screamers. I had prepped the kids that they were going to be able to go on 2 rides each. Right when we got to the fair a man leaving walked up and asked if we could use the rest of his ride tickets. Another woman walked up while we were waiting in a ride line and gave us hers also. We ended up with triple the amount we bought and the kids got to go on lots of rides. I said a prayer of gratitude each time. It was so nice of both of them. I'm not sure why either of them chose us, but we were so appreciative and grateful. As a family we have been praying and working on serving each day. It was nice for me to have my kids experience what it felt like to receive someone's act of love and service.