Silly Sims

Just a few pictures of Sims before we went to church on Sunday.  He is such a ham!

And here he is running to the camera to see what the picture looks like.

This kid loves the camera!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday morning we took a trip to Durham to go to Ganyard Hill Farm.  They have a lot of activities for children, but the big draw is the pumpkin patch.  Sims loved it!  We took a lot of pictures, so be prepared for picture overload.

The farm had goats, pigs and cows.  Sims had never really seen any of these animals in real life, besides the passing cow along the side of road.  He loved the goats.  They were the only ones that showed him attention, and he was so excited to be able to touch and feed them.

The farm usually has a corn maze, and they even have one for the small kids made in the sorghum field.  Because of the drought this summer, the corn and sorghum didn't make it, but we enjoyed the walk anyway.

In the barn, they had a large corn pit set up.  I'm surprised we didn't find corn all over him afterward.

We all went on a hayride around the farm.

We picked cotton.

Then it was finally time to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins.

I think this may have to be a yearly tradition.  I bet Sims will love it even more next year.

An ordinary evening

Nothing special happening at our house this week, but here are some pictures of Sims before bedtime last night.

Sims loves to have his picture taken.  As soon as I take a picture of him, he runs to the camera to see the picture. He points at himself and sometimes lovingly head-butts his picture.  I don't exactly understand the head-butting thing.  Maybe he got that from the cats?  Isaac likes to show his affection by head-butting me.  Speaking of Isaac, here is a photo of him last night.

Graham was nowhere to be found, of course, since Sims was running around.

Sick weekend

Sims has been a bit of a sick boy recently.  He has a pretty nasty cough but seems in good spirits.  He didn't sleep well Friday night because of his coughing fits, which meant I had about 5 hours of interrupted sleep.  Not good, considering I had to work on Saturday at the university's Open House.  I'm the organizer of my department's efforts at Open House, so I have to be there early and stay late.  I was on my feet for 4+ hours talking to prospective students and trying to be happy and enthusiastic about our program.  Let's face it - that's exhausting!  It doesn't sound like much, but it wears me out every year.

Wouldn't you know it that soon after I got home in the early afternoon, I realized that I was more than exhausted.  I was getting sick.  So much for doing anything fun on Saturday.  I was feeling a little better on Sunday but not 100%.  Luckily, I'm feeling better today - just in time to go back to work.  Isn't that always the way?

I was so looking forward to a weekend at home.  Oh, well.  Maybe next weekend.  And after 10+ years of faithfully going to the Parade of Homes, we did not go this year, and I don't really mind.  Who am I?

First Night Away

This past weekend I spent my first night away from Sims.  Jason and I went to our dear friend, Joel's wedding in Asheville, so Sims spent the night in Shelby with my parents.  We all went to Shelby on Friday night, then Jason and I left for Asheville around lunchtime on Saturday.  The night away was not as difficult as I thought it would be (for me at least.  I can't speak for my mom, who needed an hour and a half nap after we picked Sims up on Sunday.)

The wedding was simple and beautiful, and the weather was amazing.  It was in the lower 80s without a cloud in the sky.  And to think that I had been stressed about being cold!  Jason got to see a lot of friends from high school, many of whom I had met in the early years of college.  It was nice to reconnect with them.  At the reception, they taught us how to do a lot of country dances, which included the Virginia Reel.  I felt like I was in one of my favorite old movies, Christmas in Connecticut.  I loved it!!! 
 

This one should make Jason laugh.  Does anyone notice anything strange here?




After the wedding, a group of us went to the Grove Park Inn for drinks.  A trip to Asheville is never complete without a visit to the Grove Park.

Shelby Fun

Last weekend in Shelby went by really fast.  I guess that's probably because we were pretty busy on Saturday with the shower, but we did get to have some fun while we were there.  Sims especially enjoyed his time with my parents' dog Murphy.  Finally an animal who will let Sims pet him!  Our cats want little do with him, even though Sims loves them so much!

Sims also loved spending some quality time with his Papa Smith.

Smith broke off a flower for Sims, and Sims tried to put it back on the bush.  So cute!

He also played a little piano for us.  This piano's a bit bigger that his baby baby grand, as we like to call it.

The guys got to go on a boat ride on Saturday, and Sims even got to steer the boat.

There sure were some brave men on that boat!

Neely's Shelby shower

This Saturday I helped host a shower for Neely in Shelby.  It was very sweet for Mom to let us use her house for the shower, and I think everything turned out great.  I was in charge of the invitations and cake.  For one of my showers, Neely did the invitations and cake, and I really wanted to do something equally special for her.  Here are a few pictures of the cake, favors, drinks, table (except I can't believe that I never got a picture with all of the food on the table):

I was thrilled about how the cake turned out, and I really like Baby Isla's monogram on it.  Here are some other pics from the shower:



Neely's mom, my Aunt Diane, Neely, Neely's Aunt Jamie, Neely's grandmother, my mom and me

my cousin Taylor, me, Neely, and my cousin Tonya

 While the ladies were showering Neely with gifts, some of the guys went out to lunch and then went on a boat ride.