A Fair Day

School was closed for a Professional Day today (I know, it just started!) and Adam wasn't working, so we headed off to the Maryland State Fair this morning. The weather was still fairly cool when we got there, but it was definitely steamy by the time we left. We looked at most of the animals, although Drew refuses to go near the chickens, plus I forced them to go through the Home Arts building. I love looking at all of the fruits, vegetables, canned goods and baked goods. One of these days, maybe I'll enter something.

Drew was ok with most of the animals, but he really does not like the chickens. We almost got him to walk by them, until one of the roosters started crowing. Then, no way! In the picture below, he's about as close to a chicken as he's going to get, and this one isn't even real. He doesn't mind eating them, though--he would eat chicken and fries for three meals a day if we let him.

Adam and I tried to talk him into riding the big Ferris Wheel, but he absolutely refused. He rode the kiddie bulldozers, boats, dragons and train and then finally went on the big spinning dragons with Adam. He said maybe he'd get on the Ferris Wheel next time.

We had about as much fun as we were going to have by 2:30, so we headed north to do some grocery shopping. We stopped at Springfield Farm in Sparks, MD where we got some eggs, bacon, flank steak and ice cream (the ice cream is made by the Sylvan Beach Foundation in Baltimore). Drew was asleep when we got to the farm, so Adam stayed in the car with him. I think he had his fill of farm animals anyway.

We left the farm and took a roundabout route to my favorite grocery store--Wegmans! It was close to dinner time, so we did some shopping and had dinner too. Adam had pizza, Drew had chicken noodle soup and I had sushi. Quite a strange combo. Drew wanted to try some of my "lettuce" (actually seaweed salad) and pronounced it good. Could California roll be far behind?

1st Day of School

Today was Drew's first day of school for thia year. He was very excited to get back to riding the bus and seeing his friends every day. He almost didn't have a bus, though, but things got straightened out as of 6:20 this morning. Miss Paula is the (p.m.) teacher you see in the picture. My picture of Miss Gail didn't turn out, so I'll have to try to get another one later. Miss Paula had Drew for his first year of preschool and she's the head of the program at Deep Run, so I'm very confident he's in good hands.

The next picture was taken as he got on the bus. He has his brand-new Spiderman backpack with his Cars lunch bag to take with him today.

Here he is after getting off of the bus. I'm not sure that he's unhappy with coming home from school or with getting his picture taken. He has started say "No pictures, Mommy" again, but that's not going to stop me.

Party Weekend

It was a really busy weekend around here. Enough over-stimulation for everyone! On Friday morning, Drew was determined to try out his new bubble gun. As you can see, he was still in his pajamas when he went out on the deck. The thing can make 3000 bubbles a minute or something ridiculous like that.

After breakfast, Drew and I had to head to school to meet his teachers and see his new classrooms. He has a new teacher in his old classroom in the morning and a previous teacher in a new classroom in the afternoon. Confusing, isn't it? He also gets to eat lunch in the cafeteria now. We'll see how that works out. School starts Wednesday. I can't wait!

At lunch time, Carole and Alex came over to the house. Alex had lunch with Grandma, Drew and me, and Adam and Carole went to buy Drew's big birthday present from us (other than the bike which he got a couple of months ago). That's Sally the guinea pig that Alex is holding. Adam and Carole did a great job. She's very cute and very sweet, and Drew is very excited about having a pet.

Grandpa rolled into town around dinner time, and we had nice (if late) dinner together.

Saturday turned out to be the hottest day of the year. Of course, we had planned for people to spend some time outside for Drew's party, but that wasn't going to happen. Drew and Pat went out to buy a canopy, and that at least helped to keep the house somewhat cool even if it didn't provide as much shade as we had hoped. Still, we had a great time. The food was good and the company was great. At one point, we had 17 people in the house which you know if you've been here is too many. It was pretty boisterous, but, then again, it can get pretty loud in here with just 4 or 5 people (not that my family is loud or anything).

The adults in this picture don't look like a bundle of laughs, though, do they?

However, the kids had a great time finding new ways to use party hats.

On Sunday, I spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the church yard sale (we made almost $1000!), and Grandma, Adam and Drew headed home after church to have lunch. Then, after an early dinner, it was time for Grandma to head to the airport. Drew fell asleep in the car just before 6 and was out for the night.

I think he really enjoyed his birthday. He got lots of presents, but I think he enjoyed spending time with his family almost as much as getting presents. I know, that won't last, but we'll take it while we can get it.

Happy Birthday Drew!

Today was Drew's 5th birthday. He has been so excited all week and hasn't stopped confirming and reconfirming that it was in fact his birthday on Thursday. He also wanted me to remember that he was having a party on Saturday. I guess I can't be trusted to remember these things on my own.

Unfortunately, Adam had to work today, but we did have a big breakfast of waffles and bacon before he left. Then, Drew and I didn't have much time to lounge around because we had to head to church so I could price all of the stuff that people had donated for our yard sale on Sunday (I'm co-coordinator). After I was finished with that job, we went to have lunch with Aunt Carole, Hailey and Alex at Chick-Fil-A. It might not sound like the best lunch place, but at least I was able to talk him out of McDonald's.

After some quiet time at home, we headed out to the airport around 5 to pick up Grandma and then met Aunt Pattee at Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner. Pattee and I were telling Drew about the night he was born, but he didn't seem to believe anything we were telling him. All Drew really cared about was drinking his vanilla milk shake and trying to open the present Pattee brought him. You might not be able to tell what it is from the picture, but it's a giant battery operated bubble machine. He's been asking for one of these things for weeks, and I've been holding it over his head trying to get good behavior. Anyway, he was thrilled to finally get the thing.

After dinner, we went home and Drew opened his presents from Grandma. He got some great clothes for school which I know he liked, but he was only interested in the stickers, candy and water bottle that she also gave him.

He was pretty wound up by the time he went to bed, and I realized that an unlimited intake of sugar (ice cream twice in one day not to mention juice and pancake syrup and who knows what else) makes for a very long day.

RIP Wild Bill

Wild Bill Hagy died today at age 68. I saw the news on the Baltimore Sun website and was very saddened. Dad, Andy and I regularly went to games back in Wild Bill's heyday, and we often sat in or near Section 34 in Memorial Stadium to be part of the fun. It's interesting -- I don't pay attention to or much care about baseball anymore, but reading about his passing brought back so many memories ("Come on Ken -- hit it in the bull pen" and "Leeeeee Maaayyyyy" not to mention "Give that fan a contract!"). It felt like everybody was part of they game, or, at least, we could help the players along with our show of support.

Things certainly were never the same when the Orioles moved from Memorial Stadium to Camden Yards (not to take anything away from Cal Ripken or any of the other great players we used to have), but I tend to be a reactionary anyway.

Those were fun times, and it makes me want to take Drew to some games. Probably the Frederick Keys or the Bowie Baysox, though.

But, in Wild Bill's memory, here's one last:

(With straw hat waving) O R I O L E S !!!

Scott's Visit

This week has been our usual busy "where did it go? week. I worked on Thursday so Adam and Drew got to hang out all day together. Adam figured out that the new Lowe's was open near our house so they spent some time at the "tractor store". Drew got this cool hard hat for free -- it the real deal too (it's even OSHA compliant). I was very jealous that they went without me, but we took a quick trip on Friday. I could have spent much more time in the store, but I'll have to go back and browse when Drew is at school.

On Friday afternoon, my cousin Scott came over (he actually got to town on Thursday night), and we hung out for a little while before he headed over to another friend's for the evening. He had originally planned to spend the night at Andy's, but Carole was letting Hailey have a High School Musical 2 sleepover, so he quickly changed his plans.

On Saturday, we thought Scott would be back over fairly early, but he got hung up at his friend's house, so Drew and I headed to the pool with Aunt Carole, Hailey and Alex in the afternoon. Drew put on this outfit to go to the pool--I'm not quite sure why he thinks a bowtie is appropriate pool attire, but, luckily, he didn't actually wear it into the pool area.

After the pool, we headed back to Andy and Carole's for dinner, and Scott finally showed up too. We had steak on the grill and got to eat outside in the lovely unseasonable August weather. Drew and I headed home around 8, but I heard that Scott, Andy and Carole stayed up way past their bedtimes.

Right before we left, Drew came upstairs with some toys. Alex and Hailey are purging some of their toys, and Alex very kindly gave some to Drew. You can't see them all, but there's Clifford, Tigger and Roo, Thomas Bear and Bear. Drew was very excited and had to sleep with all of them. I did have to threaten him with taking Tigger away if he didn't stop playing his song.

Outer Banks and Barbecue

We headed out of town on Wednesday (August 8th) for a short trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Adam and I had never been there, and we were really looking forward to checking it out for future vacation possibilities. We made it to Williamsburg, VA in time for lunch so we stopped at one of our favorite barbecue places, Pierce's Pitt for a couple of pulled pork sandwiches. We ate here at least three times when we were on vacation in Williamsburg in 2005, and we had been talking about it ever since. We weren't disappointed with our return trip.

We got back on the road again and made it to the Wright Memorial Bridge around 3:30 pm. We wound up staying at the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills which is a little bit tired, but it was oceanfront, not to mention free. As soon as we got checked in, we headed to the beach, but we didn't stay long, because it was unbelievably hot (they set a record for temperature that day) and Drew was really afraid of the waves. We headed to dinner with the intention of eating at one place but wound up at the Pier House at the Nags Head Fishing Pier. The food was just ok, but we enjoyed walking out on the pier after dinner. Adam talked to several of the fisherman, and some of them are real die-hards, out there for hours every day. Remind you of anyone?

After our walk on the pier and a short drive, we stopped for ice cream at The Snow Bird in Nags Head. They have 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream, at least three of which I now know are delicious. I'm just sorry that we weren't in town longer to try more flavors.


Our hotel had a mascot, Sabrina the cockatoo. Drew really didn't want to go near her (neither did Adam for that matter), but he got a little bit less afraid of her as time went on. Luckily, he can't read yet, so the sign couldn't scare him.

On Thursday, we headed to our appointment to attend a timeshare presentation at Barrier Island Station - Kitty Hawk (that's why we had the free hotel room). Drew had a great time in their playroom, and the presentation wasn't bad--it was actually sort of informative. We managed to get out of there without buying anything even though the sales manager tried to tell us that we were stupid if we continued to pay for hotel rooms. I must have had my "don't push me" vibe going, because he didn't waste more than 5 minutes on us.

We got a late lunch at the Good Life Gourmet on the way back to the hotel. Drew had already eaten lunch so we let him have a root beer since that is now his favorite drink (Grandmom and Granddad let him have some last week). It was SO delicious! (One of his favorite expressions right now, and oh so annoying to his cousin, Alex)

We got back to the hotel and headed right to the beach (in the 100 degree heat). Drew was much braver this time, and he and Adam went in the water together. After that, every time Adam went out in the water by himself, Drew would run up to the edge and yell "I'll save you Daddy!" I didn't manage to get any beach pictures--I guess I didn't want to get the camera all sandy.

Coincidentally, we were in town at the same time as some friends (which we found out at the wedding we attended last week). We arranged to get together for dinner Thursday night at Barefoot Bernies in Kitty Hawk. We found out the hard way that you need to go out really early for dinner in the Outer Banks, otherwise you're in for a long wait. We had an hour wait for our table, so Drew was in fine form by the time we sat down to eat. We managed to make it through the meal with a couple of trips outside the restaurant, and we enjoyed spending time with Dan, Lisa and Amber.

That night (actually early the next morning) we had an amazing thunderstorm right over our heads. The storm was about as close as they can get with almost no time between lightning and thunder-- it was incredibly loud. Drew slept right through it, of course. It didn't cool things off, either.

On Friday, we headed north to Duck and Corolla to do some gawking and to see the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. We drove all the way to the end of Highway 12 where you can only continue if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I didn't take this picture, but this is exactly how it looks. The road just ends at the beach.

We headed back and went to the lighthouse where we had to wait for about 30 minutes for the privilege of climbing to the top. The heat index inside the building was somewhere around 120 degrees, but they had fans on every couple of landings so it wasn't unbearable. The view was beautiful from the top, even though it was a pretty hazy day. Drew did a great job of climbing the stairs (all 214) to the top. He was a little freaked out coming down (the whole looking down thing), but he did it and then kept saying "That was a piece of cake!"


After lunch at the Red Sky Cafe in Duck, we hit the road for home. We drove through another storm, and, thankfully, this one actually cooled things down. By the time we got to Fredericksburg and stopped for dinner, it was cool enough to eat outside which we did at Allman's Barbeque. So, we started and ended our trip with barbecue. Life is good.

Happy Birthday Carole!

Yesterday was Carole's birthday, but I didn't get around to posting until today. I think she'll still be celebrating until about mid-month, though, when she has another party with her twin brother, Mark, in New Jersey. Drew did feel the need to tell me today that it's "not Aunt Carole's birthday anymore" This is real progress--he kept saying "Happy Mother's Day" until June. It's hard to understand that holidays and birthdays are just one day.

Anyway, I think Carole had fun yesterday. Her friend Margaret brought over something called a "Margarator" which was basically a giant cooler which dispensed margaritas. What more could you want? There were multiple dogs (they've been dog-sitting all week) and kids running around so it was quite loud, although loudness is not an unusual phenomenon. Andy made his awesome hamburgers on the grill, and we got to see Dad and Melva again (we'd just seen them the day before because they watched Drew while Adam and I went to a wedding). We all ate ice cream cake and sang Happy Birthday (cha cha cha) before leaving on a good note (leaving on a good note is being worked on).

I won't tell how old she is, but maybe you can guess. We had a great time celebrating with her, even if she wasn't particularly looking forward to this birthday.