catching up - november

addison had her picture taken at school // i met keith bulluck before a titans game (and took shots with him. woo!) // addison saw santa at home depot // she then built something (what, i can't remember) // haley and i ran 5 miles on thanksgiving morning (and came in 2nd and 3rd in our age group!!) // addison and my mom ran a 5k that morning (addison got to lounge for part in her stroller but ran some too)

that was about all the excitement for november. well, not ALL. because addison turned 5!!!

the fair! the fair!

we love the fair. we took addison for the first time last year and had so much fun, so i knew i wanted to do it again this year.

we went on a sunday - the weather was perfect {aside from the rain right at the end} and we all got our hands stamped so we could get unlimited rides. addison definitely got the most out of her stamp. my mom and i probably just broke even, but it was much better than having to deal with tickets and such.

addison was big enough {and more adventurous enough} to want to do some other rides. we rode the tilt-a-whirl {or whatever it was called} two times in a row. she was a little scared at first, but after the first time, she ran back in line {and tried to cut some people} because she wanted to ride it again. i'm glad i hadn't had any fair food before that ride because it probably would've made a second appearance.

addison has decided to call the ferris wheel the merry-go-round. luckily we still knew what she was talking about. they had a smaller one that we rode right when we got there, and a big one that we rode towards the end. i'm not going to lie - i was a little scared. not so much before, but when we were on it - no thank you. but we survived. and it was fun. and most importantly, addison loved it.

and of course we got some fair food. my mom loves funnel cakes, so she and addison split one of those. i thought i should try some other fried food that you can only get at the fair {i got a fried snickers last year}, so i got fried reese's. oh. my. god. so good. i don't know if i'll want to try something different next year.

we also got roasted corn right before we left. i'm going to just say we broke even with that and the fried food {even though the corn was dipped in butter}.

i'm already ready to go back next year. who knew i would be so excited about the fair?

the start of spring

last weekend the weather was really nice. so we took advantage of it!

addison is a super star on her bicycle. so friday night we went to the park for her to show off her skills.

saturday we took the jeep out to get ice cream. and then had a bubble fight.

and now it's cold again. i can't wait for the weather to pick something and stick with it.

fall leaves

my mom made a big pile of leaves in the backyard last weekend.

addison ran around...

played...


and threw them.

i think she may have had just a little fun.

pumpkin patch

last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch. the same one we've gone to for the past two years.

addison had a blast, like in the past. and she didn't want to leave. surprise surprise.

it was a little {lot} warmer than i thought it was going to be. luckily, addison was wearing a jacket so she just took that off. not so much for me and my mom. we were pretty toasty. it was still fun though :)

we had to go on a hayride to get our free pumpkins. in the past, they just had the pumpkins out in the main area. but this year they had them a little ways away so you had to go on the hayride. they also had a new pumpkin shooter thing. addison and i did that. not well. but it was fun! i'm sure the guy who was working the thing was laughing at me.

now i just need to make addison's halloween costume and decorate and carve some pumpkins. yay halloween!!

fun times at the fair

monday night we ventured out to the wilson county fair.

i can't remember the last time i went to a fair.

i was supposed to have class that night, but it was cancelled. so we took that opportunity to go!

i don't really know what i expected.

and let me tell you -- i seriously had more fun than i ever could have imagined.

the rides at the fair are kind of pricey. it cost 3 tickets for the rides that addison could ride, and even more for adult rides. and each ticket was $1. so ya, a little steep. my mom thought it would be best if we just got addison's hand stamped, which cost $20, and it let her ride all the rides as many times as she wanted. and it was definitely worth it!


the fair had 4 of the same sort of ride, just different vehicles. they all went around in circles. there was a car, boat, motorcycle, and 4-wheeler. addison rode those at least 2 times each.

addison was so excited because there would be horses at the fair. she kept asking if she could ride one. she didn't get to ride any {although there were ponies at a different part of the fair, but she didn't ride those either because she had ridden ponies twice!! the day before}.

there was also a cow that addison kept trying to make moo. some man walked up beside her to see the cow and she asked him if he could make the cow moo. he, too, was unsuccessful.

when we got addison's hand stamped, the man asked why my mom and i weren't getting out hands stamped. we said that we didn't really plan on riding any rides, and that unless it was free, we weren't going to get it. and then he tried to be all sneaky and stamped my hand for free. score!

i'm not really a fair ride person. i'd prefer the rides that stay in one place and aren't capable of being packed up and moved. it just feels a little safer that way, ya know? so the stamp may have been a slight waste on me, but it did allow me to ride a couple rides with addison for free.

and i got to ride pretty much the only adult fair ride i'll ride. how many times can i say ride in a sentence? apparently at least 3. oh well. it's the swing ride. i love swinging. not the adult creepy swinging {gross!}, but the kid swinging like at the park. the swing ride was right by where addison's rides were. and i rode it!! fo free.

i rode with addison on the guerrilla spinny ride. such fun. there were 2 other little boys in there with us. their dad just dropped them off in there and left. they were cute and nice, though, so it was all good. and i spun us around a bunch. i may have gotten a little dizzy. maybe.

we also rode the elephant flying ride. this ride was probably as close to real fair rides as i'll get. if i hadn't been in there with addison, i'm pretty sure she would've fallen out. good thing i was there! she had fun though, so it was worth it.

can you tell it's a fake smile? oh well. i still like it :)

we also rode the carousel a few times. i felt like i was going to fall down while standing next to addison. but i didn't {go me!}.

gigi mainly wanted to go to the fair to get a funnel cake. she may say that she wanted to take addison, but i'm convinced it was mainly for the funnel cake :) she did share with addison, which was very kind of her.

and i indulged in the fair food and got a fried snickers. yes, fried snickers. and it was delicious. i kind of wish i had gotten a fried twinkie. but that will be on the menu at the next fair. addison didn't want any of mine, so i got it all to myself. and i ate every bite!

things we did at the fair that aren't pictured:

watched little piggies race. funny and entertaining. and the pigs got a treat after. win win.

the petting zoo. all of the animals were caged it, so it wasn't like a walk around and pet the animals. but you could stick your hand in and pet them. they had llamas {or emus. i don't really know the difference}, cows, camels {!!!}, goats, and turtles {they were very unexciting. but really, a turtle in a petting zoo?}. a goat bit addison's finger. but she was offering it like food, so what are ya gonna do? she was fine. i laughed.

the fair was a blast. it's a fabulous place to people watch and eat terribly unhealthy food. and there are tons of things for kids {and adults!} to do.

if you live in the area, you should definitely go. i think saturday is the last day, so get going!!

has anyone gone to the wilson county fair this year? or a fair around where you live?

fireworks + food + fun = the fourth

holidays always throw me off. what day is it again?

trust me, i'm not complaining. we had a fabulous holiday. filled with all things summer.

we got to watch fireworks 2 nights in a row. on the 3rd, we watched and ate ice cream.

on the 4th, we took a ride in the jeep to get everything we needed for a delicious lunch. addison helped in the kitchen. she was especially good helping with the fruit pizza. we had veggie burgers, corn {which we found out addison LOVES}, black bean salad, and deviled eggs.

ok, about this black bean salad. it is my new favorite. so delicious. i added a little more avocado than it calls for because i love me some avocado. seriously, make it. yum.

after lunch, we went to papa and mimi's {my dad and step-mom} to swim. we were able to get in some quality pool time before having to head home.

as soon as we got home, we went to the park for the firetruck foam. they were spraying foam from the firetruck {if you didn't get that from the description}. dude, holy foam. in most places, it was higher than addison. luckily for me, i was still in my bathing suit, so i got in there with her {i was a little scared she would fall down and be lost in a sea of foam}. needless to say, she loved it.

we headed back home to hang out until the fireworks. we continued the festivities and had some fruit pizza as a snack. then addison had a hotdog for dinner. what's more american than that??

we headed back over to the park a little before the fireworks were supposed to start. turns out, they started almost 20 minutes late. and 20 minutes is a lot when it's already an hour past bedtime.

the fireworks finally started {they weren't near as good as the night before, though}. we didn't stay for the whole show, but we could see the finale pretty well from our house.

addison promptly passed out. holidays are pretty exhausting, if i do say so myself.

our fourth was fab, and i hope everyone else's was the same!!

pumpkin patch

last weekend we ventured out to the pumpkin patch.

we went to the same one as last year. i seriously cannot believe how much addison has changed. she looks so tiny in the pictures from last year!

this year she got to do a lot more. it wasn't as crowded as it was last year, so that was really nice. it felt amazing, too. addison is a whole lot more outgoing than she was last year and she wanted to do everything.

they had a thing full of corn that the kids could play in. i wanted addison to do it last year, but since it was really crowded, she didn't get to. she did this year though! and she loved it. she actually did it twice. and she had corn all in her short. saving it for later, i guess.


addison really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. she was especially excited about feeding the goats.


i love how excited she looks in this picture.



she played with the donkeys too.


they had little cows pulled by a 4-wheeler, and addison was all about that. she did it twice. she wanted me to go with her the first time, but when it was her turn, she ditched me.


she wanted to go a second time, and i wanted to go with her. i thought it would be fun.

ya, i was wrong. i thought the cow was going to tip over. other parents rode with their kids, so i knew it wouldn't tip over, but i was scared. i just closed my eyes the whole time. but addison had a blast! she yelled "weeeeeeeeeeee!" and "yay!!!!!!" the whole time.



she wasn't too excited about picking out a pumpkin because we told her we had to leave after that. but we let her run around and gather different pumpkins to choose from. she was pretty proud of her choices.



i guess she decided she wanted to show off and she grabbed two.


she passed out 10 minutes into the ride home. guess 3 hours at the pumpkin patch wears a kid out.

randomness

wow.

i just noticed that i only blogged 3 times last month.

that's sad.

i've just been so busy with school. and i haven't really taken many pictures with my good camera. just my phone since it's so convenient.

so, i've decided i'm going to start doing some randomness posts. it will just include some random pictures and things that we have done recently. i did one last month, and it was good for me to just throw things together and actually write a post.


addison passed out in the car the other day. how uncomfortable does that look? i tried to wake her up multiple times so she could just readjust, but she would still end up in that position. she has also gotten really sweet with her baby dolls {sometimes}. she will read them books and gently put them in bed. and other times she'll put them in time out. cute and funny, either way.


this past weekend there was a halloween thing going on in the shopping center close to us. i don't know why they did a halloween thing so early, but we took advantage of it! they had a whole section of the parking lot blocked off, as well as the whole main area filled with bounce things, face painting stations, and food making booths. she played in one of the bounce things and then got on the big slide one. i didn't know how she'd do on that, but she did great! a lot of the bigger kids would climb over/around her, but she didn't care. she loved it! hey also had booths set up all around the parking lot with companies giving out candy. so addison got a little practice trick-or-treating. and they even had a firetruck for the kids to "drive"! addison tried to put it in gear. luckily, she was unsuccessful.


and last but not least, i have recently enjoyed making potato head people with addison. she is pretty good at making them, but she sometimes wants me to help. so i made a happy potato couple.

that was our excitement for the past couple of weeks. hopefully i'll be able to keep up with the randomness posts just so i'll actually have something to post!

beach ride

my mom got addison a jeep at a yard sale a few months ago.

for some reason, she calls it her beach. i guess jeep and beach do kind of sound the same, but not really. we correct her and she'll say jeep, but she always goes back to beach at some point.

she rode it a few times, but since it was so hot this summer she didn't get to ride it that much.

she got to take it out the other day since it was really nice. my friends maegen and haley came over to play, so they got to go too!


i'll go ahead and say that addison is a horrible driver. she hasn't grasped the concept of steering. hopefully she'll catch on soon. we've been working on it, but it hasn't been very successful.

she got tired of driving her beach when we were almost home, so i just drove it home. it wasn't the most comfortable ride, and i'm sure i looked like a fool. like i care. it was better than having to push it home.

hopefully we can work on the whole steering thing and she can ride it a whole lot more. i didn't know i'd have to teach my almost 3 year old how to drive.

pony ride

when i was younger, my dad would always take me to ride ponies when they were in town.

since addison is old enough to do that now, my dad has been on the lookout for ponies around town. he took her while i was on my big girl vacation for the first time, and she loved it!

he saw that there were ponies in town last weekend, so we all went! she definitely looks like she knows what she's doing.






they had 2 bounce things there too, so she played on those after. it's crazy watching her do everything all by herself!

she had so much fun! hopefully we can take her back soon!

fun at the fountains

last week i took addison over to the fountains at indian lake {an outdoor shopping center nearby}.

i forgot that hendersonville was having some water issues. apparently due to the heat, something is in the water. they're working on cleaning it {or fixing it. i don't know}. but, needless to say, the water smelt pretty bad.

the fountains were still on and there were other kids playing, so i just let addison play with them. i figured she'd be fine as long as she didn't drink much of it.

luckily, i had a cup in my car that she could play with because all of the other kids had cups too. didn't want her to feel left out!








and of course addison made new friends...



it was so hot outside, so i didn't last long. it gets hot really fast when you're not in the water!

addison had lots of fun. she had a bath as soon as we got home because she smelt a little bad {maybe more than a little}.

i'm sure we'll be going back. hopefully they get the water fixed soon!