Our Busy Friday

Kate's 1st 'Homework'

Kate's teachers got each student a canvas bag and sent it home with the assignment to decorate it however they wanted.  We had a big time at Wal-Mart picking out things to decorate Kate's bag.  She wanted to paint with orange paint and picked out an orange and hot pink trim and multi-colored iron-on flowers.  We worked on it Friday morning and will add the finishing touches today.  Here is our resident artist hard at work!

Fun at the Farm

Our friends Nathan and Andi Knight live in a house that is part of a 600 acre farm.  We went out there Friday morning to play with Andi and their baby Judah.  It was absolutely beautiful...pastures as far as you can see in every direction!  It is a cattle farm and we did spot a few cows.  Kate and Carter were so happy to have some space to run.   Kids can make a game out of anything.  Here they are chasing each other around the Knight's deck.  There were two sets of stairs...so round and round they went...up the stairs, across the deck, down the stairs, around to the other stairs and up again!!  I wish I had a recording of the laughing that went along with it...there's no better sound in the world!

The farm has horses also.  We walked down to the barn to see if we could meet any.  Carter was so excited about seeing a 'hee-haw' (Carter's version of horse).  Here are Kate and Carter walking with Andi and Judah.

Here we are with Cream.  Carter felt much better meeting his first real-live 'hee-haw' in the safety of Mommy's arms.  I guess he didn't know how big horses really are!!  Kate loved Cream and had fun petting him.  I think Cream was a little disappointed that we didn't have any treats for him but he was so sweet and very gentle.

Two Months Old

Hudson turned two months old on Monday of this past week.  How has that gone by so fast?!  I took him to his 2 month appointment today.  We were so sad to leave Dr. Smiley at Gwinnett Pediatrics who has been our doctor since Kate was born, but Stephanie gave a great recommendation for Wake Forest Pediatrics!  Our boy is growing like a weed...weighing in at 14lb. 11oz. and measuring 24 1/2 in.!  WOW!!

Around the World in 80 days....or 4 hours!

We loaded up Team Reed last night and headed to downtown Raleigh for their annual International Festival.  With the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Hanna, we did get a little wet, but a little rain never hurt anybody!  Being unfamiliar with the downtown area, we did wind up parking pretty far away and had to walk several blocks.  Here we are at the entrance with our friend Justin...all a little (or a lot!) wet.  Poor Carter was soaked...umbrella strollers don't do much to protect from the rain :)

It was a really neat experience to see so many different cultures represented in the same room.  All the booths were decorated and some had activities.  Here we are at the Ethiopia booth.  We were invited 'in' and Josh put on some native Ethiopian attire.  We got a lesson on Ethiopian hospitality and their lifestyle and beliefs and some insight into their culture.

There were over 20 countries represented at the Festival and lots of yummy food from all over the world!  Josh had Indian food, Kate and I had Chinese, and Carter had Italian.  There was a stage set up and we got to see dancers from Scotland, Germany, China and Brazil while we were eating.  We got our names written in different languages...Kate's and mine in Japanese, Carter's in ancient Egyptian and Hudson's in Ahmaric (the official language of Ethiopia).  Here is Kate at the Malaysia booth getting her face painted.  She could choose what she wanted and decided on a pink flower (no surprises there!)

We ended the evening with a delicious piece of chocolate cake from the French booth.  They had a live band playing in the streets outside the convention center so we listened as we made the trek back to our car.  Thankfully the rain had stopped for a while!

Apparently Wake Forest gets some pretty intense weather whenever there is a hurricane or tropical storm off the coast.  Guess that goes along with the perk of being 2 hours from the closest beach.  We were advised this week to just be prepared in case the weather got severe.  Hanna made landfall in the middle of the night and so far so good.  Just some heavy rain and some occasional gusts of wind.  Although Josh's first flag football game was cancelled...so that will have to wait until next week!