Porter House

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

State Fair of Texas

Brent and I both took Friday, Oct 19th off from work to take Preston to the Fair for the first time. We were both soo excited to get the day started and it couldn’t have been a prettier day for the Fair with the temperature in the 80s and clear blue skies. Preston ended up taking an early nap so we didn’t head out in the morning like we had planned. While I was watching TV waiting from him to wake from his nap, the news station interrupted the program I was watching with Breaking News. I couldn’t believe it when they announced that Big Tex had just gone up in flames. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. At first I was sad because a piece of history was now gone and then it hit me that I wasn’t going to be able to get a picture of Preston with Big Tex in the background anymore. That made me even sadder. When I told Brent the news he couldn’t believe it either but then he wanted to get to the Fair as soon as possible so we could witness all the aftermath.
When we got there, we were welcomed by all the news helicopters flying around and as we made our way to Big Tex you could see his medal frame in the distance. It was actually pretty sad to see but I still got Preston’s picture with Big Tex just not the one I was planning for.

Poor Big Tex

After mourning Big Tex, we found the closest Fletchers Corny Dog line and order us a couple of corny dogs. We hadn’t had one of those in a few years and it tasted soo good. I tore off a small piece and gave it to Preston to try. He wasn’t big on the fried batter but give him a year or two and I know he will love it.

Preston's First Fletcher

What is this thing mommy?

Let me try

About to take his first bite

His first State Fair Corny Dog taste

Let me try this again

After our corny dog feast we walked around and made our way to the Midway area. I was excited for Preston to see all the lights and sounds of the rides and games. He loved looking at all the commotion and I got a few cute pictures of him and I next to all the colorful kiddy rides. Brent wanted to take Preston down the big slide but the man running the slide wouldn’t let him. So we grabbed a bag of cotton candy and continued to walk around. Brent did get suckered into playing a game by a very convincing game host but he lost of course. But I was glad he at least tried!!

We made it to the Midway

Preston loved all the colors & sounds

Not sure how I feel about the almost naked lady

Preston got to sit in the train ride

Love this little boy soo soo much

Having a blast

This lady actually convinced Brent to spend $5 on this game...she's good :)

Good luck

Don't miss

Momma favorite part...Cotton Candy

I guess I have to share my cotton candy now

After the midway, Brent wanted to look at the cars so we grabbed a fried hamburger on the way and Preston got to take a quick nap while Daddy sat in all the cars trying to convince momma we needed one.

Daddy about to chow down on some fried hamburger

Taking a break to play

Mommy get it off

Loving the fresh air

Preston's hair blowing in the wind

Hey mommy, what cha doin?

Doing a little shopping

Looking up at the big industrial fan up above

Everyone watching the lowering of the flag

We had a few coupons left so we tried a batch of fried Frito Pie and then headed to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Preston was soo cute at dinner just smiling and laughing and pooping 3 times while we were there.

It was a great family day and I can’t wait until next year!! Hopefully Big Tex will be back in full force.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A New Halloween Tradition

I was more than excited to have the family over last Saturday to officially begin a tradition that I hope we keep for a lifetime or at least for a very long time to come. Every year for Halloween I would like the family to get together to have dinner, carve/decorate pumpkins and end the night by going through all the Halloween toys we plan to donate to the Children’s Hospital for their annual Halloween Carnival.

When I was pregnant, I began thinking about traditions I wanted to start once Preston was born and I wanted them to involve helping or giving to others. My original thought for Halloween was to have the family over for dinner and to spend the evening making candy bags for the kids at the Children’s Hospital. But when I called the hospital to find out what the rules and regulations were for providing donations she said that unfortunately the kids can’t have candy due to their dietary needs but that they could use toys and trinkets to use as prizes for the kids during their annual Halloween Carnival. So I changed my plan and asked the family to go to the dollar store or the dollar section of Target and grab a few toys to donate to the hospital. They were more than happy to help and provided a lot of toys. I wanted to take this one step further so I got permission from my boss to have a toy collection box at my desk and collect toys from members of the office. I drafted up an email and sent it out to the people at my work and I was pleasantly surprised by how many people wanted to help my cause. When they saw my decorated cardboard box, it got them excited to fill it with lots of goodies for the kids.

So at our family get together we had lasagna, bread and salad for dinner, then went straight into carving our pumpkins then ended the night with announcing the winners of the pumpkin carving contest and looking at all the fun Halloween toys. We all had a great time spending time with one another and coming together for a great cause.

In the years to come, I plan to take Preston to the store so he can pick out the toys to donate to the kids. I think we started this tradition off right and I’m excited to do this again next year!!

Spooky decorations