October III: Grandma and Papa Visit

Brooke's parents came to celebrate Isobel's birthday, too, a few days after the fact. It has been a whole month of celebrating Iso!
We had several outings with Grandma and Papa. One was the Lexington BBQ Festival. As you might remember from this post, Lexington is a town south of here that is famous for its own special style of barbeque. I expected the festival to be sort of a small-town podunk affair, with various local barbeque restaurants hawking their pulled pork.
Boy oh boy, was I wrong. It stretched on for blocks and blocks! We never even found any actual barbeque, there were multiple stages set up for ongoing live music, and there were all kinds of vendors. It brought on flashbacks of the State Fair experience last year. I kinda regret passing on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to taste deep fried butter.
Another outing with Grandma and Papa: our pumpkin patch expedition. This was our third year visiting this farm and, as always I took lots of photos.





















Isobel and Jude had a great time. I get a little sentimental when I see my kids frolicking on a farm, and especially running through a cornfield. Even though I don't really have a rural background myself, it still feels like going back to our roots somehow.

And finally, a few recent photos I'm proud of:

(The old tree stump in our back yard has erupted with mushrooms. They are the perfect subjects)

(one more from the farm)

October II: Isobel's Birthday Party

Here we are in the second installment of the Brookstinobelude October series! Huzzah!

We held Isobel's birthday at Artquest, an art studio for kids downtown. Last year was a church friends party, so this year was a school friends party. And I'm not gonna lie, it was so much easier to do it somewhere other than our house. Artquest had a party coordinator who kept the kids pretty well entertained. They made birthday crowns, then ate pizza, then made play-dough, then had cake and finis! Very low stress for mommy and the other parents, and lots of fun for the chilrens. So without further ado, the photos:































I love looking at these photos! Isobel is lucky to have so many good friends to celebrate with her. Yesterday she said "Mommy, I wish I could go to school every single day," and I know it's because she loves all of her friends (and her teacher) so much. I can't believe she's four already! Such a big girl. I am so proud of her.
P.S. - Note which hand Jude is using to stab that play-dough! I suspect him of being a southpaw.

October I: Nana and Grandad visit for Isobel's Fourth Birthday

Oh boy, it's been another month! And what an eventful October it has been. I was going to do one huge monster post, but I got overwhelmed just thinking about it. So I'm going to do a series instead.
My fantastic parents came to visit for Isobel's birthday, and we did lots of fun things. One of those things was visiting Pilot Mountain State Park.

















This was my dad's first time ever visiting North Carolina, and my mom hasn't been here since Jude was a newborn. So we were especially excited to have them here.

Here are some photos of the actual birthday day: