We Love a Fair

So, we're always looking for a good festival or fair to go to, so when we found the Cabarrus County Fair online, we thought, "why not?"  Man, was it not the most fun we had as a family in a while.  It had been a long few weeks in the hotel, then getting moved into a new house.  We desperately needed a family night out of the house.  The girls knew we were going to a fair, but we we came around the corner and saw the huge ferris wheel and all the other big "fair" stuff, my goodness, we had never heard such screaming before from them!  They were kicking and screaming and going down right bizerk!  We saw animals, a petting zoo, pig races (they even swam in water), ate delicious fair food (including a deep fried Reese Cup...Yowza!), took a family ride on the ferris wheel, kinda won a goldfish (the guy gave us one even though the girls didn't get the ping pong ball in the the glass jar), and the girls rode an unlimited amount of rides!  So much fun!  (Fish update:  The fish, aka Ariel, lasted six days. It was a good life lesson though.)

Ballet

Lindsey started a ballet class at the YMCA and loves it!

All Smiles

It doesn't take much! :)

First Day of School

The girls started their new school.  They were so excited!  I'm so thankful our kiddos are ok being away from us.  It is a true blessing.  They just walked right on into their classrooms and didn't turn back.  I hardly got to say good-bye to Whitney.  I had to peek my head in the room to say bye to her.  She clearly had more important things to do.  I can not believe this is her last year of preschool.  Yuk.  And Lindsey Kate, she just waltzed right in, went straight to her teacher and said "Hiiii!"  Sweet girls...

Preseason Finale

Finally...the last preseason game.  It seemed to be a long preseason this year.  We played the Steelers at home.  Since we are still new to the area and we haven't found a babysitter, and this team doesn't have babysitting at the games, the girls got to go to the game with me.  This was Lindsey's first game to go to.  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing since the game didn't even start until their bedtime and well, it's not too fun for two little girls, and it's a long time to stay confined to one small area...but they did great!  I was so thankful.  They ate plenty of snacks, danced to the music, colored, played games, did stickers...we were prepared.  The game, on the other hand, not so great, we lost.  Ben played the whole game except the first series at the beginning.  Today is actually cut day...we're hoping to make it through.  But either way we'll survive. :)

Getting a Panther paw print

Having a pretzel

They cheered for their daddy!

Cousins!

So, one of the great things about being in Charlotte now is that we are only two and a half hours away from Than and Jennifer and our niece and nephew, Ava and Andrew.  So when Ben was away last week for his game, the girls and I went up for a visit for a couple nights.  The kiddos had so much fun playing together.  And it just so happened that Than was out of town too, so it was good for Jennifer and I too since the kids had each other!  We plan on taking advantage of being closer several times this fall.  :)

Matching jammies from Aunt Jen

Taking turns and sharing

Toy Story for the kiddos while Jen and I watched the game

Frozen Yogurt!  Yum!

Melt Our Hearts

Love these girls!

Preseason 2 @ Miami

It was a loss, but here's a pic of Ben getting his teamate in the endzone!



Back at the Res...

Well, Ben broke camp on Wednesday.  So the girls and I officially "moved" up here then.  We are so happy to back together as a family.  It's hard when a main piece of the puzzle is missing.  The world is as it should be now. 

We're staying at a Residence Inn until we find a place to rent and/or the preseason is over, aka, we officially make the team.  The girls and I went with the realtor again yesterday.  We narrowed it down to three to take daddy to look at tomorrow.  We like the 'ol Res, and this one is actually updated from the one in Jersey (imagine that), but it's not quite as easy now with two big kids running around.  Linds was just a baby before and didn't need much space.  This morning the girls were trying their hardest to run around in the room, from kitchen to sofa and back...I don't think it was too fun for them.  We're heading out to a park now.  They must expel some of their energy...

Preseason Begins!

We were home versus the Giants.  The girls stayed back at home with our babysitter Wendi.  And Ben had the next day off so daddy and I had a mini-vaca for a night/day.  We went and looked for rental houses.  Anyway, the game.  We won!  Ben got to play a lot and he played well.  He was happy about that.  Me too, of course.  One down, three to go!

Friends

Here our some shots from my friend Mandy.  Friends are a great thing!

Fountains

Water fountains make for a great way to cool off in the summer!

Pool Fun!

We love the pool!

Pizza!

They are their daddy's girls!

Fan Fest

The girls and I traveled to Charlotte to see daddy practice and hang out for a day.  It was a scorcher, but the girls did pretty well considering they had just been in the car for four hours.  Daddy did a great job practicing with his new team.  And we had fun seeing him even if it was just for a day.  Only about a week left then we'll all be back together!