Balloon Festival

We went to the Carolina Balloonfest yesterday, which is a hot air balloon festival that is held in Statesville, about 30 minutes north of where we live. I heard about 50 hot air balloons participate, and they all lift off together at 4:30 in the afternoon. We got there a little late, so we missed that, but we still got to see a few balloons lift off . . . apparently they were the ones that had trouble getting off the ground with all the others.

Here's one of them. It's kind of hard to see, but there are people in the basket and it's sitting on its side. Looks like this was definitely one of the balloons that had trouble lifting off. We were surprised at how close we could stand by a balloon - you can kind of tell from this picture that people were standing right next to it, and running away when it tipped over on its side.

Cass LOVED watching the balloons since they are so big and colorful. There were tons of families with kids there - it was some good family entertainment!

It got a little cool at the festival in the evening and I didn't have any gloves for Cass. But - I had socks in my diaper bag . . . I thought they may do the trick, but Cass obviously was not comfortable (or maybe embarrassed . . .hee hee), so it didn't last long.

At the end of the festival, they did a "balloon glow" where several of the balloons fired their propane to make the balloons light up - it was so neat! This picture doesn't really do it justice, but you can kind of get the idea.

Taste test

Here's Cass doing a taste test of milk v. water. I stopped recording after about a minute of him alternating sips from each cup . . . he kept on dong it for probably another minute. I'm not sure what the verdict was though - I think it may have been a tie.

Penquin

When we went to Kohl's a few weeks ago Cass found a penguin that he liked, so of course to try to keep him quiet in the store I bought it for him. It lives in his playpen now, and every time he gets in the playpen he immediately picks it up and hugs it.

Cass's First Chiefs Game

We took Cass to his first football game today. The Chiefs and Panthers played in Charlotte . . . it was a very bad day for the Chiefs, but Cass had a good time at the game. The stadium is in downtown Charlotte, so instead of tailgating in a big stadium parking lot, everyone tailgates along the streets and in parking lots near the stadium. Here's Chris and Cass walking toward the stadium - Cass smiled and waved at everyone during the entire walk.

Here's Cass and Daddy in front of the stadium before the game. Notice that they aren't in Chiefs gear - it's sad to admit that none of us own any Chiefs clothes, except for Chris's Chiefs sweatshirts and big heavy Chiefs coat. We figured it would be best to show up in "plain clothes" anyway, since we weren't sure if the Panther's fans would give us a hard time if we were decked out in our red.

Cass really took in all of the sights at the game. He was very good when we were sitting watching the game, except he didn't want to keep his hat on (which is why it is sitting on his head funny in this picture). The temperature was only supposed to be around 80 degrees today, but it was HOT in the stadium and the sun was beating down . . . I slathered Cass with sunscreen, but his little cheeks were getting pink mid-way through the first quarter (I think from the heat), so we left our seats and watched the game from the shaded tunnel of the stadium until half-time. The Chiefs played absolutely terribly, so we didn't really mind leaving at half-time when Cass got a little fussy.

Fall is here

Saturday morning we headed out to hit a neighborhood garage sale. It was a crisp, fall morning, so Cass and I finally got to break out our sweatshirts! I just love this little outfit of his - it's a one piece sweatshirt outfit that zips up the front . . . it's so cozy!!

Lunch at the Lake

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, my sister came to Charlotte to visit this weekend. We've told her about the great weather we have here, but what do you know . . .once she got here a storm blew in and it was rainy and windy most of the weekend! :( However, it cleared up for a while Sunday, so we were able to go have lunch at one of the restaurants on Lake Norman. There were ducks in the water . . . when Cass saw them he said "Doch". Not sure if he was saying dog or duck, the only duck he has ever seen is the plastic one in his bathtub, and he tends to call all animals "dog", so I'm not sure really what he was saying.

Daddy's Little Helper

Chris and my step dad have been building a screened in porch for our house. It isn't quite done (it's still missing the screen, the door, gutters, etc.), but we have enough done that we were finally able to put furniture in it this weekend. Cass was "helping" Chris put the furniture together. By the way, we obviously weren't planning on taking Cass's picture that day . . . notice his outfit? It was cool in the morning and got warm in the afternoon, so we'd taken his pants off to keep him cool. He usually dresses better than this. :)