Month: November 2006

Categories
Family

Thanksgiving

We had my family over for the Thanksgiving dinner. CDF had suggested it as an alternative to us driving up to Jacksonville to eat at my parents house. It turned out to be a good suggestion.

We had nineteen people total I think, but everyone ate well and had a good time. My parents brought the turkey, stuffing, etc. CDF baked a ham, made sweet-potato casserole, and cooked vegetables. MDF helped me make two pumpkin pies. Dom and Amber brought drinks and dessert. Heidi brought two more desserts.

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Everyone Eating

Sam brought his girlfriend Jackie, and they brought along Tony as well. Seth Davis came on an invitation from my parents (I think). But we had plenty of room, and plenty of food.

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Enjoying Her Niece

CDF and worked out a seating arrangement, and had made place cards with everybody’s names. It turned out well, and everyone seemed to like the idea, and nobody had problems finding someone to talk to. Amber spent a lot of time holding CEF as well — as did Seth.

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Another to Hold CEF

Nicholas’ birthday was on Thanksgiving this year, so my parents had brought some presents for him to open. We sang “Happy Birthday” to him, and after he had opened coloring books, dinosaur toys, a movie, etc., he started drawing dinosaurs in his new sketch pad. He did a great job too, especially on the “main subject” dinosaur.

Categories
Travel

Ashboro Zoo

On November 3rd we went to the zoo. I took the day off in honor of my birthday (since I had to work the actual Friday after my birthday), and we did a day-trip to Ashboro. It turned out to be a relaxed, enjoyable day.

We left later than expected, but headed off down I-40 toward Raleigh. We stopped once at a rest area near Raleigh to feed CEF and let MDF run around. After that we didn’t stop again until lunch.

We took Highway 64 (?) from Raleigh instead of I-40 all the way, and it turned out to be more of a back road at some points. It went through a number of small towns and we had to slow down to 35 MPH at times. We stopped in Siler City to have lunch. We first tried to eat at a local burger restaurant, but it was popular and packed full — standing room only. So we went down the road to Sir Pizza to eat their buffet.

When we finally got to the zoo, it was almost 3 PM. We figured we had until 6 PM before the zoo closed, but CDF spotted a sign that said it closed at 4 PM during winter months! So we had to rush. We still paid to get in, even though we had an hour left, since we had driven almost all day to get there.

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Enjoying the Zoo

MDF had asked to see the monkeys, but they were on the other side of the park. We did not know how far away that was and decided to walk. That did give us the opportunity to see polar bears, bison, and the gorillas. It was a long walk though. We finally made it to the monkey building and the baboons, especially, put on a show for us.

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Baboon

After that we started making our way out of the park. We stopped to look at the lions, giraffes, zebras, and warthog. I thought we were going to the exit, but when I looked at the map, I realized that if we left by that exit we would end up in the parking lot at the opposite end of the park, not where we needed to be. Fortunately the park has a tram service, and we got to ride the “city bus,” as MDF said, back to the other side.

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Last Stop, Giraffes

Once we left the park, we stopped at a Salvation Army Store that CDF had seen on the way in. She and MDF went inside to shop while I fed CEF. But when I was done they still were not done, so I joined them. CDF ended up finding a number of good clothes that day.

For supper we ate at a Bob Evans just outside Raleigh (or maybe Cary, I’m not sure). The Italian sausage and pasta plate I got was delicious, and CDF enjoyed her soup and sandwich combo.

We didn’t get back until 10:45 that night, but it had been a great day.

Categories
Daughters

Muntoos Have Sharp Fingers

The other night MDF was talking about imaginary things and told me that there were “muntoos” in the house. She said they didn’t have ears or eyes but they had sharp fingers. Unfortunately she started thinking about them too much and her imagination started running away on it’s own.

I got her down from the table and she wanted me to hold her. I said, “OK, I’ll just step on the muntoos.” That was the wrong thing to say; it just got her thinking more about these things on the floor.

Then I had to put her down and go do something. She said, “no there are muntoos.” And I tried to console her, “Just step on them.” She took me seriously, but certainly did not want to step on anything. So the minute I put her down she started crying.

After that I tried very hard to tell her that these were imaginary things, not real. Eventually it seemed to sink in, and we started talking about the imaginary caterpillars (which were much nicer than muntoos).

Categories
Daughters

Princess MDF

MDF has gotten into the Disney “Princesses” thing in a big way. After watching all the movies many times she has really enjoyed getting the costumes for her birthday.

Continue reading “Princess MDF”