Peach Festival 2012

I LOVED the Peach Festival as a child! Probably because my mom and dad would take me down to the square and spoil me by buying me junk and letting me eat greasy food! I remember the street dances and racing my turtle in the terrapin derby and watching the parade with my Grandma. It was definitely more fun as a child than a parent, so far anyway. I know once Noah gets older he is going to enjoy it for the same reasons I loved it, but being 8 months pregnant with a 2 year old can be exhausting! I must have looked pretty pathetic because I had strangers offering me water! I felt ok, just hot and sweaty and ready for air conditioning.

Friday we raced Noah's turtle in the terrapin derby. They also have a frog jump, but I do not touch frogs so when Noah gets older he can do that if he wants to hold the frog! :) Unfortunately Noah's turtle did not even move off the starting line! He never even took his back legs out of his shell! At this age, the race is more for me and my memories than Noah's. He will never remember this, but I will and these are some of the memories I could not wait to make with my kids! In our turtles defense, he went to turtle heaven the next day - so he was obviously not in the best of health!

Noah and Greyson waiting to race their turtles

While we were waiting on the race to start a grasshopper jumped on Noah's cup - he was not happy!

Racing our turtle!

After the race we went and walked around the festival. Noah got to jump in the bounce house and Papa insisted he needed some toys (at least these are inflatable so I can let the air out and store them!). The Bikers Against Child Abuse booth was doing free fingerprinting and Noah actually let them do it! He would stick each finger out and let them print them! So, now I have his tiny fingerprints on file :) All the booths were giving away free peaches so Noah had his first whole peach - he seemed to like it. After all that hot fun, I took Noah to the sitter so I could get ready for my dad's birthday party that night!

Enjoying a peach with all his new toys!

We had a birthday dinner at my brother's house for my Dad's 64 birthday! We had chicken pouches (baked with broccoli, cheese, and bacon), twice baked potatoes, garden salad, and corn on the cob! I used my dad's grandmas recipe for mayonnaise cake (one of his favorites) and made him a birthday cake. I didn't think it tasted as good as when my dad's sister makes it, but it was edible and dad took half of it home so I think he liked it! My dad's gifts this year were pretty funny when he had them all out together -  Eli got him a pistol, Jeremy got him whiskey, and I got him running shoes! You would think we were getting him ready to rob a bank or something!

Mayonnaise cake and garden salad (my contributions:)

Dad blowing out the candles!

Saturday morning a lot of my family ran the 5K race. I was a little too pregnant for that, and it was too early for Noah and I to make it to the finish line. My nephew Greyson was racing in the diaper derby and we did make it to watch that. Noah won last year, so we had to go see who was going to take over his reign :) Well, it wasn't Greyson! He stood up on the start line and got disqualified! He can take a few steps, but he isn't a solid walker yet so they let him participate. I can't wait until next year and hopefully my new baby will be crawling by then so they can participate too! We went out for breakfast after that and then to sweat it out at the parade. Noah liked watching the parade - but he liked running around more! I had planned on taking him down to the children's area after the parade, but we were both so hot we just went home and enjoyed some air conditioned naps!

Greyson getting disqualified :)

I love this picture :) Noah and Liza waiting for the parade to start in the air conditioning!

Noah and I watching the parade :)

This years Peach Festival seemed to be better than the years past. A few years ago I really didn't think the festival was going to make it. I am glad it did so I can make more memories with my children!