North Florida Fair, 2012

The Greek Food Festival was the beginning of a very busy weekend of karate, haircuts, retirement parties (Congratulations, Jack!), church, and finally, the North Florida Fair!

We go to the fair every year, not to experience the expensive and oh-so-dangerous rides, but to eat corn dogs, tacos, kettle corn, funnel cakes and other delicious fair treats. George always loves to get good shots of the food, and here are just a few.

We also go to feed the animals in the petting zoo. The kids love to feed them carrots, this year sponsored by the Vets.

I love carrots!

After the petting zoo, we visited the county booths, and then the cattle area where the 4H groups were showing their dairy cows. My boys enjoyed the show.

We also visited the other animals, and our favorites were definitely the baby goats.

 

 

Awww!

Then, Zachary made a beeline for the carnival games, where he played two different "Guess my age" games and won both times!

No, he is not 13, but I guess looking young does have its perks!  In all we had a great time, and the kids got to be just plain silly for a little while.

When the sky looked like it would open up on us, we headed out.

The kids fit in one more round of silliness before we left.

I love these kids!

Greek Food Festival 2012

Tonight, we attended the Greek Food Festival, held every year at the Greek Orthodox Church. We love going to the festival to sample the gyros, pastitsio, spanikopita, tyropita, souvlaki, and other greek specialties. We always have a great time, especially George whose love for Ouzo grows every year.  We only got a few pics this year, but that's enough to show how much we love Greek food! Here they are...

 



We enjoyed ourselves, but after wading through a sea of people, I am happy to be home.

Happy Halloween, 2012

The night before Halloween, we spent our evening eating dinner, doing homework, and then...carving the jack-o-lantern for our front porch. This year Danny designed the mouth and nose while I cut, scraped and did the eyes. The best part was watching the kids' reactions as they pulled the "guts" out.

In all, the mess was worth it because our pumpkin turned out grand.

We all went to bed tired and happy and excited about what Halloween had in store for us.

Every year on Halloween, Danny's school has a "Book Character Day" where the kids dress up like their favorite book character and have a parade in the morning. Danny dressed as Shaggy from Scooby Doo, and because Shaggy doesn't go anywhere without Scooby, Scooby had to tag along to school with him.

Because his outfit was so cute, we talked him into dumping his other costume idea and continuing the look for Halloween night. Megan also dumped her previous idea, and decided to dress as a chef cooking up some delicious candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters.

They were both too cute, and I found myself a little sad that they're both growing up, but still happy they're willing to dress up and have a good time. We hope you all had a very Happy Haloween as well!

Our Halloween tradition, the Pumpkin Patch

Our Halloween would not be complete without a trip to the Faith Presbyterian pumpkin patch every year. This year, because October has been crazy busy for us, Halloween snuck up on us, and we almost missed our annual tradition. We found some time last Saturday afternoon to head over there and pick out a pumpkin (or five) before they were all gone. We always get great pics there and this year was no exception. Here are a few pics of us having fun.

I can't believe how old my kids have gotten!

Catching up...my new job

Just after my last post, on October 12th, I started my new job as an IT Business Consultant Manager at the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Information Systems. In a nutshell, my new job consists of analyzing legislation for IT impact, overseeing the IT budget, creating Legislative Budget Requests, and improving business processes in the division.  That weekend, George and the kids helped me move into my new office. The highlight of my new office is the set of windows with a lovely view of the Florida Capitol and some other downtown buildings.

Only one other year in my 15 years in state government have I had a window, and you never know how much you appreciate windows until you don't have them for a while.  My plant, inherited from DBPR, appreciates it too!

Here are some pics from the move. I'll spare you the butt shots that George always manages to get of me. Be warned, these pictures include several images of silliness and kids being kids.

I really appreciated their help, and we got a lot accomplished in a very short time. My family rocks!