Ham and Yam Festival

We went to the Ham and Yam Festival in Smithfield, NC  www.hamandyam.com .  This was a little longer drive then we normally do to go to a festival.  It sounded interesting so we went.  It was very nice with lots of vendors selling crafts.  There even was a stand with someone selling stamps from a company called "Stampin Up"  www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/crazystampcreations.  If you like to make cards or even use stamps for your scrapbooking, this is a neat company.

We walked around for some time checking out all the vendors.  We then had a barbeque sandwich which was very good.  Lot of barbeque here in the south is a little to strong with vinegar.  This sandwich was mild (which I like) or you could add extra sauce (which Greg did).

There are always a few wine vendors at each festival so we checked them out.  We then found a street that had a lot more food vendors on.  It was on a back street of the festival so you really didn't know it was there unless you walked back that far.  To my surprise they had a large grill with Yams.  I really like yams so I had to get one.

There was also a stand selling Ham and Biscuit sandwiches so Greg decided to try one.

On the way home we decided to stop by the Kinston Barbeque festival in Kinston, NC  www.kinstonbbq.com.  We were going to go there first but decided to go to the Ham and Yam first.  Thank goodness we did because we could not believe how little was at the Kinston festival.  The website made it look like a great event, I don't know if it was we got there a little later but it was very disappointing.  We bought a sweet tea and a jar of salsa.  Watch a group of women do a belly dancing show.  I think the total time we were there was 30 minutes.

We headed home and looked forward to our next adventure.

Till next time....

Hugs & Blessings
Jennifer

PICKLE FESTIVAL

On Saturday we headed to the pickle festival in Mt Olive, NC. 

Tent giving away pickle samples

They had a very large car show with some really neat cars.  I wish my son-in-law would have been here because he would have really liked it.

I then tried my hand at pickle packing.  How fast could you pack three jars with whole pickles?  Well it took me over three minutes, not sure I would be able to get a job packing pickles.

We then walked around to check everything out.  They had camel rides and a cute petting zoo with baby camels.

We decided to get something to eat so I had a chicken fajita and Greg had a steak sandwich.

Then we found a stand that sold lemonade, strawberry lemonade and pickle lemonade.  Pickle lemonade sounds interesting. We wanted to try the pickle lemonade but didn't want to spend $5.  I think they should have given samples.  So we settled on a regular lemonade and a strawberry lemonade.

As we were walking around we came upon a burger eating contest by Andy's restaurant www.andysburgers.net.  It hadn't started yet so we decided to wait and watch.

Several of the people in the contest have won different eating contests.  Of course this goes against my stomach doctor's advise to eat slow and chew a lot.  This burger was 50 oz with 6 oz of fries and a 24 oz drink.  Just thinking of eating this amount of food quickly made my stomach turn.  The person that won 1st place ate all this in 3 minutes and 2 seconds and won $2000.

The guy with the hat won 1st place

There was a street with some old tractors on show.

The town has railroad tracks running right down the center street.  Can you believe that a train came through during the festival.  It was only two cars but we were surprise they let it go through with all the people around.

It was a very nice day and I would definitely go to this one next year.  When we left the festival we decided to go to the Duplin Winery www.duplinwinery.com since we were so close.  We happen to get there when a tour was coming back so we were able to join them for the tasting.  We have had wine from this winery and really like it.  We ended up buying a case of wine to bring home. We actually use some of their wines for cooking.

Right down the road from the winery we noticed a seafood buffet and decided to stop.  It was called "Small Town Calabash Seafood Buffet".   It was very good and priced at $11.95 per person which was good for seafood. 

 Well it was a very busy day and we had a good time.  Getting ready for our next adventure this weekend.

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

EASTER & YARD WORK

I have been so busy working in the yard this week that I forgot to write on my blog.  Easter weekend Greg's sister, mom and I volunteered at the park in Surf City for the egg hunt.  We left early in the morning and helped hide the eggs, then we sold raffle tickets.  Anne and I rocked selling raffle tickets because we went down where everyone was parking.  This way we got everyone as they came into the park.
Easter Sunday after church we decided to have lunch at the Chinese buffet.  It was Greg, myself, his mother, brother and his wife.  It's a place we have eaten before and really like.  But next year I will be cooking because I really missed my ham and sweet potatoes.

Greg is on spring break so we decided that we were going to work on the yard.  We pretty much changed everything around.  There wasn't much in our back yard so we decided to plant bushes all along the fence.  This was a big job.  We planted some azalea bushes, butterfly bushes and some pretty yellow and green bushes.  So fifteen bushes and 120 ft of mulch, it was a lot of work but it really looks nice. 

Our back yard

All the flower beds have the red mulch.  I'm use to and really like the black mulch.  We raked up all the red mulch and planted new flowers and bushes and then put down the black mulch.  We worked in the yard every day for a week and it really turned out nice.  Below are some of the pictures of the things we have done. 

The start of Greg's Garden

Even though it was a lot of work we had a nice week.   I'll write in a few days about the festival that we attended this weekend.  So check back in a few days.

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

SHAD FESTIVAL

Saturday morning we headed to the Shad Festival in Grifton, NC griftonshadfestival.com.  It was their 41st year and suppose to be one of the longest running festivals in NC.  Who ever does their website does a really good job, it's a very nice site.  Now when people have a certain festival like the shad I go there expecting to get to try shad.  It case your not sure what it is, it's a fish. Now I did read up on Shad and they are an especially bony fish with over 3,000 bones but are to be a very tasty fish. 

Someone forgot to tell the fishermen what kind of fish to catch because the fish fry was catfish. So I had the catfish dinner and Greg had the fish stew.

Catfish Dinner

Fish Stew

When we arrived the parade was about to start so we decided to watch.  The Shriners www.shrinershq.org really had a lot of different groups in the parade which were really cute.

It was a little disappointing as to how many craft vendors were there.  They also were to have a flea market but very few people were there. Maybe the threat of rain kept vendors away.  Would I go back next year? Not sure, maybe if I had nothing else to do. 

As we walked back to the car we found "Greg's Pizza".

Well at least I got to see a part of NC I have not seen before.  We'll see where next week's adventure takes us.

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

AZALEA FESTIVAL

This past weekend was a busy one.  Friday night we went to relay for life, we walked the track for a time and checked out the many stands raising money.  It was a nice evening.

Saturday morning was the opening of the Richlands Farmers Market.  I have grown up going to the farmers market in Lancaster and a really nice one in Allentown. I have been very disappointed in what they call a farmers market.   The building was so small, with a few steps you were through it.  There was one stand selling strawberries, one selling a small amount of lettuce and a few other things. Everything else was crafts. I guess I'll have to check out the few roadside stands I've seen around.  After checking out the market we went to breakfast at the waffle house with Greg's mom.

After breakfast we headed to Wilmington, NC to the Azalea festival www.ncazaleafestival.org.  I have been told it's the largest festival in NC.  We spent a good five hours there checking out the over 200 craft vendors.  Below is a picture of someone selling teacups on top of a piece of copper pipe.  It's for the yard to put bird seed in as a bird feeder.  It's a really cute idea and would look really nice tucked in a flower bed, I may have to try it.

Tea Cup Bird Feeders

There were over 40 food vendors, of course most were your typical greasy festival food.  We did find a stand selling Chinese noodles and chicken which was really good.  I did get my ribbon fries with cheese, which I really like.  Greg found a stand called Wild Bills Old Fashion Soda.  You buy the cup and could refill it all day for free.  They had Root beer, Birch beer, Grape soda, Orange soda and a few more. So we bought a cup and shared it all day.

Greg with his soda & pork grinds

There were several tents set up with entertainment.  Then we came upon something strange. It was a coffin you get into and then they close the lid. The coffin starts shaking around and there is a camera inside so everyone can watch you on a screen.  The point was to have the feeling of being buried alive. The company is called Panic Attack Haunt www.panicattackhaunt.com.   This is a really scary place, no one under 13 can get in.  I know some people that would love it, but it's too scary for me.

The festival runs for five days and you definitely need a few days if you want to do the many other things they have.  There is a 5k/10k walk, a cake challenge, Children's tea, boxing, circus, garden tour, historic home tour and many other things.  They have a nice website so check it out.  Would make a nice vacation if your looking for something to do.  There are many other things to do in Wilmington also.

Till next time...
Love,
Jennifer

FAIR AND FESTIVAL SEASON

Festival season is kicking into high gear and I'm so excited.  I'm going to try to make it to some new ones as well as the ones I enjoyed from last season.  Of course I was not living in NC last spring so most of the spring fairs and festivals are new to me.  We started off Saturday by going to the Newport, NC Pig Cookoff http://www.newportpigcooking.com.

It was a very nice day to walk around checking out the crafts and checking out the large cookers that they were cooking the pigs on.

Our Pork Dinner

 The pork dinner was pretty good even though I'm not real crazy about the vinegar base sauces.  I'm more for the ketchup base sauces.  I know it may sound funny but I mix my baked beans with the pork so it taste more like the ketchup base.

We listened to the band for awhile.  They were sounding pretty good, now I think Greg would look good in the blue suit but I think Isabella would pick the zebra jacket for Grandpa.  What do you think?

The Donald Thompson Band

There also was an Elvis Impersonator singing so of course I had to check him out.  I was told that he had been doing this for many years...I think it's time to retire.  I know I'm a hard judge on impersonator's but I have been spoiled by seeing some really talented singers over the years.  His voice was not very strong and it was hard to hear a lot of his words.  He also was not very engaging with the crowd and didn't seem to be able to move much.  After judging the Elvis Impersonator's contest in Memphis I look at them in a much different way then most.

Ryder Preston

They had trophey's for the top 10 teams.

We met some friends there and had a really nice day.  The only disappointment was when they were announcing the winners.  The mayor was giving out the awards and it looked like they just put him up there and he had not idea what to do.  Nothing against the mayor but they need someone who is a better mc.  They needed to tell the audience how many people were in the contest.  Talk about them more and how they cook the pigs.  They also needed to make a bigger deal when announcing the top three spots.  Make it a little more exciting for everyone.  The last thing is their website, as of today they still have not listed the winners for 2011. The website is not very exciting for someone new trying to find out information.  I actually find this with many fair and festival sites I look at. 

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

Home Again

Well I sure did have a busy two weeks.  I went to PA to visit with my mom in the hospital.  She was in for 8 days with a leg infection.  When she was able to go home I decided to go see Erica and the kids.  Lily is getting big and eats all the time.  Raymond is now standing but has not yet let go to walk, maybe the next time I visit he'll be walking.  Isabella is just too adorable and growing fast.  She is now taking swimming lessons which I got to go see while I was there.  She goes under the water and seems to be enjoying the classes.  We went to the market on Wednesday and got donuts, cheese and hot dogs.  Isabella loves to go to the market.  It was a short but nice visit.

I then went to West Virginia to visit with Alexander.  He has started T-ball and has practice on Friday nights and Saturdays.  I thought I would get there on Friday to watch his practice.  It was so cold that the coaches canceled practice on Friday and Saturday so I didn't get a chance to see him play.  We did play a little on Saturday in the field across from their house.  He really can hit the ball, but still needs a little confidence catching the ball out in the field.

My son and I went to the mall on Saturday while Alex and his mother went to a writing workshop.  Alex loves to write stories and they really want to help him work on his writing skills.  After they were done we went to Applebee's for lunch.  Bobby went home and Lori and I took Alex to the movies.  We went to see Rango, well halfway through the movie I didn't think it was something for little kids. 

Since I didn't get to see Alex play baseball I decided to stay through Monday and watch him in karate class.  A few hours after I took him to school on Monday they called to say he was complaining his ear hurt.  My first thought was that he wanted to come home knowing I was there.  I went to pick him up and his father and I took him to urgent care.  Turns out he had a very bad ear infection.  Well he was so sick that he didn't go to karate class so I missed that also.  I decided to stay Tuesday since school doesn't want the kids coming back till they have had 24 hours on their medicine.  This way Bobby or Lori didn't have to take off work.  We had a really nice visit and I can't believe how much Alex has grown.

I decided to leave on Wednesday and head home. I stopped at my friends in Stafford, VA for a visit.  We went to lunch and had a nice visit.  I left their house around five and made it home around 10:30 that night.  It was a long two weeks but it was nice getting to see everyone. 

Till next time......
Love,
Jennifer