The Dogwood Feastival

On Saturday, we got to go to the Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park. It would have been really awesome if it weren't so crowded. Hundreds of artists selling their work in a dozen different mediums and countless styles. It was so inspiring, but unfortunately I hardly got to see a single piece up close or stop and look at something for more than 5 seconds. It was SO crowded that, pushing a stroller as we were, we basically had to walk around the whole park while crammed between solid human masses, moving at pace with the sea of people. If we got out of the procession, it took a long time to get back into it. Plus, you pretty much had to shove your way into the crowd, angering the people that you would be jammed up against until one of you got out of the human mudslide. It was a horrible way to experience the festival. And from what I saw, it would have been so cool! We went late on Saturday afternoon, just a couple of hours before the free Sara Evans concert, so I thought that everyone would be over by the arena and the beer tents. Nope. They were cruising the booths, hoping to drop by the show just in time, I expect. Next year, I'm going first thing in the morning!
There were a few highlights. One booth was giving out liberte yogurt and all they had left was coconut and blackberry so it wasn't very crowded. I snagged us a couple and oh. my. heck. The coconut yogurt was INCREDIBLE!!!! We also got to eat a great (seven dollar) funnel cake. There was also an ALDI booth giving out free crackers and coupons. Sweet!

And my favortie part-we saw a puppet show! It was a local puppet performer named Peter Hart with marionettes. He had a clown that danced, a bunny that played violin and a knight and horse that epically lipsynced and performed "Time to Say Goodbye". His show made me smile and laugh in sincerest giddiness. I haven't felt so lighthearted for a while! So, after the performance, I quickly decided that I must hire him to do a puppet show for my next birthday party. Why, yes, I am turning six years old, thankyouverymuch. When I shot the idea to Micah, he mentioned that it would probably be too expensive. I looked online, and it probably is a bit much to spend on flippant birthday fun. Check it out here. SO! My dear friends and family- my birthday is exactly 8 months away; that's plenty of time to pool the money that you might have otherwise spent on a birthday gift to pay for Peter Hart to come perform at my party. We can even hold it a few weeks early and pretend that it's to celebrate Natalie's birthday so Micah won't be embarassed that his adult wife wants a puppet show.

 

Here are a few random shots of Natalie:

 

Dressed for success

This one was funny. We were out grocery shopping. I was rustling around some marked down meats and when I turned back around, she had started eating this mango, skin and all! First though: Ahhh! We haven't paid for that yet! Second thought: Ahhhh! She's getting so sticky! Third thought:....hey. She's sitting quietly in the shopping cart..... Sweet. So I just let her have at it. Made sure the cashier charged us for it. And so it was that Natalie soaked herself silly in sticky mango drip and had the wierdest mango-peel-poop of her life several hours later.

This afternoon, Natalie's new water/sand table arrived in the mail! Haven't gotten any photos of her and the table, but a few from setting it up. I was using empty bottles to carry water out to fill it. HEre, Natalie exhibits a monstroud thirst:

And she was so wet and sandy and muddy (I potted plants, since I figured we were outside and already dirty. Bad idea. Wet sand>wet dirt) afterwards, I couldn't figure out what to do with her. I was afraid taking her to the tub would trail sand all over the house, so I just popped her in the sink. Which she found very interesting. Check out that baby gut!

Also, sporting a bandaid from her 15 month shots. She was 25lbs 10 oz and 32.5 inches- 95% for both height and weight. Doctor said she was the size of an average 2 year old. Very healthy and all that jazz.

And here she is, her father's daughter, devouring some hot wings.