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[ocelot]

How lovely - a weekend of outdoor play and lack of artificial lighting seem to have reset the kids' internal clocks. They were both asleep before 8, as they have been for the past few nights.

The Hoes Down Harvest Festival was much fun - an absolutely wonderful place to take kids (and anyone interested in sustainable farming).

We left later than we'd really planned on Friday, compounded by having to turn back for some stuff we forgot. We still got there in reasonable time, though. It isn't that far away - about an hour, including a stop for food. We set up the tent, learned that there was a volunteer dinner, and headed over for that. I think the spaghetti with cheese may have been Leif's favorite part of the whole thing.

(We volunteered, which meant we got free entrance and camping, plus some meals and an extra night of camping. Really great deal).

Nighttime sucked. It was very cold (well, low 40's, which is feels very cold when coming out of a hot summer), and it's tough to co-sleep in a sleeping bag on a camp bed. We all lived, though.

Saturday was the main event. It was kid heaven, with a hay fort, zip line, petting zoo, fresh egg collecting, storytelling in a teepee, and all sorts of crafts and games. Leif, Astrid, and I checked everything out while koyote took his shift making sure kids didn't kill eachother on the hay fort. Leif got a free (well, bartered) cheeseburger for lunch. The afternoon was somewhat less fun - it got much more crowded, and the kids were getting tired and whiny. I took my shift at the cornhusk doll table, which was tolerable enough. I was supposed to help with ice cream churning right after that, but koyote kindly took over that for me, so I wouldn't have to sit there faced with ice cream I couldn't eat :) After a brief lost Leif incident, the kids and I took a ride on a horse-drawn wagon around the farm and back to our campsite, where we ate a bit of dinner before we all passed out. The night was slightly better, and I think slightly warmer, though Beeb still woke up much too often.

While fixing dinner, we ran out of gas for the stove, which made breakfast this morning a little difficult, so we decided to just get packed up fast and head home in time for church (not exactly a superhuman feat, given than it starts at 11). We succeeded, despite the need for showers and breakfast for all of us and an excessive delay for overpriced coffee, except that when we got back in the car to go to church, it wouldn't start! Leif was upset about not being able to go (he loves his "church friends"), so we decided to try to get it going in time for the after-church parenting class, which we'd been signed up for but I'd kind of planned to blow off, as the previous one had been somewhat less than wonderful. But this one was better, and Leif was happy with his playtime (and pizza!), and didn't really seem to care too much that he'd missed his class.

Then lots of laundry and cleaning and catching up on LJ (if you posted something you think I should have responded to, I probably have the post sitting open waiting for me to respond).


The hay for, to give an idea of the scale (Leif is in the blue jacket).




The Clif Bar company gave out lots of free snacks, including this baby friendly fruit snack. Thank you, Clif Bar!


Even the scarecrows wear slings. Seriously, this thing was the biggest gathering of Ergo carriers that I've ever seen in my life. I was filled with Ergo envy.


This was a little "roller coaster". Kids sat on the wooden board and slid down (once the hay bale was removed) into a pool of water. Leif didn't get a chance to go on it (once the day warmed up a little) and he was kind of upset about that.






Leif packs up a CSA box

Comments

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

That looks like the most wonderful event ever!!! Great pics!