Da da dadaDA... 3000!

Wow, you guys, this is my 3000th post, and I don't even have anything that exciting to say! =/ Bummer!

We've been in the wake-up, get-up, go to school, do homework and dinner and get in the car for karate, come home and go to bed routine that is typical of autumn. Throw in church and friends and home group starting back up and gorgeous weather and an overgrown garden and germs, and you pretty much have our life.

Last weekend, Pap showed up on his birthday to hang out with Dada as I piled all the kids in the car and trekked to PA for one of our infamous Whirlwind Weekends. We collapsed at Grandmama and PaPa's house Friday night. Carrie came with me to a funeral Saturday morning, then we headed to a friend's daughter's third birthday party in the afternoon and then went from there straight towards to Pittsburgh to meet with my BFF and her girls for munchies. Sunday brought a trip to my Nana's hometown where Carrie and I visited her in the hospital while Aunt Lainie watched the boys at Nana's apartment. We all piled back into the car, headed home after lunch, and Damon announced he had a huge headache. Sent him to bed only to have him miss the next two days of school with a fever and sore throat. Dr. Jon declared him strep-free, so it was back to school on Wednesday for him, much to his delight.

Now Liam has gone to bed with a bad headache and he feels warm to me. =/ They say that history repeats itself...

Dada and Carrie were mowing while I did laundry and dishes. Damon played on the iPad to keep him quiet while Liam slept. Now I need to go fold said laundry and get ready for this week. Have a good one, everybodeeeee! 

Dark Arts Fest

So there's this phenomenon called the Black Swamp Arts Fest which has admittedly had its name butchered on more than one occasion by my family. I blame the Harry Potter series. We've called it the "Dark Arts Fest" because "Black Swamp, Dark Swamp, Dark Arts, whatsitsname, oh well" seems to roll of our tongues.

Anyhoo, it features artists of all sorts from all over the place. There are fun sculptures of gears and metal, many knitted thingamajigs, tons of paintings, prints, etc. There is also more than a few booths of jewelry. 

And a food court. 

And bands. Including the Japanese Taiko drums from the college.

The school kids contribute some art to line shop windows and they paint on the snow plows:

And food. There is Kettle Korn, above.

I did mention food, right? 

Succumbing to the lure of elephant ears, below:

It alternately sprinkled and was hot and sunny, so we were glad we had our raincoats as we perused and meandered and wandered the Dark Arts, darn it, Black Swamp Arts Fest!

The Wright Brothers Memorial

How did it get to be September already?

I guess that makes this post a blast from the past as it happened over a month ago. While in the OBX, we used Liam's fourth grade national park pass (you GOTTA get one if you have or are a fourth grader! Go to this link and set it up! Click here so you don't miss out!) for our very first visit to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. 

It was like a bajillion degrees with equal humidity, yet off he goes:

It was fascinating to listen to the spiel given by the Ranger about the mechanics of flying. I'd never really thought about it before, much less in the high humidity of a hot afternoon. I also had never thought about "fuselage" as being a French word or known anything at all about the French word "aileron" meaning "small wing." All I could think about was my Pap Pap. I wish I could have listened to the whole talk with him. He would have understood every word, even though it was being given in Southern.

As I was fighting off tears, the Ranger called on Damon, out of the entire audience, when he talked about the aileron. Damon was hot and shy, but did his best, and received a paper airplane for his efforts. The Ranger laughed about giving him his very first French lesson. The paper airplane was still circling the backseat of my car not even two weeks ago, so I'd say that's pretty good. 

We got there late in the day and kind of had to hoof it around to see what we could see before they closed. It was probably just the right amount of time to do it as nobody had time to complain about being bored. Of course the sign says to not be on the display, but somebody's kids got up there anyway.

And then we found this photographer getting his picture taken.

After the talk we got back outside to see where the previous flights had taken place. Takes one, two, and three were all pretty similar:

But then, WOW, check out how far take four went. Waaay over there! I can only imagine how exciting that must have been.

I'm so glad we went, and I'm betting we'll go back when Damon gets his fourth grade park pass. Maybe by then we'll know a little more about airplanes. 

Some Like it Hot

Ooh, me! Me! Pick me! Mememememeeeeeee!

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII like it hot. I revel in it.

But then, I don't have a fur coat on in the summertime.

It's just too hot to be a squirrel, apparently. Hehe!