festivaling

One of the things I love about where we live is the comfy, low-key music/strawberry/seafood festivals that take place on a regimented calendar system. Every fall, we expect to have oyster roasts to raise funds for area churches and museums. Every summer, there is a strawberry festival with strawberry shortcake handed out by ladies wearing hats.

And every spring, normally on mother's day, is the Menokin Music Festival. This year it was labeled a PickNick thanks to the bluegrass tones of the performers, but it benefits and is held on the grounds of the historic ruins of Menokin Plantation which was once home to Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The place is about a mile from our sweet old church and just a few roads away from our home.

The best things about these sorts of events are that 1) no one notices if your kids want to run around a bit mid-show 2) if you spill things/wear play clothes/bring the whole house along it only enhances the experience 3) you can expose your family to a bit of local history/philanthropy/talent while enjoying the night in the fresh air- which we all know makes those babies sleep so good!

This year, we noshed on cookies and fruit and had a blast playing on the inflatables and tractors around the site. We went late enough to have little heat and barely any mayflies.
Here's hoping you have some easy-peasy, family-friendly outdoor entertainment to attend in your neck of the woods. It's one of my favorite ways to relax.

And there are a bunch more outdoor concerts slated for this summer. To slate them for your summer calendar if you're local or plan a country visit around them, check out these sites:

Tappahannock Concert Series (new this year with some free some low-cost events and held either in an open field or a historic courthouse green with refreshments on sale. yes please!)

Groovin' In the Park (In sweet little Deltaville, a wonderful venue with plenty of yummy seafood to eat in town before or after! Later this season, don't miss Steve Bassett and Robin Thompson with new songs and old favorites.)

Music by the River (at Belle Isle State Park, supported by friends of the park and with a great lineup. Pay $3 to get in the park and let the kids play in the sand, on the playground or have a picnic while taking in the tunes.)

Between them all, and probably a few to select from in your neighborhood, there's no excuse to stay at home on a Saturday night (even if you can't afford a sitter or tote juice boxes instead of beer kegs!)

green house

With summer nearly officially here (that is, school out, hot afternoons, sprinkler up) we've all been busy with little projects to prepare for the heat.

G put up the second rain barrel this week just near the compost bins- they are fed from the gutter off the back shed where we house the boat and tractors and I've been surprised by how quickly they fill up. I've attached a hose to one and use it to water our garden instead of having to haul water or drag the house all the way from the house. It's a great way to make use of the rain, save our well pump and save some of my energy too! And don't panic if you don't want to buy a $150 rain barrel. G got ours via local NRCS workshops and I've seen them offered by area master gardeners as well for under $70. And they're huge! Just make sure they come with a cover or a screen to help keep the pest population down.

Speaking of pests, we've been having some run-ins with black snakes lately. First, there was one hanging out in a tree by the girls' swings that G relocated (with much pomp and circumstance from the little audience that formed) to the woods. Then there was a black snake in the church parking lot that had been scared under a car that he took to the woods.
For readers who are city dwellers, these snakes help keep rodent populations at bay and are harmless to humans (save the creepy feeling they impart) so it makes sense not to kill them if you don't have to.
Then last week, he was out of town and I'm loading up the girls in the car to head to the library when I notice something long, black and wet-looking laying on the driveway behind the car. They're both halfway in when I realize it's our buddy from the woods (maybe) come back looking for G. We drove away and he was gone when we got back, of course.
Needless to say, S is always looking for "sneaky snake" whenever we venture into the yard now. And we passed one that had been pancaked on the road the other day which she was convinced might have "been our sneaky snake that was looking for Daddy." Unlikely, but nice to dream.

And earlier this week, while J was napping, S helped me put up something I have come to call the "bean house." We got the idea of using sticks or something to build a rustic structure to create a summer hideaway for the girls from a book given to us by one of my aunts when J was born. It must have been a locally published thing 'cause I can't find it on the innerwebs, but the gist was: baby comes. life changes. big sister grumps. uncle helps big sister plant bean teepee. by the time bean teepee is grown, little sister isn't so bad.

So I had a general idea of what we wanted to do and where. And there is tons of inspiration out there if you want to do something like this but want to get a bit creative as well. Books like this and this. Here are some ideas from Pinterest I liked, for several reasons:

Easy access, close to the house for monitoring.
Still plenty big. From Let The Children Play.

This is a grander scale- but lovely to imagine playing in.
Inspired by a family's take on the Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia.

And this version is a bit more controlled, but I didn't want to have to build planters. Although I like that the trellis provides shade without much greenery
as it's hard to keep the kids while waiting for the vines to cover it.

In the end, what we did was use what we had. Which was four, brightly colored tomato cages, some recycled hydrangea limbs (used to be wattle fencing around garden beds), lots of twine, some straw, seeds, compost and a package of plastic netting.

It took about an hour, including me spading up the grass that was in this area. Susannah was thrilled to practice her tying skills and to "build" the walls and ceiling with the sticks.

We planted morning glories, beans and cantaloupe seeds around the base of each tomato cage to hopefully form a ceiling of sorts and zinnia and sunflowers along the perimeter of the rectangle base to form the exterior "walls."

It's butted right up to the back of our garden- next to a honeysuckle vine and butterfly bush.

I'll keep you posted on how it grows- here's hoping we continue to have a nice, rain scattered early summer!

bangs!

This week was picture day at Susannah's preschool and in preparation, we went to get her hair shaped up a bit. On a whim on the way to the hair cuttery place I asked her if she'd like to try something different and tried explaining the idea of bangs to her. It went like this:

me: It would be like having short hair in the front and long hair in the back.
her: forever? (probably imagining a mullet sort of thing...)
me: no, no. But it would take a while to grow back all the way when we decide to do that.
her: will it look like sarah from Ms. Jen's class?
me: yep- just like that.
her: yay! I've always wanted brown hair.

You can see I wasn't 100 percent sure she'd like the finished product since I wasn't very good at explaining it.
However, I've always had a pretty cavalier attitude about hair (contrary to my many posts referring to it) and as the stylist would ask questions about length or shape I'd always say, absolutely- just follow your gut. it's just hair- it will always grow back.
And now it's like we're looking at a flashback of my elementary aged years.

Or my sister-in-law's elementary aged years.

Oh- you thought I'd have photos of those posted here for everyone? Yeesh- no thank you. Although my "I have bangs and snaggle teeth" early elementary years are slightly better than the "I have acne and braces and permed bangs" middle school days, it's not better by that much.

The only thing that's missing is the perm or teased out bangs- which I have to say we will not be trying out anytime soon.

Oh, and that weird picture with the doll? That's what happens when you tell a four-year-old to "show the doll" in a photo. Front and center! It's a lovely doll courtesy of great aunt Susie that has become a favorite because it's forbidden for little sister's roving attention.

Final picture shows her new happy hair accessories- headbands. Maybe because they don't pinch as much now as they are not really holding back any hair or maybe it's just the fickle winds of youth, she loves them now and loves that every day doesn't require bows or clips. (that's what ears are for, she explained.) Outfit courtesy of Grandma Hall who lovingly searches her local clothes closet on occasion for our benefit.