Twice the Fair

I don't remember last year's NC State Fair probably because we didn't go. Or if we did, we didn't stay very long. Or we didn't have much fun. Or we didn't eat any of the fair food. Well, to make up for the lack of memories from last year's Fair, we've done this year's Fair TWICE.
The first time the entire family - my parents, Chris, M and myself - went there on the opening weekend. Aside from Grampa's complaints and total lack of enthusiasm, it was a good outing. We walked around just a bit, mostly in the Garden Exhibit area (my favorite); took M on a few rides; and had some mediocre fair food.

FRESH FRIED FOOD

So let's start with food. The big question this year is did he or didn't he. We all know that Chris got to eat this year's top contender for the title of "Most Disturbing Fair Food Item" - the Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger (yeah, it's a bacon cheeseburger with a KK donught instead of a normal bun). But did he really enjoy it? To his (Chris') credit, he actually didn't. What's it going to be next year? How about a deep-fried PBJ sandwich?

Everyone else was a bit more cautious in their food choices. Well, Grandpa got some kind of sandwich that was big on sauteed onions and chunks of deep-fried grease. Grandma went for a turkey leg and corn on the cob (actually, good choices both, but we'll attribute them to the beginner's luck since that was her first ever State Fair).

M had a corndog and cotton candy. And I had a grilled corn and fried green tomatoes (delicious while hot, afterwards just greasy).

RIDES

This year was the first time M got to go on a couple of rides all by himself! Hooray! He went on a kind of a carousel ride and also on a kiddie roller-coaster. Of course, he was thrilled with both! But he also loved the Jungle Adventure maze-obstacle course, spinning cups and a mega slide.

But that first time we didn't get to see much of anything, just the kiddie rides and the food and some old time-y arts and crafts (predictably, M was thrilled by the loom and the spinning wheel).

MUSIC

And then, as we were about to leave, we came across this one-man band. It was clearly a show for kids since there on the ground, in front of this guy, was a box full of shakers, rattles, and various noise-makers. The kids were encouraged to grab whatever noise-maker they liked and join the performance. Needless to say, M loved the idea, especially after he spied a pair of cymbals, lying neglected on the bottom of the box.

Oh, but here's the funniest part - while all the rest of the kids faced the performer (and turned their backs on the audience of, mostly, approving or at least amused parents), M quickly moved closer to the musician guy and turned to face the audience. The only kid to have done so!

С корабля на бал...

... which can be translated as "to dash from one place to another" (although this translation doesn't come close to capturing the meaning of the original "from a ship to a fancy party"). That's pretty much what was going on last week.

We got back from NY where M spent time with бабушка and дедушка just in time to greet M's paternal grandparents. We got back very late on Tuesday night and Ron and Ann flew in on Thursday morning. As you can imagine, we had very little time to get things ready. Basically, I unpacked, worked, and bought groceries so as to avoid feeding fast food to all (although I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that leftover pizza was served for lunch on Thursday. To redeem myself I did make a big tasty salad).

Ann is crocheting this really nice pink baby blanket and she had to go to Micheal's to get a new hook (as you can imagine, the old one didn't make it through the airport security). While there, she picked up a small wooden birdhouse and a set of paints for M. I never got this for him before since he's never been big on crafts. But he actually spent close to 30 mins carefully painting the birdhouse, covering every inch of it with several layers of paint, including as much of an inside as he could. Go figure! Well, I guess I'll try to include more projects like this in the future.

They also went to the music store next to Michael's. In case you don't know, Ron plays guitar and writes, sings and records his own songs. I guess that's where M gets his interest in music and, specifically, in playing different musical instruments (although he's more into drums and brass at this point).

Back to the music store though... Ron tried out a guitar there and played a bit and M got into it and was copying Grandpa's moves. Maybe next time Ron and Ann visit, we get to go to 2112 Percussions where M can show off his drumming (earplugs for all are on me).

The day Ann and Ron left was Ron's birthday. So we celebrated the day before with cherry vareniki (see next post) and a cake. Of course, M had to help to blow out the candles. And now, after two b-days in a row (mine the next day, post is coming up soon) he's pretend baking and playing b-day parties (with cake and mugs of beer).

First Week in NY...

... is over and yes, I'm still in NY. And yes, we're still having fun (although M woke up me at 5:15am today to ask "почему у дедушки и бабушки в доме мало места" [why there's so little room in the grandparents' house]. It sure is a small house, only about 900 sq feet or so and full of stuff too. Plus with all our toys, books, and drums we bring our fair share of havoc and clutter to the place.

Nevertheless, things have been fun so far. There are just a ton of things to do here. There's Rockland Bakery, of course, the place that M adores. We already went there a couple of times to buy fresh bread and, more importantly, to see all that delicious doughy goodness moving up and down the conveyor belts.

Then there is the Seven Lakes park - a place where M doesn't want to go unless you promise him that he can "drive" a car there. There's also more berry picking, of course. I'm telling you, those wineberries are delicious, plentiful and keep so well in the fridge. They seem to be way better than raspberries! I wonder if I can plant a few in our backyard this fall (yeah, I know they are invasive non-natives). Hmm, something to look into right now...

...back from looking for wineberry bushes. Seems like nobody sells them, but they can be dug out from the wild and replanted. Ok, next time I see one NOT in a state park, I'll do just that.

Where was I... Aha, things we're doing while in NY. Of course, we already went to IKEA. Personally, I think it's the best indoor playground for the little ones. And I don't mean the Kids Only area on the first floor (M is still not fully potty-trained, so we can't leave him there). The whole entire store is like a giant playground, only with foodcourt. Can't beat that, especially with the temperatures in the 90ies. It's just one of those "good for moms, good for kids, no dads allowed" places.

We also went to the Museum Village in the nearby Monroe. It's one of those interpretive history sites that we've been crazy about lately. It's really best to go on a (free) tour there since many of the houses are locked the rest of the time. Those also happen to be the most interesting ones - the log cabin, the drug store, the pottery, etc. Plus most demonstrations are scheduled around the tours. We caught a bit of the tour and it was very interesting. Next time I'm staying for the entire tour!
It's been crazy hot here and practically no rain. Fortunately, Masha's friend Rostik rents a house with a salt-water pool and, being a very nice and generous guy that he is, extends open invitation not only to Masha and her kids, but also to whomever she wants to bring along. How awesome is that, I ask you?!

So we went to the pool not once, but twice last week with Masha (in case you don't know, she's my cousin's wife), her two girls and M (it's a good thing Masha drives an SUV and M is finally big enough for a booster). At first M didn't want to go (the usual thing about getting his clothes wet). But then he ended up not only swimming (with my help), but actually jumping off the side of the pool (again, I had to catch him). Obviously and predictably, he didn't want to leave.

But wait, there's more fun inside the house (even though it is a small house) and in the yard. Grandma's garden is doing better this year and she and M visit it every day to harvest blueberries, currants, and early tomatoes.

Outside there's Grandpa's car to sit in and "drive", blacktop to draw on with chalk, and a pressure washer to clean the deck.

Inside the house, there's a drum set! Yeah, Grandpa picked up this Junior 5-piece set for only $20 just so M could drum any time of the day and night. That's definitely not something M would ever be allowed to do back home. So he's been performing quite a lot lately, including his hit single "Чёрные скелеты" [Black skeletons] which goes something like this "Чёрные скелеты, чёрные скелеты, чёрные скелеты!"

New Guitar

Something Mr. M acquired last week, when in NY (thanks to the generousity of his cousin, Alisa). Now he is a drummer AND a guitarist. He takes his guitar very seriously, by the way. A few times he'd interrupt his performance because he "had to tune a guitar" (yes, he pretend-tunes it).

BTW, in this video he plays a guitar but sings "I'm a drummer, drummer, drummer!"

Grandpa Ron, this one is for you!

Road Trip Synergy

Most of the blogs I read are either business-related or are all about cooking, crafting, and kids. The big exception in this line-up is The Simple Dollar, a blog about sound money-saving advice.

A few weeks ago The Simple Dollar author, Trent, was talking about synergy. As he explained it in his post, synergy was doing something that was good in the long term while perfectly enjoyable in the short term.

Well, here's how it applied to us. Lately we had to drive to NY a lot. It's typically a 9-hour drive along I-95, longer actually with all the traffic around Richmond, Washington, D.C. and then all through New Jersey. In short, too long for our little one to make in one day. So we used to drive it in 2 half-days stopping overnight somewhere 30-minutes south of Washington, D.C.

But it sucked anyway - traffic, boring I-95, even more boring NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, crummy rest stops, horrible roadside motels... So instead of taking I-95, we took the backroads and I-81. Instead of spending the night at a 1.5-star motel somewhere on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., we stopped at a 2-star one in Hagerstown, VA.

The drive itself was a lot more scenic, going through rural VA, MD and PA. Apart from a few miles in NJ, there was no traffic to speak of (since we didn't go through any major metropolitan areas). The hotel in Hagerstown was pretty basic, but it was much cheaper than anything reasonably safe we would've found for the same price along I-95.

And we got to do lots of stuff that was fun for all of us.

When we arrived in Hagerstown it was already pretty late. We checked into our hotel and found out that there was going to be a little classic rock show in the bar area. The musicians just arrived and were setting up. Perfect for our Little Drummer. He was so excited to see the real instruments. And of course, he got to play the drums.

The next morning we didn't have to get on the road for a few hours. So we decided to drive around. That's when Chris saw a sign for the Antietam Battlefield. Don't ask me what it is with my hubby and battlefields.

So we drove through a lovely town of Boonesboro to the battlefield. Little did we know, it was the anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. We drove and walked around the battlefield for a little while, climbed the observation tour, then checked out the bivouac re-enactment.

A bunch of people dressed in period costumes set up a camp and were going about the daily business of cooking, chopping wood, mustering, setting up a field hospital. And there was even a little concert (oh, the drums again!).

On the way back from NY a week later we stopped at the same hotel. Unfortunately, they didn't have a concert that day. So instead we drove to Sharpsburg to check out the Heritage Festival (more drums) and then - Boonesboro for lunch (local pizza and ice-cream) and a little walk-around.

So all in all, it was a very pleasant drive that felt like a mini-vacation. We used to dread going to NY, but now we actually look forward to the next opportunity.

Our Pre-Harvest Season Scarecrow

This simple scarecrow project I did with the Drummer Boy a month or so ago. I felt really inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Filth Wizardry.

The only problem was that unlike the super-mom over at Filth Wizardry, I am a newbie. And so I don't have a secret stash of empty containers, scrap paper, leftover wood, and other odds and ends and leftovers from previous fun projects (but guess what - I'm working on it).

So I had to make some substitutions:

• Instead of scrap wood for scarecrow's frame, we used dry branches and twigs from trees that my hubby cut months ago and that still litter our backyard.


• We didn't have any paper to shred to use as stuffing and I couldn't think of any other convenient stuffing material, so we skipped this step.


• And as fun and freaky as it would've been to use Drummer Boy's photo for the face, we had to make do without it.

Of course, I could've used a photo cutout from a cover of one of the magazines. But then I thought of a better idea - I took a small paper plate and let Drummer Boy draw a face on it (ok, he's only just learning to draw stick figures, so the result looked nothing like a face).

I also traced Drummer Boy's hands onto sheets of paper, cut them out and used as scarecrow's hands. DB thought it was a hilarious idea - he loves tracing.

Finally, we used plenty of duct tape, scotch tape and twine to hold the contraption together to DB's sheer delight and complete freak out by our cat. Reflecting on this project now, I think duct tape was the most critical component!

First Collage Art

This simple and free collage project was perfect for us. I did it first with my 2-year old Bee Bop Drummer and then again with his 5-year old pal and both times the kids loved it. And in only took me a couple of minutes to set up.

First, I went through my stash of old magazines and tore out the most colorful pages (usually the full-page ads). I then cut these pages into narrow strips and further into small rectangles and triangles. The DrummerBoy doesn't use scissors yet otherwise it would've been a great add-on activity (will keep in mind for the future). Also, next time I might try shredding some of the pages.