The Harvest Festival

Much as I dislike crowds and waiting in lines, I really wanted to take Violet to the Harvest Festival at Ardenwood Farm this year. This second round of the holiday season with her is going to be so much more fun, because she's so much more aware of everything than she was at this time last year, so I was excited for the pumpkin patch and the petting zoo, etc.

And I think she did have fun. What I realized, though, is that I should have brought my stroller, first of all, and second of all, that we probably could have gone to a park for free and she would have had just as much fun. But, mommy and daddy wanted photo ops. Hehe. 

Piggy!

Piggy!

We started out at the animals. Bunnies and cows are animals she's seen in her books, but never up close. She kept calling all of them piggy, though. Ironic that we didn't see any actual pigs.

Piggy!

   

We did some wandering about and eventually met up with two of my mommy friends and their little ones, both of whom seemed better equipped to handle a full day at the farm -- a 9 year old and a baby in a stroller. I felt very unprepared. I finally put Violet on my shoulders, which seemed to keep her happy for the longest amount of time. She really just wanted to run loose and get in everyone's way. In theory, I didn't mind, but it was just crazy busy and there was all kinds of farm equipment and stuff laying around. And she's too full of energy to want to be constrained for very long.

So we soon parted ways with out friends again and headed over to the pumpkin patch, again, largely for the photo op, since we didn't want to take a pumpkin home just yet. Charmingly, her first instinct was to try to pick up the biggest pumpkin she could find. 

This one looks good!

I'll just sit here for a minute.

We did have to convince her to sit on one, and because I was following behind her and daddy, I kept only getting pictures of her back. Oh well, it's still cute.

The haystack was a big hit. She loves climbing things. Going up was relatively easy, though Daddy did have to help her get her footing on the less-than-stable hay. Going down was a bit more dangerous, and definitely required help.

Going up...

Trying to take the down step at a run, note the look of panic on Daddy's face.

She had such a fun time picking up rocks and sticks and falling in the dirt that Shawn and I were both commenting on what a little tom-boy she was. But she kept holding out her hand for me to brush off the dirt, so, clearly still a princess after all.

Dirty. Clean me, please.

Parade of Good Times

Well, this week has been short and weird. Thursday felt like Monday. 

BUT...we had a fun 4th, and I have the pictures to prove it. 

The hometown parade was better this year than I've seen it in several years. And Miss Violet was intrigued by the shenanigans, versus last year when she mostly slept in her bassinet. My mom bought her a fancy Minnie Mouse t-shirt with stars and stripes and cute pair of jean shorts, so she was quite stylish. 

Some of the highlights of the parade:

The Alameda Theatre made a float with a gorgeous scale model of the iconic, historic marquee. 

The Alameda Chamber of Commerce made a Cinderella Pumpkin coach. I don't know why. But it was awesome.

The Swell Bar had a jaunty little nautical themed float, complete with mermaids, vintage sailor girls, and Neptune, God of the Sea

Violet, in her Minnie Mouse stars and stripes, and Grandma

Violet watching the parade with Auntie Shannon

Sleepy baby fell asleep halfway through the parade. Guess it wasn't all that exciting.

Rhythmix Cultural Works, an arts center in town, had a cool float with cogs and gears

This gal had more American spirit than anyone!

And my personal favorite, the period costumes, courtesy of the Dickens Fair float

Independence-eve

I like any excuse to bring out my inner hostess. For the family BBQ tomorrow, I decided to make a cupcake flag.

I used a boxed mixed this time around. Partial as I am to baking from scratch, I was more focused on the decorating tonight. I used a French vanilla Betty Crocker mix and whipped cream frosting from Duncan Hines.

I had intended to make the flag 6x6 but I ran out of cupcakes and space in my tray. So, rather than decorating each cupcake with a different color, I frosted them all, arranged them in the tray, and used the red and blue sprinkles to make my design.

Side note, I'd never had french vanilla cake until now, and it tastes like freakin pancakes. Win.