This sister’s had a busy day together. First, they ran to a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch with intermittent stops when someone yelled ‘freeze’ then resuming after someone said ‘unfreeze’. Second, they went to a park for some hearty playing. Third, they picked blackberries. And fourth, they painted some artwork.
We had a great playdate with Jasmine’s sisters Destiny and Selena. They had ‘fine dining’ at McDonalds where they discussed the proper way to eat french fries. I think Destiny won that discussion as you can see from the photo.
Next we drove around looking for a mysterious water park to take the girls. We never did find it, but we did call a friend who lives in the area who directed us to an alternate location. Luckily it had a water feature, since the girls were gearing to get wet. It also had a crazy centrifugal force contraption which we nicknamed ‘faceplant spin machine’. Jasmine and Selena loved it. Destiny, however, received a faceplant dismount, so she was not a fan.
To cool down after the hard playing, we went to get frozen yogurt, and of course Jasmine picked gummy worms as her topping.
We’ve been to a lot of festivals in our time, but never to a Garlic Festival, or more accurately an Elephant Garlic Festival. So when our friends Patty and Brian invited us, we said yes.
First up was a small town parade where the announcer proclaimed this to be the 3rd largest elephant garlic fest in the USA out of a total of 600. Brian and I missed the rest of the announcements, because we were too busy digesting and poking fun at that factoid. 600 garlic festivals? Really? And if this is the 3rd biggest, that must mean festivals #200 to #600 only have a couple people in attendance.
Anyway, the parade kicked off and we were then entertained not so much by the entries but by the kids running around collecting the thrown candy. Jasmine and her sister Destiny both collected a big haul worthy of any Halloween outing. Another cool thing was that one entry actually tossed out elephant garlic to the crowd.
Afterwards, we went the festival site, where the kids did lots of playing, and the adults browsed the crafts area and then we made the difficult decision of what to eat for lunch in the crowded aisle of vendors. We were expecting a plethora of garlic themed food offerings, but there were only a few – garlic icecream, garlic parm fries, and a combo dish of garlic chicken, green beans and mash potatoes. We guessed that people like the idea of a garlic festival more than they like the reality of bad breath from eating garlic inspired cuisine.
Jasmine and I headed to our Parks & Rec. annual Family Festival. We went last year and had a good time although it was very hot. This year was cooler but still very crowded. We waited in long lines to try out some big slides and obstacle courses. The space shuttle slide was the biggest inflatable contraption I’ve ever laid eyes on. Impressive. And Jasmine said it a fun spiral staircase up and good slide down.
On the way back to our car, Jasmine decided to do a little rolling down a hill. I remember doing that as a kid, of course I ended up with rash.
Jasmine loves to ride her bike and we decided join in on the action. So we did some shopping and found a comfy adult bike. It was quite a challenge to fit the bicycle into our small vehicle – we were wondering if we would have to ride the bike home – but Emily’s superb packing skills saved the day.
Emily and I have been taking turns going on bike rides with Jasmine. We also had an impromptu bike rally with all the neighbor kids doing loops around our home. Oh, how the kids love it when an adult joins in with them.
An eyewitness reports that I crashed into a tree branch, whereupon said tree branch attached itself to my helmet. Of course, no one bothered to mention my new helmet decor until after going several loops and wondering why people where pointing and laughing. Luckily a helpful 7 year old removed the foreign body, and I could bike again in relative peace.
