A Great Adventure

Saturday was a day full of great fun for the whole family, first little C and I made pancakes together which all three of us enjoyed together.  we then gathered snack, drinks any bags so we could head out on our way.

Saturday is the Farmer's Market in Montpelier and this weekend the Montpelier Recreation department also held their annual Touch-A-Truck Event. We parked in the high school lot, where touch a truck would be held, we had originally miss planned our timing and were at the high school an hour early.  This must have been fate because it worked out great, we grabbed out market bags and walked from the HS down to State St. to enjoy the Farmer's Market. it was an easy walk for all of us, even the littlest.
This was our first time going to the Montpelier Farmer's Market - what a treat.  Lots of vendors and entertainment. Our first stop was at a little flea market stand where little C checked out some toys, while big C went to check out info on solar panels.  Soon little C got tired of the toys and wanted to go check out the food :)
We didn't have any agenda or list of things we needed at home, this was more of a fun time visit.  Saw lots of yummy greens and gorgeous rainbow chard.  At little C's request we got some honey sweetened lemonade from McGurran Bee Farm. Refreshing, just sweet enough and neither the lemon or the honey overpowered the other.  Our first food stop was for big C he got a beef and cheese Samosa from Samosaman, they are always yummy, I had a small bite since I wasn't hungry enough for my own.
We enjoyed music while we kept looking, tried a BBQ sauce and an asparagus pesto (YUM).  Found a vendor (Woodbelly Pizza) selling pizza baked on site (this might have been the first portable oven I've seen) Oh it was so good - eggs, bacon, onion and cheese.  Very yummy.   We shared, since we were pacing ourselves adn wanted to check out all there was to offer.
Our last food and drink came from NuttySteph's and Green Mountain Twisters.  A plain pretzel and iced drinking chocolate - both picked by little C as she hadn't been interested in much yet.  They also had a really good looking chocolate cherry pretzel.  I just might be addicted to the drinking chocolate.  Different than chocolate milk, cool, served on ice and not to sweet.  It was perfect.  Both were enjoyed by all of us and was a good end to the food we found at the market.  Even better they are located in Middlesex near the new house.
 On our way out and to our next stop we took some time to watch a young street entertainer.  Very good juggler who has performed with circus smirkus in past years and was raising money for the circus.  He had a great presence about him.

We ended our day at the Touch-A-Truck event where trucks of all sizes come and are open for the kids to explore.  they can climb inside and honk the horns, pretend to drive and in general have a great time.  Much to little C's joy there was a bouncy house, where she was considered one of the big kids :)  she got her face painted and got a balloon pirate sword and scabbard.  The clowns doing the face painting and balloons must have been a family - kids and adults working together and they did a great job with all of the kids.
When asked what her favorite truck was she said the ones with horns - so that would be all of them.

Mohawk!!

Not our first mowhawk.  This is actually day 3 with a mohawk, all at school.  Little c rocks it well.  We've even gotten new hair products to help make a better mohawk.

I've been wanting to do this since she got it cut short, but never pushed the issue.  Last week while playing with water in front of the mirror sh gave herself a mohawk and thought it was hilarious.  She was very pleased with herself.  She jumped on the idea when I asked if she wanted to wear it to school.  Of course I didn't think she would say yes, or think through the offer - I had no clue where any of the hair products were that could help.

Stumbled across some flexible hair wax and hair spray which made a reasonable if floppy mohawk - all in all she liked it.  So we stocked up on a stiffer hair wax and an extreme  hold gel called gorilla snot - the upside is it is natural, the down side if you want to call it that is it feels and looks like it's name.  Seems to be working though.

Little C's room, changing

So this weekend we spent some time updating and decorating little c's bedroom.
First we got her a twinset bed to replace the crib w/o a rail she has been sleeping in.  It was ridiculously too small.  Little c got to pic out any sheetset she wanted  - it was a difficult choice between Mario, Hello Kitty, and Princess sheets.   The final choice was princess, plus we added 2 more coordinating sheet sets.
We also hung her growth chart and put some art up on her door.

Despite a very large amount of excitement on her part this afternoon, she seems not so sure now that its bedtime.  We've decided to give it the week and see what she thinks.

Spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, washing the vehicles and having water fights.

Shopping Shopping Shopping

Sunday we spent the afternoon shopping.  We picked up ski equipment for little C for next season.  Stopped into our favorite ski shop, Slope Style Ski and Ride, where they are super friendly to the kids (adults too).  I'm not affiliated or anything - we just really like these guys.
Little c got to pic out the graphics/ color of her ski and the color of her binding.  She's got a early rise all terrian rocker.  She picked out a really slick "old School" design.  The binding is the smaller ones, meant for the lower weight children.  Our salesman check the mid range binding, but at her current weight she's about 25 lbs away from being able to use those at the lowest setting.  It was a nice try, but better to be safe - and she still will have plenty of range on the binding setting for the ones she got.  She was so excited to be able to pick out her equipment.  She wanted to get boots too, but we will wait until fall so we know what size her feet are.
Took some photos of the new gear - and as you can see she already knows how to show off her branding like a pro :).

Little c also got her first pedal bike for her birthday this year.  She is ecstatic.  We got her a 16" bike, but she about 1 growth spurt away from fitting a 20" bike.  She actually could sit on the seat and reach the pedals on the 20".  But since it is her first pedal bike she's not really ready for the bigger bike.  Yet with practice she could be there by the end of the summer.  So we've removed the training wheels, and she's getting the pedaling down, the breaks are very easy so she's learning to pedal forward only to get going.  But her balance is totally there.  So much fun to watch her learning again.

Florida Trip Photos

 This Dolphin is Baby Hope, who lost her Mom.  Since she lost her family when she was so young there was no way for her to learn the things she needs to know to survive in the wild.  So she now has a home at The Clearwater Aquarium.

 Hermit Crabs - 2 left after evicting the fighter
all were released when we were done observing them.

 Out on the Manatee River  - lots of fun according to the LO.

FL Day 4

No new photos to post today - I need to download some from the camera from day 3 though.

So day three big c, little c, and I went to a little County park, E.G. Simmons.  There is a boat ramp, a beach and a playground.  We played around for a bit.  Found lots of hermit crabs had 3 in the pail at once and one got fiesty and started attacking the other two, so we had to remove that one.  Big c got to see one crab change shells.  We watched as a smaller crab crawled out of a larger crabs shell.  We had fun and a snack and little c got some playground time too.

Big c had a work meeting in the afternoon, so the girls, little c my mom, and I went up to Sun City Center for a pedicure and to visit my grandmother Martha.  We had a lovely visit and and relaxing time getting our nails done.

Today, we went into Bradington for  farmers market, picked up some great tomatoes, blueberries, kale, pastries and cookies.  Followed in up with a stopmzt a family run meat market, they have GREAT roast beef, and smoked corned beef.   After a stop for some regular groceries, we dropped Grandma and Grandpa and little c off at the house so big c and I could go check out a rib festival.  Had some great ribs from  local place T & L BBQ, very good sauce and friendle people.  Back to Mom and Dad's place where we met up with mom and little c at the pool.

Currently a few of us are ready for a nap, not the littlest though.

Day 2 in FL

Our first full day in FL.  Visiting my parents.  We got in yesterday at 4 pm, and had a nice dinner and visited the pool.  We all slept very well.

Today we were up  and off to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium home on Winter the Dolphin, an amputee dolphin.  There is a movie based on her life, which we watched as a family once, little c and I watched at least 5 times last month while we were all sick.  So for a suprise we took her to meet the real Winter.   While at the aquarium we also got to see nurse sharks, otters, sea turtles, and rays.  There was a baby dolphine named Hope, who lost her mother, but has now found a home at the aquarium.  They have two facilities so we rode a trolly betwwen the sites.  Little c declared the day alot of fun, trolly rides included. 

We came back for a late lunch and some much needed rest.  Then it was back to the heated pool for a swim.  Little c wore her life vest today and was swimming around like a little fish.  She jumped in several times from the edge - thinking that was lots of fun.

After cleaning up grandma A and little c worked on some art.  Little c was posing to be drawn.  The photos today are of her posing, Ill have to down load from the other camera the pictures from the aquarium.