Doh!

Yesterday, the entire family had a great outing to downtown Grand Rapids to participate in the Festival of the Arts. (Check out the website linked) I was amazed that the entire family was dressed and packed into the car by 10:3o this morning. The weather was hot and sunny, so I had slathered everyone with sunblock and hats were worn by all. Right before leaving, Jude was fed, diapered and burped. Additionally, Tam was raring to go "outside!" We hauled out the stroller for the wee one, and figured Tam would just have to walk and burn off a bit of extra energy. We knew that Brian had work at 2pm, but figured a couple of hours was all we could handle out in the heat anyways (and we'll get out before too much crowd).

Once downtown, Brian found a great free parking space at a meter, though it was about 4 blocks away. We all didn't mind.

The festival was great! Lots of food to eat, bands to hear, and art work to gawk at. Tam seemed to have a good time just holding Brian's hand and watching all the cool sites and people. Our first stop was the watch belly dancers...which Tam tried to mimic. Next stop was an ambulance in which the crew was letting kids climb in and check out. This and seeing a helicopter flying low overhead made Tam's entire day, I'm sure. We later heard an excellent accordion band playing some rousing polkas. Again, we all couldn't help but dance a bit with everyone else. Food was good; we ended up with some citrus chicken, fresh cut fries, lemonade, and pretzels.

After eating a bit, we let Tam participate in the "Great Paint In." This was a large coral set up with a ton of easels and paint. Kids are escorted in (without the parents!), robed in a leather paint smoke, given a sheet of paper, and shown to an easel. Then they can have at it for as long as their attention holds. After hand washing, the kids are matched back up with parents and the artwork is hung out along the fence for all to see. Tam saw the kids painting and totally wanted in on the action "Draw too, mama?" It was hard for him to be patient enough to wait his turn. I had a moment when I released his hand where I worried about whether he would go off with a stranger...but the pull of paint and paper was too much, and he was fine. Being a little one, they placed him at an easel near the outer perimeter so he could still see and hear me. Tam, of course, painted cars :-) And told the little girl beside him all about it. Very cute!

After the painting excursion. we meandered back out of the festival and too our car. Everyone seemed a bit tired, and good naps were had by all once we got back home.

Baby Jude slept the entire time.

Yep...I was so proud to have remembered everything for this mini-expedition...
Except the memory card for the camera. Doh! So no photos :-0