beer festival. cornbread festival. MOVE TO AR :: we have festivals!

This weekend was semi-calm in the storm of what's to come from now until the New Year.   I've been a bit shy about putting stuff out in the world lately.  Insecurity?  Exhaustion?  I think when I started blogging way back in the day, a lot of it was about just our daily life and routines (what we did that weekend, what we ate, taking all those drugs back in '05) and I think I lost a little of that in this weird MUST. WRITE. IMPRESSIVE. BLOG. POSTS. frenzy.  So, I'm trying to get back to my roots, drop the hesitation and just type some nitty gritty boring details (in a hopefully entertaining way). Click away if you must. 

Theme of this weekend:  Festivals! 

Karl went to a Craft Beer Festival (in Argenta Arts Distrtict) on Friday night with some friends.  As expected, he did not take any photos nor did he actually taste any of the beer. He DRANK the beer but proclaimed he could taste nothing b/c of his allergies/sinus drainage. (Someday in the future I will tell you ALL about how I don't believe in allergies.)  He DID, however, come home (mostly) sober and before 11.  Score.

What did I do?  I stayed home and met the kids ENDLESS requests for food and beverage.

Resting up for a pretzel stick from the floor:  



A little booty shaking at the dinner table.  Seriously, I promise to stop blogging about Nate's  bum-shaking.  He would be embarrassed if he knew I told y'all about it.  (Seriously though when do you have to ask your kids permission to blog about them?  Or do you take it all down when they start reading and caring?  I'm SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS.) 



Saturday started off bright and early with OUR FINAL SOCCER GAME of the season.   Insert mixed emotions here.  Coaching was seriously fun.  I EVEN think I might do it again.  All my players and parents = fantastic.  Most of the teams we played = fantastic.  I have ZERO frame of reference but I just want it to keep being fun.... so maybe I'll coach until then? Or until Nate loses interest in soccer?

My favorite part of the season (other than OBLITERATING every single team we played?  Oh.  Wait.  Fun!  Fun!  Dammit.  Well, winning is fun, right?) was that Nate consistently called me "Coach Kat" on the field.  (As in "Coach Kat, can I go in and play?  Coach Kat, is it my turn to kick the ball?")  





After the game (and naps for everyone but Nate), we headed to the Arkansas Cornbread Festival.

We let Nate mainline a little snocone sugar:


And bounce house with his classmate Olive:
 
Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day and there was beer.  Since mostly we, uh, didn't see any cornbread.  Just the bounce house area.   (SUPER nice bounce houses at the Cornbread Festival. HA.  Much better than the ones at the Cheese Dip Festival from last weekend.) 



Sunday, Nora Kate learned how to use the snack trap thingey - THANK GOD. SHE DOESN"T HAVE TO EAT PRETZELS OFF THE FLOOR ANYMORE.  I'm sure several of you were concerned.  She barely eats food at all (though definitely a big fan of Saturday morning biscuits and gravy) so anything we can get her to try - any method - I am all for it. 



Additionally, we had the added bonus of "celebrating" Day Lights Savings (also known as THE LONGEST DAY EVER) time so my Sunday went something like this:

5:30 a.m.  Nate: Can we get up now?  When can we get up?  I think it's time to get up Mommy.
6:00 a.m. Nora: I think I'll join this party.  (She speaks in complete sentences now that's she's 1.)
8:45 a.m. Nora: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.  (Nap time.  AT NINE AM.  She's on the 1 post-lunch nap schedule so this is NOT best case scenario for the rest of the day.)
10:00 a.m. Nahcos for, uh, lunch?!  WHAT? We were hungry.

And then the day went on and on and on until a gloriously early bedtime (Karl included)!

I finally finished up Nora Kate's thank you notes from her birthday and made a list to start soccer thank you notes!  (Constantly writing thank you notes - you should too. Snail mail rules.)  


 And now?  Well, now I'm just lounging on the couch with my lap top blogging with you people.   GLORIOUS WEEKEND.  Off to close the tippy tappy machine and read a book with pages until i pass out.


Have a great week!