Art Fair Parade

The Children's Parade for the Art Fair last weekend is a tradition. The first year Eli did it with his class, the Cruisers, from the Y daycare. The past 2 years, I've taken him. And this year, Ewan joined his brother. Eli shook his jingle bells and played his harmonica.

Eli had a great time at the art fair this year. He decorated a canvas bag, a rainstick and a button.

Art

Eli and I took the bus home from school/work today and after we started our ride home, I asked Eli, "How was school today?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"What did you do today?"

He looked up at me, said, "Art." And then showed me with his hand how he drew.

It was the first time he said, "art," and it was a very fun conversation where I actually got information from him that I didn't know when I asked :)

Eventful weekend...

Eli had a very full weekend. On Saturday, he watched his Mama run very slowly in a 5k race at Bush Park (it was Art Fair weekend). Then he went to the Salem Saturday Market with his Mama and helped her set up the Friends of SSM booth. He was great -- mainly because he was eating a delicious sugar waffle and drinking lemonade at the booth, and then wandering in the aisles at the market. He loves to explore -- particularly things that, to adults, don't look worth exploring. For example, he loves to check out all the different ways the vendors keep their canopies from blowing away. Some use buckets of sand, others have jugs of water hanging near the stakes and others have rocks loaded around the stakes. I am sure Eli will offer a full report on how sturdy each of these techniques are. I'll let you know. That night he ended up back at the Art Fair listening to music, dancing and eating dinner.

On Sunday, he went to Denison Farm in Corvallis to see where all of the organic produce from our CSA box comes from. He absolutely loved it. He was happy riding on my back while we walked around the farm. Then he really liked walking among the tomato vines and strawberry rows. He ate about 10 strawberries (huge berries!), 8 blackberries and several cherry tomatoes. It was fun to see him hunt for the fruit. And he even did a little experiment where he picked a whitish-green strawberry, bit the tip and realized that it tasted terrible. He stuck to red ones after that :)

Then Eli went to his friend Koren's house for a BBQ (that's where the photos are from). His friend Elliot was there too. The dump truck was a big hit and despite some of the wrangling over it, everyone had a great time.

A parade and the art fair

Eli was in his first parade on Friday. It was the Kids Parade through the Salem Art Fair and Eli went with his class from daycare. The older kids at the YMCA tie-dyed T-shirts for Eli's class and then Eli wore his tie-dye pants. It is hard to see how cute he looked because it was cold and he had to wear a jacket.

I missed the actual parade so these photos are from the end.

He is also in the Statesman Journal's art fair video here.

Today Eli and I went to the Art Fair and I got him two puzzles from this guy who makes them himself. One has the letters of Eli's name on it and they are puzzle pieces -- how cool!

Michael stayed home because he has a stomach bug. So far our whole family has had it. It's yucky :(