Fall LEAF'in

BRRRR!!! I now remember why we stopped camping at the Fall LEAF. It's COLD! At least I remembered to bring enough warm clothes... we also snuggled under down comforters, so it wasn't too miserable...
And ZB in all those layers looked pretty darn cute!
Tents covered in frost, in the morning...
With nights like those, we were happy to crowd around the fire in the morning with the other campers in our group. Could we *be* any closer to the fire??


I didn't sleep well at all the first night, the rest of the family slept fine; I just kept worrying someone would wake up too cold! So, we actually slept at home on the second night and returned Sunday warm and rested :)

The line-up this Fall was great! Usually LEAF draws lots of great bands and entertainers from all over the world, and usually I have only heard of one, maybe 2 of them. This year, I actually did know quite a few of the bands! We were excited to see and hear The Mighty Diamonds, Galactic, Toubab Krewe, 7 Walkers, Leo Kottke and Sweet Honey In The Rock!!

Here's a pic of Leo Kottke performing - he's such a great entertainer, I love that dry humor and story-telling intro to his songs

Sweet Honey in the Rock was also amazing!! I've never seen them live, and we LOVED them! They played very last on Sunday - what a great performance to leave for home with :)
The wonderful thing about LEAF is that it isn't just about the bands! For kids, there's a huge Kid's Village and plenty of room to run. For the whole family, there's classes going on all day, impromtu performances, a parade, a dance hall and so much more... can you tell I LOVE this festival?
On Saturday, I went to a hula-hooping class led by the Asheville Hoops... pretty fun! And ZB had a good time crawling around until she wore herself right out and slept under the hoopers...

At one point on Sunday, music started randomly blaring, and these teenagers did a coreo-graphed dance right in the pathway...

I could go on and on, but you've really got to check this festival out in person, if you are in the area. It happens every Spring and Fall (though I think I'll stick to day passes in the Fall from now on, and keep camping to the warm Spring!) Their website is http://www.theleaf.org

See you there!

Wednesday

Birthday Sweets

Thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes from everyone! In the midst of our whole house sharing a cold with each other - they were very sweet to me (and slightly snotty -heehee ;) B got me a wagon - not just any wagon - a HUGE, garden wagon - it's awesome! I'm excited to take it to LEAF this weekend, have it for trick-0r-treating, have it for vending water at concerts and just having it around the yard... and the kids *love* it, too!

The day was pretty busy with Homeschool Co-op in the morning, and the boys met with their OM (Odyssey of the Mind) teams in the afternoon.

And my little sweetness serenaded us over dinner with her new found ability to make zerberts (I think that's from the cosby show, but we've always called them that, I don't know what else they're called!)... so cute!

We were also visited by Senor Duct Tape...
After dinner, ZB and I went to a La Leche League meeting to meet some other mamas & little babies. Then we met some of my lovely girl friends at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge (chocolate torte in berry sauce accompanied by a local beer - yum!!). Thanks everyone for the good wishes and love!!

New Family

What a fun weekend! We had Bobby's sister and her sweet family in town this weekend, and we all got to be tourists in our own town, which is always fun. Not only did we go around town on LaZoom's big purple tour bus, we also walked all over downtown and through 3 different festivals (and a protest - gotta love Asheville!), had a s'mores roasting firepit going in the yard and went for a hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The BRP is in Full Leaf-viewing season, right now. It was very overcast, and the original hike we wanted to do has lots of balds for good views, but it happened to be surrounded by clouds, so we went to lower elevation...
The kids were grinning and literally running around in the parking area - here's ZB with her cousin...
We stopped for a mini-picnic on the trail (I think Blossom ate mostly leaves!)
And checked out a beautiful waterfall (wishing is was warm enough to use the swimming hole at the bottom).

The kids climbed some trees...
And jumped the rocks in the creek...
Then we headed back up the mountain trail to the car, where the kids promptly collapsed while the adults caught their breath!
I was not good about taking photos this weekend! Glad I at least remembered the photos for the hike!
Love
Julie

Laughing!

One day, I'll have other things to post, but seriously the most fun parts of our days right now center around baby! The boys had some friends over and when ZB crawled right into their room, they had the best time playing with her!



Thanks to Reed for getting a video :)