We went to story time at a local book store this week. Story times are generally geared towards younger children than Kid but it provides him with an opportunity to look at books and explore while his younger siblings enjoy a story and art. He had worked the previous week on reaching his book goal to turn in the form to receive a free book, as well. That was rather exciting for him! The store has a little section of history books about growing up and living during certain time periods and events. We read the one on the American Revolution. Kid was really interested in how taxes work, why the colonists were angry over tea, and trying to decide whether we'd be loyalists or patriots.
With Independence Day being this week, we got sparklers. Instead of risking life and limb, we stuck them in the (very soaked from all of our rain) grass in different designs and the kids cheered on as I tried to light them fast enough to see the full design in sparks. It never worked. They enjoyed watching our neighbors launch actual fireworks in our cul-de-sac, though! We got a surprise show from our neighborhood bats, as well! The kids called out to them in hopes of helping them catch more mosquitoes.
Saturday was the Historic Fair at Magnolia Gardens. We got in free with our military discount. Yay! The kids got to watch a blacksmith again, which is always awesome! There was a live alligator at one of the tables with reptilian skeletons and the like. Charles Towne Landing was there with their vendors in settlement attire under a very primitive (yet, amazingly clever) tent. They had games for the kids, talked with us about their gear, and demonstrated how they would make a fire. The kids got to wear their armor, as well! Their table was all around amazing! The kids REALLY loved it. We saw some American Indian dancing (The Butterfly Dance) to some flutes and drums. They showed us some instruments, tools, jewelry, and were wearing gorgeous attire. Another table had colonial toys for the kids to touch and play with, which was really interesting. The vendors were women wearing colonial attire, as well. Some of the tables had art by local artists depicting local scenes. One table had baskets that were woven in a traditional way and the vendor told us that they were from all different parts of Western Africa but all were used to carry rice, which was brought to the area by slave tradesmen and became a major product in the area. This vendor also had some batik art depicting scenes from these different countries from her travels.
Once away from the vendors and in the gardens, we went to the petting zoo. Being our second time at Magnolia Gardens, I didn't expect much excitement. Excitement was found quickly, though! One of the deer was licking Kid to get the salty sweat off of him and this provided us with much to talk about and wonderful pictures! The boy scouts were giving away snow cones for donations and we got some without flavoring or sugar to give to the ponies and donkey while watching a peacock show off his beautiful plumage! We just happened upon a table where we got to make our own bricks out of river clay and sand! They gave us our bricks to take home with free wooden molds to make our own bricks at home! Obviously, this was my favorite part of the fair!
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Batik art.
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