Scarecrow Fest

Today was our annual Scarecrow Fest!  We go every year and have for several years now.  It's one of the reasons I decided to drive home late last night after the reunion.  I didn't want to miss it!

We went a little late this year (around 11:30), because Madie doesn't get out of dance class until 12:45.  We didn't want to do everything without her.  I noticed last year that it was a little smaller than in years past and I noticed the same thing this year.  Not quite as much stuff to do, sadly.  But, we still managed to have lots of fun and we saw lots of people, which was great!  First stop?  The Farmer's Market.

There is always a booth that sells homemade dog treats.  We go there first every time, so we can get Tater a special dog treat.  It was so funny, when we got home, Livie put her bookbag on the floor, with the dog treat inside, and Tater would not leave it alone.  He could smell it and just couldn't wait to get his hands on it!  He devoured this giant rawhide bone in less than 3 min.  Crazy!  The picture above is them picking out some honey sticks for Madie from a local beekeeper.  Is that what they still call them?  It's all natural honey from their hives.

This year's Scarecrow theme was zombies.  Earlier that morning they had a zombie run.  Wish we could've gone, but I slept in this morning and didn't want to drive over twice.  Heard it was fun though!

There was the ever-popular petting zoo.  The geese weren't in the mood to be touched, but the goats were!

So were the chickens.  I got to see several of my students and former students when we were out today.  Many of them were here at the petting zoo.  The goats were so small and so stinkin' cute.  My dream is to one day live on a farm with apple trees and goats.  They are just too sweet!

After we hit the petting zoo, we were able to go get Madie and have her join us for the rest of our fest experience.  We went to one area that had the most booths.  The booths used to line the streets, which I loved, but now they are all in one location to make it easier to walk by.  No JDRF this year, but Michelle (the gal who runs it for her son) was away with her husband, visiting their Type 1 son in college.  He's a freshman this year. :-)

There was a big bounce house/slide thing.  This is the same one that was at the picnic this year for Pete's work.  Madie opted out, while she and I visited the booths, while Pete watched Noah and Livie play on it.

We got to see a few more scarecrows on our way to our late lunch at Jardines (our favorite!!).  Livie is pointing to the brain in this scarecrow's pocket. :-)

Livie is punching the mushroom in this Mario set-up.  Hilarious!

There were several scarecrows, but again, not as many as in years past.  I'm thinking maybe our SS kids need to create a scarecrow for future fests.  I think that would be great fun!  We visited a few more stores, but not many, since we're trying to save up for next weekend's JDRF Walk!  But, we did visit our favorite bookstore that moved locations, just a block away.  It's a lot smaller now, which makes me sad, but just really glad it's still around.  I might be an Amazon junkie, but there is nothing, NOTHING like a good bookstore.  There are few things in life that bring me more joy than a really amazing bookstore.

So, that ended our day together and it was beautiful (if not hot) outside for this fun time.  It's the start of a full month (October) of busy, busy weekends.  My favorite time of year!