independence day activities
Busy holiday weekend as always, the rundown went like this:
Friday was July 3rd, I had the day off. We moved the guinea pig cage out of my sewing room and into the dining room so I can reclaim my space. I love the guys, but with the hay and everything if they're in a room where the door is closed all day it means all the allergens are concentrated and waiting for me when I go in to sew, and I basically can't just casually go in and sew anymore. So they've moved. And then I sewed and it was awesome. Josie helped me some, she can take pins out and lay fabric out straight. Olive is no help.
In the afternoon we packed up and went to Hutchinson Kansas. Marc was DJing so we got a free hotel room and we could wander around and enjoy Hutch Fest - which I'm afraid to say wasn't something we'll probably go back to but we appreciated the visit. It was just kind of strange, there was a car show and barbecue cookoff and the organizers were saying we'd eat so much barbecue but I've been to barbecue cookoffs before, in my experience the competitors are there to compete and maybe give out a sample here and there but not feed families. I was hoping for food trucks or something, because it's a festival? But no. So we went to the anchor inn, which is this mexican buffet restaurant that's very well known as being the pride of Hutchinson, and that was great. We got back and the other volunteer types we'd talked to who were also expecting to be fed had sent friends out for Subway.
The girl scouts had some simple carnival games so I gave them $10 to support the girl scouts and that was fun for Josie. There was a big huge pile of sand somewhere with little toys hidden in it that the kids could dig around in and they had a blast there. There was one face painting booth with one lady face slowly painting faces by herself and I had to talk Josie out of that line, which was rough because Josie loves face painting but I can't sit for 45 minutes waiting for it to happen.
So Hutch Fest was fun if you live in Hutchinson I guess and the next day there were supposed to be fireworks and the fairgrounds is a great place for that. I will say that Josie and Olive loved the dance music at least, lots of DJs playing house and drum and base, the kids got glow sticks and little Olive especially danced until almost 10pm... and then she stopped.
The next day we drove back to Wichita. We went to the YMCA to go swimming for a few hours. Then we went to a cookout at a friends. Great food - ribs and brats and deviled eggs. Marc made fry bread. Lots of kids were lighting off fireworks in the driveway. I told Josie not to let the little boy light them all off, she'd kinda stepped back when he said "I'll light them for you!" I lit a punk just for her and she had a great time lighting smoke bombs and little flowers and fountains. Not 100% safe for a five year old I know but she just loves them.
Olive fell asleep in my arms and we drove home.
Sunday we were lazy. I reorganized the kitchen drawers. The kids painted. Then we went to a grownup birthday/cookout, Josie and Olive were the only kids there so it was calm. We were out in riverside and went to the park to play croquet.
It's fun that we got to hang out with so many different people every day, and the kids just went along and had a good time wherever. I feel like July 4th is the last day that people celebrate summer - after this, we start getting tired of the heat. But this holiday weekend was everything it was supposed to be.
Friday was July 3rd, I had the day off. We moved the guinea pig cage out of my sewing room and into the dining room so I can reclaim my space. I love the guys, but with the hay and everything if they're in a room where the door is closed all day it means all the allergens are concentrated and waiting for me when I go in to sew, and I basically can't just casually go in and sew anymore. So they've moved. And then I sewed and it was awesome. Josie helped me some, she can take pins out and lay fabric out straight. Olive is no help.
In the afternoon we packed up and went to Hutchinson Kansas. Marc was DJing so we got a free hotel room and we could wander around and enjoy Hutch Fest - which I'm afraid to say wasn't something we'll probably go back to but we appreciated the visit. It was just kind of strange, there was a car show and barbecue cookoff and the organizers were saying we'd eat so much barbecue but I've been to barbecue cookoffs before, in my experience the competitors are there to compete and maybe give out a sample here and there but not feed families. I was hoping for food trucks or something, because it's a festival? But no. So we went to the anchor inn, which is this mexican buffet restaurant that's very well known as being the pride of Hutchinson, and that was great. We got back and the other volunteer types we'd talked to who were also expecting to be fed had sent friends out for Subway.
The girl scouts had some simple carnival games so I gave them $10 to support the girl scouts and that was fun for Josie. There was a big huge pile of sand somewhere with little toys hidden in it that the kids could dig around in and they had a blast there. There was one face painting booth with one lady face slowly painting faces by herself and I had to talk Josie out of that line, which was rough because Josie loves face painting but I can't sit for 45 minutes waiting for it to happen.
So Hutch Fest was fun if you live in Hutchinson I guess and the next day there were supposed to be fireworks and the fairgrounds is a great place for that. I will say that Josie and Olive loved the dance music at least, lots of DJs playing house and drum and base, the kids got glow sticks and little Olive especially danced until almost 10pm... and then she stopped.
The next day we drove back to Wichita. We went to the YMCA to go swimming for a few hours. Then we went to a cookout at a friends. Great food - ribs and brats and deviled eggs. Marc made fry bread. Lots of kids were lighting off fireworks in the driveway. I told Josie not to let the little boy light them all off, she'd kinda stepped back when he said "I'll light them for you!" I lit a punk just for her and she had a great time lighting smoke bombs and little flowers and fountains. Not 100% safe for a five year old I know but she just loves them.
Olive fell asleep in my arms and we drove home.
Sunday we were lazy. I reorganized the kitchen drawers. The kids painted. Then we went to a grownup birthday/cookout, Josie and Olive were the only kids there so it was calm. We were out in riverside and went to the park to play croquet.
It's fun that we got to hang out with so many different people every day, and the kids just went along and had a good time wherever. I feel like July 4th is the last day that people celebrate summer - after this, we start getting tired of the heat. But this holiday weekend was everything it was supposed to be.