Grass Roots Saturday and Sunday

Post number two of Grass Roots. See the first one here.

Saturday is usually the busiest day of the festival. Really, all 4 days were busy. Jimmy said it was the perfect weather. I call bullshit, too hot!!!

(Just noticed these photos are from Friday night, sorry for the confusion)

They have a dress up tent that people borrow the dresses and crazy things for the Happiness Parade on Saturday. This year, we really let Sonyea loose. Let her try on everything she wanted to try on and even Zia got a few things on.

This was by far, her favorite. She is all about Ariel and mermaids. She really wanted to keep this but was ok with us telling her they were only for trying on, not for keeping.

this totally makes me laugh! Reminds me of a stern photo of a State Trooper! Besides the hat, this was what she wore last year when we marched in the parade (big mistake)

Abra Ka Boobie. (I have no idea where this came from but it’s what they say instead of abracadabra)

Zia really adored wearing this dress. She ran around for a very long time and we got a TON of smiles! Everyone loves little kids at Grass Roots!

—————————–

On to Saturday for real!

After hanging out at camp for a little bit, we donned swim suits and walked down to the creek. It was very low this year but there was some relief. Jimmy took both girls down into the deep pool and we walked up the water fall and that’s when we noticed the leech on Jimmy’s ankle. THAT was the end of our swimming trip. It took a long time to walk back up to camp (uphill) but we made it eventually.

Back at the dance tent (yup, more shade) we spent a lot of time just running around in between bands when the dance floor was empty. I think that was their favorite part!

————————

3pm brings the start of the Happiness Parade. Yup, much more happy WATCHING it from the sidewalk than sweating and fighting through it. Maybe when the girls get a little bit older and we can plan our own costumes, but we’ll just watch for now.

Can’t miss Mushroom Man on his stilts!

Off for more music. Zia didn’t last long before passing out in my arms. Hung out there listening to some good tunes by the Horseflies

This was at the Grandstand where there is some shade but there were a ton of bees around a little girl sitting near us got stung. That was our cue to move on. We ended up down near the crowd and that’s when Zia fell asleep. I hung out burning up in the sun while Jimmy and Sonyea ran back to camp real quick and then we headed back to the dance tent.

Zia crashed hard. Up late with no naps makes for a sleepy baby!

To my friends in Florida, here’s something for you to get excited about! Grass Roots Miami!!

Enjoying a quick snack before more dancing

To beat the heat, we had to get creative. Sometimes, you have to splash yourself with the water for relief. Zia was putting a small puddle of water in her hands and rubbing it on her face. She loved that game and we went through a lot of water doing so.

One of my memories of my Grandma Wozniak was Jiffy Popcorn. We all love popcorn in this family and since we don’t have a microwave to make it properly, we grabbed 2 things of Jiffy Pop!! As Jimmy was making the first one, Sonyea decided to open the second one. URG, you can’t pop Jiffy Pop with the foil ripped open. We shared the first bag nicely.

Crazy Zia noticed she had some dirt in between her toes.

So she cleaned them out. Only to push her feet through the dusty dirt again.

This went on for quite a long time!! Crazy kid!

Saturday night brings on John Specker and Donna the Buffalo. We abandoned our spot at the Dance Tent to experience the Infield for a few hours. It was almost pitch black but the girls had more room to run around. We enjoyed John Specker and Donna the Buffalo in relative peace before they both passed out.

Glow bracelets INSIDE the water bottle. How cool!

Ice cold Red Cat, ice cold grape Pucker and melted ice. =) Hey, the girls are sleeping

We saw a bunch of lanterns set off. We’ll have to get some of our own for next year.

John Specker is so cool, he can play his banjo one handed!

———————-
Sunday, after breakfast, we packed up the tent and loaded up truck. Kept the essentials and headed back up to the dance tent, we ended up stopping first at the Labyrinth. The girls enjoyed checking it out.
The note at the door said this was the last year. Not enough money to bring it back next year.

We ended up spending a lot of time at the kid’s tent. They have a bunch of toys set up, slides and a play house, a puppet show theater and some play food for a kitchen. We enjoyed some music under the shade of the kid’s tent while the girls played and we enjoyed a beer.

Back up in the shade of the dance tent we enjoyed some fried oreos. So expensive and so bad for you, but oh so good.

We’d been seeing a lot of kids and women with their face’s painted so we decided what the heck, let’s go do it. The girls were SOOOO excited! Before and After pictures::

Hey look, John Specker!

A tradition we started a few years ago was to pick out tie dye dresses from a vendor near the grocery store. They weren’t there this year. BUMMER! We ended up checking out a different one. We didn’t get exactly what we were looking for but the girls were excited to pick out new dresses and change instantly.

And somehow, I didn’t get pictures of Sonyea in her new dress. Well, the one with her face painted by the tree, she’s wearing it.

We had a piece of over priced pizza and listened to more music and headed out early evening. Got home with just enough light to empty the car and truck, shower and pass out!

Another great Grass Roots in the history books. See you again NEXT year.