Shakori Grassroots Festival

We decided again to take Arden to the Shakori Grassroots Festival this year. It was her second (and our only) festival last year but the first time camping. This year we figured would be a bit different since she's walking, only taking one nap and is much more into her surroundings. But as always, worse case scenario, it's only 45 minutes from home we can always pack up and head back. She did great! She napped a bit on the way there and then was excited to help us set up our campsite. It's funny because now we look to park and camp near families so that maybe there's a chance the people directly around us won't be up all night- we used to be the people that were up all night! Once we got camp set up we headed down to the stages to listen to some music. Arden loves to wiggle and dance, so she was right at home! We grabbed some yummy festival food for dinner and headed back to camp. It's not even fully dark out at Arden's usual bed time at 8 pm so she stayed up until 9 pm. The main thing we're always worried about camping is how she's going to sleep, but after some book reading and singing she was ready to crawl into her sleeping bag in the pack n' play and call it a night. She slept great! Even better then we did considering there was a drum circle that went on seemingly all night long, so Dave and I weren't that well rested the next morning but Arden was and still got up at 7 am of course. Saturday morning we went to a Jammin' Baby toddler music class which was similar to the Music Together classes Arden had taken, complete with drums, instruments and scarves. She loved it. Then I stumbled upon an African dance workshop that looked like fun while Dave and Arden laughed and watched. Arden zonked out in her stroller during live drumming, taking power naps when she needed them. Later Dave and Arden took a turn at dancing during a square dancing workshop.

Saturday's weather was perfect and and we all were able to sleep great that night as well. Sunday morning I went to a yoga class. Normally I've taught yoga at this festival in the past but was too late to get on the schedule this year. The we watched the Paperhand Puppet Invention lead a children's parade (see video below). We took in a little more music and ate some more food, then it was time to get on the road back home before it rained. It was a great weekend!