My second "official" Mother's Day- (I think Mother's that are pregnant totally count)was spent down at my parent's place for the weekend. Arden and I drove down separately due to Dave's work schedule so we had some extra time with Noani & Poppi- some of Arden's favorite admirers (and the feeling is mutual). Over the weekend, Arden went to the beach, the Myrtle Beach Children's museum and out on Poppi's boat- all of which she thoroughly enjoyed!
Mother's day we went out to a nice restaurant for brunch which is hard to do with a toddler, but we muscled through and took turns entertaining and taking her out to walk around. I'm thankful for my wonderful family on Mother's Day and everyday!
So I should have known this was going to happen. I've never been good at journeling, even when I don't HAVE to. Why I thought keeping a blog would be any different I don't know. I really enjoy reading other families blogs, I have no idea if anyone actually reads ours...but I never started this for anyone else. I think it's a great tool to keep a family history with words and pictures. But as with any history, it needs to be maintained. As most people know, Dave is not the computer person of the family, so that leaves me to capture pictures, file them, upload them to various sites to share, and then keep up with a blog. This all in addition to taking care of a very active toddler, who I only get about a 2 hour break from each day. I'm not whining (ok maybe a little) but it doesn't make sense to whine, because it's something I chose to start. My advice to families or anyone starting a blog- Make sure you have the time, desire & motivation to keep it up! That being said- I'm going to spend the next few days, ok weeks, or however long it takes to add some entries since we announced I was pregnant again- which was almost 3 months ago!
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! 
.JPG)
