On Day 4

Surprise!

Tickets have been reserved for the grand opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. Our family + our besties + dinner at the Station Cafe on the town square + a great collection of art in an incredible building = an all American day! We can't wait.

The best part? Thanks to a 20 Million dollar donation from Walmart Inc., entrance to the museum is free, and always will be. (You still have to make reservations because there were a limited # of tickets available.) Hooray for a free museum! Thanks for the great family date, Walmart!

In All Fairness

We hit the Benton County Fair on Saturday night. Notice the pit stains on Captain Murph. Those are no coincidence. The fair is a schwetty place. First stop? For obvious purposes, we went for the deep fried foot long corn dogs.

We ran into the Nielsen girls and they rode the swings together. Before they saw their friends, my girls were afraid of the swings, but the power of peer pressure worked toward our advantage and before we knew it they were circling by with their hands in the air and smiles on their faces.

When Corbin grew tired of watching, Aaron took him to the carousel for a horsie ride.
Reese, Quincy and I went on one more ride-they chose the kiddy coaster. Their faces were classic. We walked around and enjoyed people watching at it's finest. Carnie Edition. It doesn't get any better than that, folks.

Say, is that a knife game for children? Yes. Yes it is. Forget the rock hard stuffed bear as big as your car. At this booth, little Sally can win a switchblade!
I think my biggest regret from the evening is not paying to see the World's Smallest Woman. The striped tent had a small wooden box in the middle of it and for 50 cents you could go inside and look in the box. This offer came with a "money back guarantee that she was in really the box and alive and breathing." How did I pass this up? Question: What do people do once they get in there and see the tiny woman? Do they just stare at her? Take pictures? Does she like to chat with people? That's awkward, isn't it? Here's how I imagine 100% of conversations with the Tiny Woman go:

Patron: "Hi! Wow! You're tiny! And real!"

Tiny Woman: "My husband is a pimp. Please save me from this horrible life of exhibition."

Patron: "Amazing! 'Alive and breathing' just like they promised! Totally worth 50 cents. Come on, Jack, let's go tell Brenda, she's gotta see this..."

Tiny Woman: "Seriously? I'm in a freaking wooden box. [sigh] Okay..uh..enjoy your cotton candy. help me..."

We hit the petting zoo next and held the baby chickies, but not before stopping to sample the smoked wings, sausage, and pork shoulder. Priorities, people. Corbin loved the chicks. The girls thought the piglets were "so adorable". Milked a "cow"

and pet a bunch of livestock. Yup. Q's "shorts" are pants, that she has hiked up to her thighs. She's been sporting this style anytime we force her to wear actual clothing other than just underwear on the bottom. She says, "it's too hot for clothes. These are my hot pants." Hot pants, they are.

Later, we heard the siren call of the funnel cakes.

And Aaron gave the evening a grand finale of gigantic fresh squeezed lemonade. He definitely knows how to keep his women happy. Any beverage that includes a straw wide enough to suck up melty little ice pieces is so much better than diamonds.
Great night. Captain Murph was right. Totally worth the schwetty pit stains.

A Boy and His Grandpa

Corbin is a carbon copy of photos of my dad at this age.

It is quite fitting that they are so fond of each other.

It's a Wonderful Life

We went to the Bentonville Christmas tree lighting, and the grand opening of the new outdoor ice skating rink (that converts to a free splash park in the summer).

After the tree/square lighting festivities, the local holy-rollin' gospel choir brought the house down with a hard core clap-your-hands-and-shout-praise-the-Lord (which people actually did) rockin' rendition of Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.

We skipped the ice skating exhibition and walked over to Table Mesa (our new fave)to meet up with Kasey and Jimmie for chips, guac and a couple orders of sweet potato fries.

And what's this?
Yeah, it's official. We live in the coolest place ever.

To end the holiday kick-off celebration, we went over to the plaza where It's a Wonderful Life was shown on a projector.

Next week, they're showing A Christmas Story.

It was freezing, windy, and a perfectly quaint little evening.

This Weekend, We...

Ate steak burgers at Station Cafe and went to Pickin' on the Square.

Sang Happy Birthday and ate Dark Chocolate Cake Pops. I'll post more pics of the super cute decorations I made, and the even more super cute birthday boy (that I also made) in another post.

Watched Reese remind us that we should never ever ever ever consider signing her up for t-ball ever again.

Ate buckwheat waffles and pecan pancakes at War Eagle Mill (sheena, you would die over the pictures you could take at this place. I actually feel bad that you have to look at my sorry attempt to capture how cool it is)

Climbed a lot of stairs and went antiquing in Eureka Springs

Ate paninis at "The Pizza Slut"

Notice the shopping bag....I found another hook for my bathroom in a cute store with a zillion old
doors and windows as a ceiling. It's like the store was calling me in!

Saw Thorncrown Chapel (briefly, they closed for a wedding)

Drove up to Christ of the Ozarks and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Eureka Springs is a cool, but odd place

My parents stayed home with the kiddos and tried to push Diet Pepsi on my baby.

Ate Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Dippin' Sauce, Sweet Potatoes, Pasta Salad, Green Salad, Baguettes and Watermelon.

Went for a walk to the Tanyard Creek Waterfall.

Good weekend. The only part I regret are the two minutes I spent attempting to watch LOST for the first time ever. Wow. I will never get those two minutes of my life back.

2 Years Later in Anytown USA

Ok, well the pictures are lousy because it was getting dark and oh, right, I am a terrible photographer, but one of the reasons I blog is to journal what we do with our time, so I'll post them anyway.
On Friday night, we recycled a date night from 2 years ago, picked up pizza to go, and ventured back to Pickin' on the Square. I don't know why we haven't just made this a yearly summer tradition.

It is rad.
I live in a cool place.
Every Friday night from March until the first frost, local musicians show up to jam. Little groups form on every corner and pocket in between, and play a little bit of everything. It is mostly folk, country, and bluegrass. People bring lawn chairs and just float from group to group to enjoy a sampling of each.

This time, we left the girls home with a sitter and brought baby guy along. The cicadas are so loud right now that it was difficult to hear some of the groups over the screechy buzzing (the sound of a cicada can't be described with words, you just have to experience it for yourself. But they are like alarm-clock-going-of-in-the-dead-of-night-loud.
We know now that the younger crowd shows up a little later. At first we were kickin' it with a bunch of blue hairs (not that we really mind, they oohed and aahed over the baby every 5 seconds). By the time the sun went down there was an even mix of old and young people there.

These guys did a lot of Simon and Garfunkel and John Denver. During a couple of songs, a guy in the back would pull out his harmonica and chime in. I love that it's a total free for all. Even if your voice is crap, if you know the song and "got the spirit"...you join in. There were several young kids there by the end of the night with banjos and guitars. What surprised me most about them was their song selection. Gospel. And not because they look like they're from one of those bizzaro families where the girls wear pioneer dresses and they get up to milk cows before bible study and then marry their cousin kind of families...but because they actually enjoy the simplicity of the traditional tunes.
Yeah. That kid is whistling. He danced a lot, too...and it reminded me of the scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest discovers Elvis.

And for your viewing pleasure...some video goodness. I probably SHOULDN'T post this because pickin' on the square is really so much cooler than the video depicts. I took this early in the night before the groups that we enjoyed most showed up, but these guys were pretty funny. They did "On the wings of a snow white dove" and "Polly Wolly Doodle" and a couple of other songs that they insisted everyone within earshot sing along to. I pulled out the camera to tape everyone joining in on "You Are My Sunshine".

The camerawork is bad.
My singing is worse.
Lucky for you it is only 12 seconds long.
But it's worth posting to prove that I live in the coolest place in America. This kind of stuff just isn't goin' down in the parks where I grew up...and there certainly isn't a 80 yr old man playing the spoons on his lap either.

That's the original Walton Five and Dime (first walmart ever) and civil war statue/fountain in the background.
Oh yeah, see the guy on the far left with the acoustic guitar? He rode his bike with his kids to the square because he only lives a few blocks away. He brought his guitar and his 2 boys, ages 7 and 4, with him on the bike.
How sweet is THAT ride?!