Fun for the small (and the big)!

Oh, we have had such fun the past few weeks with little man!
First of all, hubs and I decided that he might be old enough to watch the first Harry Potter movie. We'd caught a few snippets of it on television, and Clay had seemed really interested. So, we recorded it off a movie channel and set aside a Saturday night. Since it was such a momentous occasion, I decided that we really needed appropriate refreshments. After a little hunting online, I found some buuterbeer recipes. We whipped up both hot and cold versions to taste test along with our pretzels! Little man loved the movie, by the way, though he did get a bit wary at the scary parts near the end.

For over a year now, I'd been hearing wonderful things about Livingston Farmers Market. They are open seasonally, on Thursday nights, and they are WAY OUT in Canton, which is why I'd never been. But one week in September, hubs took a trip with some of his college buddies, leaving Clay and I to our own pursuits, so we decided to check it out.

What a party! It's all set up outside, and it was a gorgeous night. In addition to all the vendors, selling everything from homemade bread to vegetables to artisan soaps and candles, they had a brick pizza oven (The pizzas were delicious!), an inflatable water slide, an ice cream truck, and live music! We ran into some old friends, and Clay spent the night running around with other kids, eating kettle corn, and dancing to the music of the band. It's a hoof to get there, I'll grant you that, but it is also pretty amazing!

Also in September, the whole Bradshaw clan went out to The Mosaic Shop on County Line Raod to try our hand at artistic tile work. While I don't think headhunters for any Italian restoration companies will be calling us any time soon, it was a very fun afternoon. (And, as per usual, Clay's psychedelic guitar mosaic was the best of all three of them! When will Brian and I ever learn?!)

The weekend of September 15, there was a special traveling show at the Jackson Convention Complex - Discover the Dinosaurs. It was a big animatronic dinosaur exhibit coupled with a dino-carnival. The minute I found out you could actually ride an animatronic T-Rex at this thing, I knew little man and I HAD to go.

This was not a cheap morning, but it was so much fun! We paid our admission and spent quite a while ogling mechanical dinosaurs. And they had them all - T-Rex, allosaurus, triceratops, stegosaurus, pteradactyl, on and on and on. And after you were finished with THAT part of the attraction, you could buy tickets in the carnival section for more fun. Clay rode a T-Rex, played dino mini-golf, jumped in the inflatables, and got a fierce-looking "dino brow" painted on his face.

The week after that offered even more fun - Symphony at Sunset at The Cedars! I took Clay to this last year, and he loved it. This year, we all went back for more live music in a relaxed outdoor setting. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the grounds of the Cedars were lovely, lite with cafe lights and spotted with patrons enjoying the music and one another. It was a magical evening.