Wild, wonderful (and wet) Merlefest

Nana Jean wanted a picture with all four great-grandkids. That didn't really happen, but we did get one great picture with one great-grandkid.

Claudia was a big walkin', talkin', rootin' tootin' boogeyin' toddler this year.

Alex finally climbed the rock wall, despite being a little shy of the requisite 50 pounds. The man reckoned he was just about there, with the harness.

Molly is such a ham these days, you could serve her on rye with a little brown mustard in a Jewish deli for fourteen bucks.


So we spent a long weekend in North Wilkesboro and Purlear, North Carolina, enjoying Merlefest yet again. There was one rainy day that we were pretty unprepared for, but we got to hear lots of great music and the kids got out a lot of ya-yas. Henry got out so many ya-yas I didn't capture any decent pictures of him, only blurs.

Two more Alex bon mots from the weekend: he found a four-leaf clover as we were in the R & R tent avoiding the rain. He told us all about how it was his first four leaf clover. "How long did it take you to find?" someone asks, a sly grin, and, you guessed it: "Six and a half years."

As we were packing up to leave, the kids were playing in Nana's van. Molly commenced throwing various things she found in the van at Alex and trying to push him over the rear bench seat into the cargo space, which Alex endured with his usual tolerance. "The only thing I've said since I got into this van, is 'OW.'"

Nothin' to see here, folks

Susan came to visit for Merlefest and I got some cute pictures of her with the kids in a pizza restaurant, but blogger is not letting me upload them right now. But a couple of stories anyway...

Me: Alex, do you want alligator pj's with dinosaur underpants?
Alex: Cool! All meat-eating clothes!

Alex's homework was to track his eating for a day over the weekend and categorize his servings in the food pyramid groups. "This piece of gum I have, I put that down as a vegetable."

Molly's blessing: "God bless choco milk, and cawwots, and sawad, and choco milk. Sanks! Amen."

Pittsboro Weekend

Molly was ready to go to Pittsboro. She packed herself a bag full of stuff, put on her frog boots, and pants be damned, it's Pittsboro or bust!


We got lunch and ice cream with our friends, very nice, even if the conversations were punctuated by 7 or 8 I.P.M. (interruptions per minute).




The ice cream was followed by much mud puddle splashing and merriment all around.

The Boyer Witch Project

...or Why NCSU Will No Longer Loan Us Their Stuff.

Josh checked out a MacBook Air (very cool) for the weekend, and a Flip video camera, a low-cost, user-friendly simple little camcorder that I have been interested in, from NCSU. I got some good videos of the kids, as well as the Second Set of Steps Ever Taken by the 11-month-old son of an old friend that I ran into at the mall.

But Alex was really the one who enjoyed it. Since it is the size of a deck of cards and requires no instruction, and a 6 year old can figure out the limited controls, he took it and had a blast. Here are a few of our results.

Molly on Molly violence

We spent a nice Wednesday evening at aunt Dottie's house. All was going well until Molly Boyer took an interest in Molly the cat. That lasted for a good ten minutes before Molly scratched Molly's face.


Don't worry, Molly Boyer did not suffer in silence. She let us know what happened.


Uncle Fred took these photos with his phone and showed them to Molly. She became interested in how the pictures made it look like the ice pack was on the other side of her face, the mirror effect. Soon she was cracking up again, the whole business with the cat forgotten about.


The other Molly "in a more pacific state," as Dottie puts it:



Chelcy & Molly before "the incident"


In an unrelated incident, the night before Jen had taken Molly to an Obama fundraiser at restaurant in downtown Raleigh. A man played the sax and people danced. Molly danced and twirled the night away for "Rockabama!" Later that night, I (this is Josh) happened to catch a few minutes of local ABC News (which I never do) and saw a 1-second clip of my girls dancing on TV.

Alex's Spring Break

Alex spent the first part of his spring break with his Nana Mary and Papa Jeff. First, they went to Abingdon, VA, to the Barter Theater, to see a production of Peter Pan. The play combined a good story plus the mechanics of flying actors around on wires. Alex gave it two thumbs up. Back at the Purple House, Alex staked his claim as king of the hill, er, boulder.


Then it was off to work. He hauled mulch, carried sapling logs, and helped Nana Mary reset the big stepping stones from the driveway to the house (see picture below).



Alex has a much better attitude about yard work than I do (this is Josh writing). Indeed, Alex loves a good project.

Then it was off to Burlington to spend a few days with his other grandparents. He played with Henry and Claudia. Nana Kathy took him to see a local theater musical production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After two plays in one week, Alex is now an expert on the theatre.

One of these days, Alex will have to return to school, but not yet.

Happy Day After April Fool's!

Funny, in a tragic kinda way.