Decatur Book Festival

Yes I know that was two weeks ago but I have been awaiting pictures of the kids dressed up as characters to come to me and have yet to receive them. So I decided I would just have to worry about posting pics later and go ahead and talk about the Decatur Book Festival.

I volunteered and since the kids had to be with me, I decided that they could work too. So after many contacts and all, we finally got everything situated. Of course my money situation didn't cooperate too much but we did get that worked out. Anyway - so we head down to Decatur on Saturday the 1st - drive about 3 hours and land in the parking garage that is basically just a couple of blocks from where the main events are.

The theme this year was "Where The Wild Things Are" and there were some readings and of a course a parade with Wild thing himself leading the way to the square where the kids activities center was set up.

Hailie and Benjamin made appearances Saturday as Frog and Toad - I took a picture of them on the cell phone but since bear doesn't have text messaging, I couldn't email it to myself to have on the computer to post here.

Saturday they were scheduled to be Biscuit the dog and Maisey the mouse. Well, Biscuit made his appearance (I missed seeing him because I was doing some volunteer duties). The guy from Eagle Eye Bookstore was walking around with the Eagle and snapping pictures on his cell phone but I think he also missed Biscuit. From what I understand, Biscuit was being guided back to the area and there was this little dog tied up to a metal chair and when Biscuit walked by, the dog decided to show how mighty he was - so he chased Biscuit, tied to the chair - and thereby was dragging the chair with him. Biscuit escaped.

Maisey was to appear after Biscuit but the outfit was too small for Hailie so Benjamin had to dress up again. The Eagle and his guide were snapping pictures and got some of Maisey. After a short break, Benjamin asked if he could do Frog and Toad again if someone else wanted to do them. So he came back as toad and the young lady who had been a rabbit (Max is what I heard her to be) came out as Frog. Eagle and more pictures.

I walked around some but didn't get to see some of the activities I wanted to do - because I didn't really know when they were or was busy doing my volunteer duties.

Sunday night when we came back to the hotel, of course it being the day before a holiday, we were kind of worn out. So after we ate and all and we finally laid our heads down to rest, the whole world kind of went crazy. The hotel we stayed in shared a parking lot of sorts with another (we stayed at the Super 8 on Chamblee-Tucker and right next to us was the Motel 6)- well someone must have thought they were in a private residence because they decided to blare the music right outside my room. Several other patrons hollered for them to shut up. I called the front desk and was told they couldn't do anything. So, what was left. I'm not from the area and needed some sleep so I could drive back. I called 911 and explained to the operator that it wasn't an emergency but that I wasn't from the area and didn't really know who to call due to the noise right outside my room from these partiers. She even asked if I wanted to speak to the officer when they got there - nope - I wanted to remain annonymous, or as much as possible. The partiers did get quiet but I heard them on the other side of the hotel - at least not at my door. Thank goodness.

Needless to say, we did get some sleep and left out that Monday morning fairly bright eyed and bushy tailed. On the way home, decided to stop at my sister-in-law's and see the girls (I knew my nephew was working and probably my brother too - they had recently moved to a hotel/suite/extended stay place due to the house they were going to rent being rented out from under them - and they are awaiting another place - supposed to be this weekend - but who knows). Anyway - the girls were swimming so the kids (since the hotel I thought we were staying actually had a pool and the one we ended up at did not and they didn't get to go swimming as promised) went swimming - we stayed there a bit and then finally made our way to the house. Of course that is when the whole rest of the month started - at home.

Mini vacations are fun but for someone like me who is out of shape and definitely in need of some exercise, that is too much like work. All in all it was a good weekend and the kids have said they would go back and do it again if they could so maybe next year we will be seen at the Decatur Book Festival as volunteers again and I'll have a real camera that I can load pictures to my computer with having to wait on others to send or post.

Until then - see you all in the postings - E :)

Decatur Georgia book festival fun

So my kids and I are volunteers at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend and having some good times (I think - I'm a bit stiff from standing at the children's activities things but had fun. Did get sunburned but didn't realize it until I was back at the hotel.

There was a mini writer's conference today and I wanted to sit and listen to one of the panel discussions and it was pretty good. Funny as all get out - it was performed like a game show - should have been performed more like "To Tell The Truth" than "Hollywood Squares" because it resembled the first gameshow. I've seen both shows on gameshow network and felt a bit cheated that it was slated as a the second show. But the comraderie and info was interesting - the four paneists were Hollis Gillespie, John Warner (who is from Greenville which is only a few short miles from where we live, and daughter said she felt she knew from somewhere), Amanda Stern, and Jeffrey Stepakoff (who is known for writing TV shows - such as Dawson's Creek and others to his credit).

After leaving the workshop/panel discussion, the kids wanted to go to McDonald's for supper so I decided instead of eating near the festival we would find a McDonald's closer to the hotel (not that the hotel is really all that far from festival). So we came back up to the hotel road and then explored a little bit. We finally found the McDonald's. While sitting there enjoying our meal, we figured out we were the minority - the whole community was Spanish speaking with a few Chinese or Oriental speaking. We seemed to be the only ones speaking English -

So heading back to the hotel, we saw this SUV that was red and white and had a taxi sign on it - so I commented about how that was a taxi - something I've never seen before. Then Benjamin says - "I saw this one Mexican Taxi and you want to know how I know it was Mexican?" and Hailie responds, "What did it say Taxeye on it?" - now we just rolled in the laughter here because he suddenly realized taxi (pronounced as a long I) that that's how it was spelled anyway - so we were laughing hard by now. We get to the red light to turn on the road to the hotel and then Benjamin goes, "look to your right, look to your right" and there was this van with Spanish writing on it and so Hailie turns and looks and says, "It looks like he's staring at us." So I turn to the right and look over and the man driving the van, nods and then waves at us - it was like he knew what the hell we were laughing about - and when she said he was staring at us - it was like he knew what she said - - so we broke out into the laughter some more - and laughed almost all the way to hotel (which wasn't really too far from that turn) -

So having fun at the festival so far and enjoying some fun time with the kids - see you all in the postings - E :)