Art Festival and More!

We went to the Scottsdale Art Festival this weekend. I love festivals and booths and art! It was so, so much fun!
We didn't venture in to the naked artist museum, but word around the festival was that it was just a semi-offensive half naked statue. We just took their word for it.
We did, however make our way over to the magician, who was actually magic!!!!
He asked Stanton to be his assistant (which may or may not have had anything to do with the fact that I was waving my arms and screaming, "Pick him! Pick him!")
Anyway, he asked for someone from the audience to borrow a hundred dollar bill, and then he asked a little girl to write her name on it. Then he folded it up in a bandana and asked Stanton to hold onto it, while he waved his magic wand over it.
Then he took it back from Stanton and opened the bandana, and it was gone.
Then he grabbed an ordinary lemon and cut it open and the hundred dollar bill with the girl's name on it was INSIDE THE LEMON!!!!!!!
Pure magic I tell you!
We tipped him 75 cents cause that's all of the cash I had, but the trick was actually worth far more!
There were so many oooh's and aaah's!
After we looked at all of the art, we headed over to the kid's art section, where we made lots of crafts...pinwheels, paper Aussie hats with corks to chase away the flies, boomarangs and koala/crocodile/turtle visors.
Then they did boat races.
Winston likes boat races!
After that Daddy joined in the hula hoop/parachute fun! he was lifting it up, while Stanton, Noelle and Winston were running under it. After a while they all 3 walked over to me, and Robert didn't notice and just kept playing with the parachute. We laughed a lot when he finally figured out that he was playing with it alone.
It really was a most excellent day!
Other recent happenings...
Stanton started coach pitch t-ball, with his friend Porter, and one of their coaches that does the pitching is a former D-backs pitcher!
Stanton looks so cute in his uniform. (Robert has corrected me multiple times that it is not a costume or an outfit.)
During his first game he carried the bat with him all the way to first base. It was adorable! It's so cute to watch!
Noelle and Winston don't think it's quite as fun to watch. They lose interest right around the second pitch of the game. Luckily, Porter's brother and sister are there to entertain them!
Hannah even came to one of Stanton's games to cheer him on! Oh, melt my heart!
Now, I am not the kind of mom that sets my kids up (or maybe that's exactly the kind of mom I am. I'm not sure.) All I'm saying is that Melissa and I have pictures of Stanton and Hannah holding hands from the time they were like 9 months old, and plenty of other pictures where those came from, and they would make for a super cute 5 hour long wedding video. I'm just saying.
Other big news, Noelle started her violin lessons. Oh. my. cute! She likes it so far, and all of that beautiful, screechy practicing makes me smile big.
She also had her "dance concert" that same day. All of the pictures turned out blurry, but she looked so darling dancing across the room. I can tell her teacher thinks she's funny because she smiles a lot whenever Noelle falls down or accidentally dances into someone because she's starring at herself in the mirror. My favorite part were her baht mahs, where instead of pointing her toe, she pounds her foot on the ground like one of those Russian soldiers. She really loves her little parks and rec ballet class, and I really love watching her!
We were lucky enough to go to the Scottsdale Mall with Grandma Curry on one day, and then Grandma Mary a couple days later. It made for a lot of fun grandma playtime!
Speaking of fun playtime, Grandpa Curry got his Darth Vader costume on one night and surprised Stanton with a battle, while Noelle threw balls at him. Winston even had his first lightsaber battle with Darth Vader. He really liked it, as long as he was sitiing on Grandma's lap, and we were all smiling.
Also, our grapes finally turned into raisins! It took almost 3 months. We put some grapes in a dish the day after Christmas, and this week they were finally wrinkly enough to be raisins. They tasted pretty raisiny too, and we didn't even follow a recipie.
And raisins aren't the only thing were growing. Our peas in a cup are growing really big, and our cactus in a plastic egg is finally starting to sprout.
I told Stanton that people might mistake him for the Incredible Hulk cause he has a pretty green thumb. He thought I was funny, once I explained the humor to him.