The three of us were up and in the van by 8 am. Stella was thrilled that she got to eat her cereal (dry) in the van. We drove to the old fairgrounds neighborhood and hit their yearly garage sales. There weren't as many as in previous years. Partly because they delayed it a week and also because of all the road construction (which is why they delayed it a week). Found some cool kid books and an orange fleece pullover for me. Todd got a lathe and is thrilled.
We left there around 10 and headed down to the park for the all-day Diversity Festival. Todd dropped me and the girl off and met us there again around 2. Stella and I walked around and checked out all of the booths, then grabbed a brownie and headed to the stages. The first band we saw had several members who were originally from Africa. They were REALLY good. Stella was busy drawing and pretty much ignored them until the end of the last song...that's when she started walking towards the stage. The singer looked down at her and said "beautiful" and when the song was done he said "that hat...is funky!" (she's got this tie dyed "mushroom hat" that's actually a newborn size, but she won't give it up, so it is stretched beyond belief, but very cute)
We caught a bit of the dancers/singers from Venezuela. Stella was getting grumpy/hungry, so we grabbed some food.
Several local choirs joined together for a few songs. It was interesting to see.
At this point, Stella had discovered some really good dirt at the base of a tree and found a stick to draw with....by the end of the day, the child was FILTHY, but HAPPY.
Next up was Big Walter Smith and the Groove Merchants. They weree EXCELLENT. This is when Todd showed up and Stella decided that she needed to spend their entire set running at Daddy and tipping him over.
Our friend, Cam Waters played some traditional folk music and some blues after that. It's always fun to hear him.
The MN Scandinavian Ensemble followed Cam. Stella was strangely drawn by the accordian to the front of the stage for a bit...
Theater Mu, an Asian drum group blew us away! So much fun...Stella sat on Todd's lap, riveted by the performance. It helped that they were directly in front of us, less than 10' away. There was a guy with them who played different Chinese instruments for us. One was some sort of "flute" that had a gourd as the mouthpiece...the sound was incredible. He likened it to bagpipes...He also had two that were made from turkey leg bones..very interesting sounds.
The Maroons, a reggae band were next. They were good, but not my cup of tea.
A group of local 6th graders played drums, next. They did 3 songs with their teacher. Very fun.
3 Native American men played the drum and sang for the closing ceremony. They did 3 songs which ended with everyone holding hands and moving in a circle. Stella, who was completely exhausted by then, did NOT want to do that, so we left..
We stopped at the Chinese Buffet to eat before coming home. She went to sleep pretty quickly... | 