"I talk so much and say so little."

Utah Arts Festival takes on the twins!!!

Or, maybe I took them all on! So, I thought it would be fun to spend time with my cousin Heather's kids. Shyanne's 15, Shae's 10 and Hunter & Gavyn are 4. She also thought it would be fun for me to spend time with her kids--and give her a break! So, I decided to experience the Utah Arts Festival! I wanted to bring out the hippie in me by listening to music, making crafts, exploring fun exhibits ... probably buying jewelry (hard to break old habits). But, the boys saved me some money! We spent the entire time in the kid zone! I couldn't believe the great ideas they had for kids crafts! They had huge sculptures made of foam and tissue paper, and kids could just come on their own and add their own section! They had endless stacks of AOL trial CDs and they were having kids paint on them and then hang them from a PVC pipe jungle using pipe cleaners! (picture on the right of Hunter playing in the painted CD jungle!) Man, this stuff was cool! And a long-haired bearded hippie helped Shyanne and Shae take a popsicle stick (more like one of those wider tongue-thingies that doctors use) and glue a gord seed at the bottom of it. Then they tied some strings and beads at the top. The plan is to shove the stick (seed end first) into the dirt, and you'll grow a gord! He even had some gords in beaded nets hanging up for the kids to see!
There was a tent full of musical instruments that the kids could play with supervision (the old guy got frustrated at Hunter grabbing everything, so I decided it was time to move on!) and there were also drums, a gong, and a marimba that the kids could bang on without hurting anything! It was fun and crazy, but it all proved to be too much restriction and structure for these boys. At the end, the highlight of their evening was the few minutes I let them play (more like swim!) in the fountain, and then the stop of McDonald's Happy Meals on the way home.
Whew! How do hippies keep track of their children? It's exhausting!