Festival Season Kicks Off

So over a month ago I noticed someone showing "interest" on Facebook in an event called Bear on the Square which takes place up toward the mountains in Dahlonega. I thought it looked kind of cute so I made note of it too, hoping maybe we could go. We love festivals, always have even in the BEFORE KIDS TIME and I'm hoping we really get back to them this year more often.

It's a challenge to take two severely autistic kids out to festivals. First of all there's the diapers - changing diapers in a port-a-potty is almost always impossible as you have to take off their shoes and I think we all know that standing barefoot or in socked feet in a port-a-potty is one of the circles of hell. Plus I think you'll get smallpox doing that, or something like smallpox. We're vaccinated but who wants to risk it?

I didn't know there WAS a bear to meet but we ran right into him when we got there. The kids all thought that was great.

The festival was a pretty damn good one. There were TONS of stringed instruments for sales, and folk crafts - (REAL crafts not stuff done with glue guns made at Michaels). Officially it was an Appalachian Art and Music Festival and it didn't disappoint at all. I kind of wanted to pick up this stringed instrument called a panjo, I am totally going to next time I see one. I have no idea why but it was pretty cool. Next time!

I usually pick up a piece of jewelry at these kind of festivals, and Julia was excited to get to pick up a ring as a souvenir. It's fun to have pieces that not everyone else has. The ring she picked up has the quality of being "purple" in my opinion. She was pretty excited however, so WIN for the almost 6 year old.

Now see this? This is $32 worth of root beer floats.

Festival food is always a crap shoot. Sometimes it's over priced, sometimes it's really reasonable. Sometimes it's amazing and OH WOW SO GOOD and sometimes it's like holy hell what did we just buy and why? Unfortunately this day we chose all the wrong food. ALL the wrong food. These root beer floats were possibly the WORST root beer I have EVER had, flat and warm with cheap ice cream in it. UGH not good. Oh yay we had free refills. We left the mugs behind because we didn't want reminders of this travesty of wasted money in our home.

That was possibly the only real low point however. There was the MOST immaculate port-a-potty in Christendom and I was able to change both twins without fear of plague and flesh eating bacteria being present. So that particular piece of Special Needs Parenting was actually pretty easy yesterday.

While my kids might identify their new balloon animal friends as the best part of their day, I have to say I think it was the music.

The entire place was like the O' Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack on fantastic repeat. If you like that sort of thing (which I do) it was pretty amazing. Every few feet there was another small group of either bluegrass or old timey musicians, playing and singing and it was just lovely. You didn't have to go find a spot at a main stage to hear the music, it was a few feet away while you bought soaps, rings, jellies, etc.

If you don't know the difference between Old Timey music and Bluegress the festival's website has some helpful information for you.

Ok it's funny, you should read it.

Home Depot had a booth set up for kids to do crafts, so our three little guys all made little wagons. It was evident Miles has been to Home Depot frequently with his class, as he grabbed the hammer immediately and went to work. He knew exactly what to do. Charlie wasn't quite as interested and needed a little more help but I think they all liked this part and now various princesses and Tigger have "a sick new ride" according to my oldest.

I'm going to have to have a better DIAPER plan for the summer festivals. Sometimes we just change in the van (not ideal for poop lemme tell you) so I'm going to be thinking on that a lot. I'm not going to let their diapers hold us back from all of the experiences out there for us. They loved the music, and they got new toys to play with and it was an all around great day.

Miles managed not to flip out over dogs, and we left with lots of handcrafted goodies to enjoy. Those two things alone were completely worth the day.

It was a perfect family day out. We need more of these.

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Festival Season Kicks Off

So over a month ago I noticed someone showing "interest" on Facebook in an event called Bear on the Square which takes place up toward the mountains in Dahlonega. I thought it looked kind of cute so I made note of it too, hoping maybe we could go. We love festivals, always have even in the BEFORE KIDS TIME and I'm hoping we really get back to them this year more often.

It's a challenge to take two severely autistic kids out to festivals. First of all there's the diapers - changing diapers in a port-a-potty is almost always impossible as you have to take off their shoes and I think we all know that standing barefoot or in socked feet in a port-a-potty is one of the circles of hell. Plus I think you'll get smallpox doing that, or something like smallpox. We're vaccinated but who wants to risk it?

I didn't know there WAS a bear to meet but we ran right into him when we got there. The kids all thought that was great.

The festival was a pretty damn good one. There were TONS of stringed instruments for sales, and folk crafts - (REAL crafts not stuff done with glue guns made at Michaels). Officially it was an Appalachian Art and Music Festival and it didn't disappoint at all. I kind of wanted to pick up this stringed instrument called a panjo, I am totally going to next time I see one. I have no idea why but it was pretty cool. Next time!

I usually pick up a piece of jewelry at these kind of festivals, and Julia was excited to get to pick up a ring as a souvenir. It's fun to have pieces that not everyone else has. The ring she picked up has the quality of being "purple" in my opinion. She was pretty excited however, so WIN for the almost 6 year old.

Now see this? This is $32 worth of root beer floats.

Festival food is always a crap shoot. Sometimes it's over priced, sometimes it's really reasonable. Sometimes it's amazing and OH WOW SO GOOD and sometimes it's like holy hell what did we just buy and why? Unfortunately this day we chose all the wrong food. ALL the wrong food. These root beer floats were possibly the WORST root beer I have EVER had, flat and warm with cheap ice cream in it. UGH not good. Oh yay we had free refills. We left the mugs behind because we didn't want reminders of this travesty of wasted money in our home.

That was possibly the only real low point however. There was the MOST immaculate port-a-potty in Christendom and I was able to change both twins without fear of plague and flesh eating bacteria being present. So that particular piece of Special Needs Parenting was actually pretty easy yesterday.

While my kids might identify their new balloon animal friends as the best part of their day, I have to say I think it was the music.

The entire place was like the O' Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack on fantastic repeat. If you like that sort of thing (which I do) it was pretty amazing. Every few feet there was another small group of either bluegrass or old timey musicians, playing and singing and it was just lovely. You didn't have to go find a spot at a main stage to hear the music, it was a few feet away while you bought soaps, rings, jellies, etc.

If you don't know the difference between Old Timey music and Bluegress the festival's website has some helpful information for you.

Ok it's funny, you should read it.

Home Depot had a booth set up for kids to do crafts, so our three little guys all made little wagons. It was evident Miles has been to Home Depot frequently with his class, as he grabbed the hammer immediately and went to work. He knew exactly what to do. Charlie wasn't quite as interested and needed a little more help but I think they all liked this part and now various princesses and Tigger have "a sick new ride" according to my oldest.

I'm going to have to have a better DIAPER plan for the summer festivals. Sometimes we just change in the van (not ideal for poop lemme tell you) so I'm going to be thinking on that a lot. I'm not going to let their diapers hold us back from all of the experiences out there for us. They loved the music, and they got new toys to play with and it was an all around great day.

Miles managed not to flip out over dogs, and we left with lots of handcrafted goodies to enjoy. Those two things alone were completely worth the day.

It was a perfect family day out. We need more of these.

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Go Chasing Waterfalls

I personally never listen to advice from people with names like Left Eye so we decided to go chasing waterfalls today. Luckily, Georgia has lots.

We set out today without an agenda except for our breakfast spot, and wandered north toward Tennessee. I still can't get used to the idea that Tennessee is north. It's hard wired into me that it's south. But no, north we went and into the Georgia mountains, past the Rabun Gap and into the land of magical scenery. It's just so beautiful here, I am so glad the warmer weather has returned.

Why are waterfalls so amazing? I'm not really sure. Maybe it's the huge rush of water, and the invigorating spray of the icy cold mist coming off of it. Maybe it's just the whole "majesty of nature" sort of thing. BEHOLD! NATURE! Something like that. 

But there is something about them. The allure is so strong that a 13 year old boy who can't stop talking about video games will climb out on the furthest rock he can and sit enraptured, just watching the fall happen. It was probably the quietest he was all day. He sat up on that rock and just gazed, watching everything happen as more and more water fell over the cliff. "Look Mom! A rainbow!" he called back to me. I got lucky and got it on film. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to tell his friends how much he liked that.

I can admit it though, I really liked it a lot. It's the sort of place that makes me feel recharged, renewed. The air is fresh, made crisp even by the cold mist coming off those falls. You can feel the power of the falls even from a distance. The noise is beautiful and deafening at the same time.

It's the kind of place where my children photobomb me as my husband takes my picture, and I'm pretty amused by it. Pretty sure there are no other humans in the world I would rather be photobombed by.

So random "it's in the DNA" fact, my son can be a lot like my brother in his mannerisms. This stance by my oldest son, is exactly the stance of my brother Matt when he is considering something. He shifts his weight exactly like this, when he's thinking about doing something etc. My son is considering climbing out on those rocks at this moment. He hadn't committed to it, but he was definitely thinking about it. He was eyeing them, and the water and if he could get that far out without getting wet.

Many people keep their autistic kids on a tight schedule, but we've always found that didn't work for us as a family. What works better is being aware of their needs, and their wants. Today we had no schedule and no plans. We didn't eat lunch, we had a late breakfast and an early dinner.

There weren't any complaints, there rarely are. We wandered the mountains in search of adventure and we found some. This waterfall was just one stop we made.

I will always chase waterfalls. They fill up my heart. It's the best feeling in the world.

Tweet

Go Chasing Waterfalls

I personally never listen to advice from people with names like Left Eye so we decided to go chasing waterfalls today. Luckily, Georgia has lots.

We set out today without an agenda except for our breakfast spot, and wandered north toward Tennessee. I still can't get used to the idea that Tennessee is north. It's hard wired into me that it's south. But no, north we went and into the Georgia mountains, past the Rabun Gap and into the land of magical scenery. It's just so beautiful here, I am so glad the warmer weather has returned.

Why are waterfalls so amazing? I'm not really sure. Maybe it's the huge rush of water, and the invigorating spray of the icy cold mist coming off of it. Maybe it's just the whole "majesty of nature" sort of thing. BEHOLD! NATURE! Something like that. 

But there is something about them. The allure is so strong that a 13 year old boy who can't stop talking about video games will climb out on the furthest rock he can and sit enraptured, just watching the fall happen. It was probably the quietest he was all day. He sat up on that rock and just gazed, watching everything happen as more and more water fell over the cliff. "Look Mom! A rainbow!" he called back to me. I got lucky and got it on film. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to tell his friends how much he liked that.

I can admit it though, I really liked it a lot. It's the sort of place that makes me feel recharged, renewed. The air is fresh, made crisp even by the cold mist coming off those falls. You can feel the power of the falls even from a distance. The noise is beautiful and deafening at the same time.

It's the kind of place where my children photobomb me as my husband takes my picture, and I'm pretty amused by it. Pretty sure there are no other humans in the world I would rather be photobombed by.

So random "it's in the DNA" fact, my son can be a lot like my brother in his mannerisms. This stance by my oldest son, is exactly the stance of my brother Matt when he is considering something. He shifts his weight exactly like this, when he's thinking about doing something etc. My son is considering climbing out on those rocks at this moment. He hadn't committed to it, but he was definitely thinking about it. He was eyeing them, and the water and if he could get that far out without getting wet.

Many people keep their autistic kids on a tight schedule, but we've always found that didn't work for us as a family. What works better is being aware of their needs, and their wants. Today we had no schedule and no plans. We didn't eat lunch, we had a late breakfast and an early dinner.

There weren't any complaints, there rarely are. We wandered the mountains in search of adventure and we found some. This waterfall was just one stop we made.

I will always chase waterfalls. They fill up my heart. It's the best feeling in the world.

Tweet

Easter Eggs, Goats, And Dead Yankee Jelly

Finding a place to take our big guys who are really little guys to do an Easter Egg hunt becomes more of a challenge every year. Obviously mentally they aren't 10 years old, they need to do the hunt with the little kids who need help.They won't be running around knocking kids down and grabbing all the eggs. But explaining this to the throngs of parents encouraging their kids to GET EVERY SINGLE EGG POSSIBLE is exhausting. Also, we prescribe to the Auntie Mame philosophy that enough is as good as a feast and so we do NOT encourage that behavior. We found an egg hunt up north in the mountains (practically spitting distance of Tennessee) and I admit we were really delighted.

There was a hayride, and goats to feed,and a country store and a cafe. Country people do not have a proper understanding of what a "lot" of people are. The guy next to me told me there would be a lot of people. It ended up being about 100 kids for 6000 eggs. Seriously, that was like a DREAM. It was a calm wonderful experience out there in their plowed under corn maze. It made me really happy to be there it was so positive and friendly.

There was also a gem mine and all the kids chose rocks (ok I chose some rocks too, I can't lie) and Louis panned for gems but alas we didn't find any. But it was fun regardless. And we got some cider and jellies for treats, plus some yummy fresh breads.

For lunch we went to a classic roadside attraction that I've ALWAYS wanted to go to - GOATS ON THE ROOF . It was everything I expected. A small diner with a limited menu but the food was REALLY tasty. But the real fun was to be had outside - MORE GOATS!

I am pretty sure the kids favorite part of the place was feeding the goats, you ride a bike that powers a chain to deliver your cone full of goatfeed up to the waiting goats on the roof. It was fairly ridiculous yet awesome in the way that this family loves. The twins thought it was a riot. There were other roadside attraction kind of things to sit on and ride and do there also. 

The panning pics are from the orchard. Sloppy editing Gidge! 

We decided we hadn't had enough activity, so we stopped at Tallulah Gorge on our way home. This is possibly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. I'd like to go actually without my kids, as I spent most of my time making sure they weren't plummeting to their deaths. 

None of my photos do it justice at all. It was awe inspiring. I hear you can Kayak down it once a year - I would kind of like to do that. I've been kayaking and my experience is that I'm not that good at it. So we should make that "learn to kayak and then do it." 

One small source of stress while we were there (besides the possibility of plummeting to one's death, was that there were tons of dogs. Miles has recently developed an insane and uncontrollable fear of dogs. He shrieks and screams hysterically and literally climbs up me. Dog owners look at us like we're a bit nuts. We're considering our course of action on how we get him over this - some sort of therapy obviously, but it splits the air with my child's shrieks of terror and makes it hard to relax and enjoy places sometimes. We'll get through it, just another autism hurdle to cross.

I'm kind of excited about trying the jellies we purchased, mostly the Scuppernong jelly. We bought the two because we weren't sure what the flavors were so hey why not, but that word was in my mind like I should know it.

Obviously the scuppernong arbor is where Scarlet buries the dead Yankee she shoots in GWTW. Thank goodness Laura and Melissa remembered it and told me on FB!

So, that really just makes this dead Yankee jelly now doesn't it? 

Obviously it does. 

Easter Eggs, Goats, And Dead Yankee Jelly

Finding a place to take our big guys who are really little guys to do an Easter Egg hunt becomes more of a challenge every year. Obviously mentally they aren't 10 years old, they need to do the hunt with the little kids who need help.They won't be running around knocking kids down and grabbing all the eggs. But explaining this to the throngs of parents encouraging their kids to GET EVERY SINGLE EGG POSSIBLE is exhausting. Also, we prescribe to the Auntie Mame philosophy that enough is as good as a feast and so we do NOT encourage that behavior. We found an egg hunt up north in the mountains (practically spitting distance of Tennessee) and I admit we were really delighted.

There was a hayride, and goats to feed,and a country store and a cafe. Country people do not have a proper understanding of what a "lot" of people are. The guy next to me told me there would be a lot of people. It ended up being about 100 kids for 6000 eggs. Seriously, that was like a DREAM. It was a calm wonderful experience out there in their plowed under corn maze. It made me really happy to be there it was so positive and friendly.

There was also a gem mine and all the kids chose rocks (ok I chose some rocks too, I can't lie) and Louis panned for gems but alas we didn't find any. But it was fun regardless. And we got some cider and jellies for treats, plus some yummy fresh breads.

For lunch we went to a classic roadside attraction that I've ALWAYS wanted to go to - GOATS ON THE ROOF . It was everything I expected. A small diner with a limited menu but the food was REALLY tasty. But the real fun was to be had outside - MORE GOATS!

I am pretty sure the kids favorite part of the place was feeding the goats, you ride a bike that powers a chain to deliver your cone full of goatfeed up to the waiting goats on the roof. It was fairly ridiculous yet awesome in the way that this family loves. The twins thought it was a riot. There were other roadside attraction kind of things to sit on and ride and do there also. 

The panning pics are from the orchard. Sloppy editing Gidge! 

We decided we hadn't had enough activity, so we stopped at Tallulah Gorge on our way home. This is possibly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. I'd like to go actually without my kids, as I spent most of my time making sure they weren't plummeting to their deaths. 

None of my photos do it justice at all. It was awe inspiring. I hear you can Kayak down it once a year - I would kind of like to do that. I've been kayaking and my experience is that I'm not that good at it. So we should make that "learn to kayak and then do it." 

One small source of stress while we were there (besides the possibility of plummeting to one's death, was that there were tons of dogs. Miles has recently developed an insane and uncontrollable fear of dogs. He shrieks and screams hysterically and literally climbs up me. Dog owners look at us like we're a bit nuts. We're considering our course of action on how we get him over this - some sort of therapy obviously, but it splits the air with my child's shrieks of terror and makes it hard to relax and enjoy places sometimes. We'll get through it, just another autism hurdle to cross.

I'm kind of excited about trying the jellies we purchased, mostly the Scuppernong jelly. We bought the two because we weren't sure what the flavors were so hey why not, but that word was in my mind like I should know it.

Obviously the scuppernong arbor is where Scarlet buries the dead Yankee she shoots in GWTW. Thank goodness Laura and Melissa remembered it and told me on FB!

So, that really just makes this dead Yankee jelly now doesn't it? 

Obviously it does.