Back to the 50's Mitsuri

This weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to the Fairgrounds for Back to the Fifties. My father-in-law drives out every year in his '52 chevy with some lawn chairs and a trunk full of beer. We eat cheese curds and get a big pail of Sweet Martha's cookies and I would be happy to just sit out there all day watching cars and people. But Natalie took a digger on the sidewalk and bloodied up her knees, and we didn't stay long after that.

We stopped by our old house since we were in the neighborhood. It looked exactly the same. We flipped Natalie's car seat around since she is two years old, and she was so excited to be facing forward, but exhausted after the busy morning. She slept for the entire ride from St. Paul to Carver, and almost another two hours in her crib at home.

On Saturday evening we went to the Waconia marching band parade. Natalie was way into the music and she kept scooting closer to the bands; off her chair, on the curb, and finally sitting in the street. When the second band finished, she jumped up and started high-stepping down the road. If I hadn't grabbed her I think she would have just followed them for the entire parade.

She couldn't sit still for the whole thing so we went for a walk. Around the back of the school we found a great big playground with tall wooden spires. "Whee fun," yelled Natalie, which is her word for swings. On our way back, she tripped in a driveway and scraped her knees all over again. I have to admit that the Waconia band performance was pretty cool. They played a koto and biwa (I think?), drummed taiko and pulled out a big Chinese dragon for the grand finale.