Soooooo...

Friday Henry and I packed up the car and picked Kyle up from work and headed straight to LEAF. It is about a 25 minute drive, so we got there at around 4:30 or so. While we were checking in and getting our wristbands, we ran into Ms. Erica who told us that her folks had shelled out the extra bucks to get a super special parking pass that aloowed themt o park and set up camp right near temporary parking (where we were), and that we should set up with them. This was awesome, as last May we had to lug all of our gear over the hill and far away to set up camp, and we ended up in between a commune campsite and a bunch of drunken college girls. We were confident that Erica's folks would be much quieter. So we hopped on over and set up Kyle's tent. It was amazing how much less we had to take since Henry wasn't going to be camping.

We wandered around and ate pizza slices from Barley's. Henry was so excited to be back in the land of the bubbles, I was afraid he might spontaniously combust. An artist who was running a ceramics booth had set up a huge bubble machine on her tent's roof. I guess she didn't think that bubbles attract kids. Kids and ceramics are unmixy things. The kids had a blast, but all of the parents were hovering stressfully about, making sure their kid wasn't going to be the first one to go crashing head first into the hand painted ceramic bowl display. Luck was with us and nothing was broken. It was like a mob of children frothing around the bubbles, very Lord of the Flies. With more patchy clothing. Henry was the smallest kid by far, and he got knocked around a little, but he held his own. A LEAF photographer started taking pictures of him and following him around for a little while. Henry thought that was pretty fun. He experimented with how the man would like a photograph of a frisbee thrown directly at the camera. We saw some music and ate some organic french fries (YUM!) and a mozzerella, pesto and tomato quesadilla for dinner. After a while, henry and I got tired. We left Kyle at the main gate at around 8 to go home to sleep. Kyle had a blast by himself after we left. Jerk.

Saturday Henry and I wre up and at 'em and we met Kyle back at camp at 8:30. We ate a strawberry and chocolate crepe and a ham, egg and cheese crepe for breakfast (so YUM!) and walked around for a bit. At 10 we went and saw Billy Jonas play. Billy Jonas rocked the house, ya'll. He was so amazing. He is a kids' musician and his whole philosophy is that music is not an esoteric experience. He encourages kids to bang on whatever they can find to experiment with sound. He says "Everybody's in the band, stomp your feet and clap your hands". Henry had a blast. There was a song where we were supposed to clapp 3 times in quick succession at the same spot during every chorus. Henry picked it up right away and did the 3 claps on cue every time. I was pretty amazed. The kid is a musical genius. After Billy Jonas, we had to run down to the main gate to do our volunteering.

The program we were volunteering with is called LEAF in Schools and Streets. They make grant money available for artists to go into schools and help teacha portion of the curriculum using whatever art they do. The kids then have the opportunity to come to LEAF and participate in the performance of that artist. It's an amazing program. It was our job to check in the student and give them their wristbands and things. It was the most disorganized thing on the planet. But it was fun. Henry slept in the little red wagon during our shift so he was up and ready to go by the time we were done.

And now I can smell a poopy diaper smell wafting into this room on the breeze. I must go interupt Henry's first Sesame Street watching in 3 days to go change that thing. And then we are off to knitting group. I know, it is cruel to leave you hanging on the edge of your seats like this. It will make the conclusion of the story so much sweeter.

*smooch*