Little Fairies. And beer.

Saturday, we went down to Portsmouth for a Fairy House Tour. Actually, that was not the original reason for the trip. The little event was held at the historical Strawberry Bank.  Many of our friends have lived in Portsmouth over the years,  but our last good friends remaining (Ry, M and T)  are moving out of the sea side city next month :(   Yesterday was a perfect September day. Sunny, but with a breeze.

Of course we dressed the girls up as fairies.

There was a little performance of dancing fairies on the stage. Anika ate her picnic lunch while kind of watching the performance. There were lots of kids around.

Guess what she was doing here?

 HA, She told me she had to go, but I couldnt find a toilet! Poor thing.

The girls were more interested in the water.
Also, during the early part of the day, ANika was quite clingy to me. Didnt really explore much at all. Even with the big bubble maching going. She was not her usual self, but came to later in the day.

Fairy houses

My friend Ry and her daughter, T,  went back to her house so T could nap. Andrew, Anika and I walked around town. We went in some stores. We bought Anika a pair of Toms. HA. I wanted the silver sparkle ones, but I have been told by several people that they wear off and sparkles go everywhere. We ended up with the plain beige canvas ones. I am having a little regret over the choice. ANika has a lot of high quality shoes, but they have all been gifts and hand me downs (Minus the one pair of stride rite sandals we bought at the beginning of this summer).  We went to another upscale kid boutique (We don't have those where we live up here) and WOW! I could have spent some serious money on cute kid clothes and shoes, but...I didn't!  A. Andrew was with me! B. Anika doesn't need anything right now.  There was a pair of soft cute PJ's i liked for Anika, but they were $50! ha.  Andrew liked a pair of shoes for Anika A LOT, but he did not like the $58 price tag.  We went and had a Mediterranean lunch.  ANika had the hummus of the day with pita. 

We also went to a jewelry store. It is owned by a girl I went to high school with. She has a daughter a little older than A.  She makes her own jewelry. We had Andrew's finger sized and she is going to make him a new wedding band since his no longer fits.  Just going with plain silver this time, but a little aged looking. Cant wait to see it finished and on him!
We walked back to Ry's house and hung out. Ry's husband was home from work, so we all walked down to the park.

 Anika and T are 2 weeks apart :)

I was on the other side of this totter. Andrew was looking at a pretty girl walking 3 dogs. He kept saying Oh, Look at the doggies, but Um- I Know what he was REALLY looking at even if he tries to deny it!

After the park, we walked back to Ry's house and I freshened up. We said bye to Anika and she stayed with Ry,M and T.  Then, Andrew and I walked back to Strawberry Bank for a Beer and Food Festival!  We were invited to the beer festival by my friend L (Who lives up my way) several months ago. I bought the tickets several months ago.  I bought myself a regular ticket and ANdrew the DD ticket since he doesn't drink anymore (due to his bladder and the acidity).  (Although, he did have a few beers this summer!) Making a day of it and the fairy festival were decided last minute this past week.  I am so glad we did end up doing the whole day because it was a great day and night.
We walked down, just the two of us.  I had tons of beer.  There was food parings with all the beer so he had lots of food.  All the stations were NH restaurants and breweries, so we got to sample lots of things.
We only saw our friend L and her husband twice. It was pretty crowded and we had started on the opposite side as her.  We left after 2 hours  (we had gone to all the stations plus a couple twice and I was feeling warm and fuzzy!). We walked back to Ry's house through downtown. We stopped in a few stores and looked around without chasing after a child :)  Andrew even bought a few things! We even walked down the street holding hands.

When we got back to Ry's we got a great report about A. She was a pleasant girl. EVen took a bath with T and they played great together. That made me happy because as any parent knows, you just NEVER know how your kid will be.

We made the 1.5 hour drive home. Anika was out like a light. I slept a little but tried to stay up to talk to Andrew.
This morning, I slept until 10:30 AM!  I was up with A a little earlier in the morning, but Andrew got up with her for good.  They went out for several hours and I wrote this blog post and did tones of chores around the house while blasting pandora.  I meant to publish the post earlier today, but blogger was being a brat.

When Andrew and Anika got back home, I took Anika to an organic farm stand near our house. I have seen signs all summer, but could not find it. I called and found out it was WAY up a dirt road nearby.  It ended up being 5 minutes away and what a beautiful area! The lady was so nice.  We got organic garlic, collard, kale, tomatoes (little ones for my salads), beans, pickles and some echinacea tincture they make there!

I am going to sign up for the Fall CSA there and pick up a bushel of fresh produce every Saturday for 7 weeks!  I am really excited. 

 Hope everyone had a Funday Sunday!

Man, I love hte weekends. Working for the weekends!