Onward and Upward

These kids were bravely ascending this artificial rock climb at the recent Kite Festival. At my age, I wouldn't try that for all the tea in China. Oh to be young again!

Physics for Kids

This lively poster announces the current exhibit at the Austin Children's Museum which is an interactive physics lesson (in English or Spanish apparently). Looks like fun.

Hang on Tight!

As part of the fun at the Kite Festival on Sunday, there was a climbing area where, as you can see, children were allowed to show their prowess at getting up the side of some artificial trees. These four seemed to be having a lot of fun as their parents cheered them on.

Up up and away

The annual kite festival here in town happened yesterday at Zilker Park, our expansive green space on the south side of the lake. Here you see a lot of kites getting off the ground when a friendly gust of wind came along to help. For Linda and me, it was a great day to just relax, wander around and get our mental batteries recharged. It was especially nice for us, since we were able to walk over and avoid the insane traffic hassles almost everyone else had to endure. We do love living downtown. (By the way, if you look hard, you'll see Linda's camera in the lower right of this shot.)

Sara Hickman does Mother Ginger

As long as it's the season, I thought I'd throw in one more Mother Ginger shot. Here is my friend, well-known singer Sara Hickman all done up in her costume before the second act of "The Nutcracker." I took this photo Monday night while she was getting ready for her big role. Talk about a natural performer-- this woman was born to be on stage--and she is one of the most genuine, kind, warm-hearted souls you'll ever meet.

Like I said the other day, I've had a great time recruiting the VIP Mother Gingers since 1997-- it's hard to believe we've been doing it this long. Cookie Ruiz, the Executive Director of Ballet Austin, gave me the task back then and I'm grateful she had that much faith in me. It's always fun to watch VIPs get made up and have some fun. And it makes my holiday season anything but boring.

All Aboard

In Zilker Park you can ride a miniature train called The Zephyr. Every time I see it go by the riders seem to be having a fine time.

Chocolate Bacon

There's no other way to say it. Chocolate bacon. While my older great nephews shopped for candy using a bucket to choose from hundreds of old-fashioned confections this lady coated bacon with chocolate at the fine confection counter. Big Top Candy Shop also sells traditional shop fountain drinks. I thought it would be a disaster for the nephews, but my niece unwrapped a lollipop for the little one and gave the clerk the wrapper and he sat by me happily while the older boys where given free rein to pick some confections with a little help from mom in deciding the limits of decency. To balance we stopped by Farm to Market Grocery and got organic milk for them. I didn't taste the chocolate bacon, but I think it goes on the list of things I have to try before I die. We've shown Big Top's candies before but we thought they deserved another feature for chocolate bacon!

I see on the WEB that the Big Top folks also own Monkey See, Monkey Do featured here once before. Amusing.

Writing and a reading

Hi-- Forrest here, posting today. As we may have mentioned, I'm on the board of Badgerdog Literary Publishing. Last Saturday, some of the children in the program read a sampling of their works at St. David's Episcopal Church downtown. This young fellow really spiffed up for the occasion. He looks sharp in his suit, doesn't he?

As you can see, after the reading, the stars of the show had an autograph session. They were signing the latest edition of their journal Youth Voices in Ink. I enjoy being part of this organization, which does a lot of good and gives kids an outlet for their creativity.

It's For Kids

We don't have kids. So I normally don't pay much attention to playgrounds or kid-friendly places except maybe to avoid them. If my nieces come to town with some little ones, my perspective changes.

I have a little ritual for posting on this blog. First I look at the Daily Photo Home page and see what people have been posting. Sometimes I look at one of the sites. Then I pick out a picture and do my entry. Later in the day, I might look at Daily Photo again and locate my site's thumbnail and see some more of the day's harvest of pictures. I'm always struck by mini 'themes' that crop up whether it's birds or markets or people doing similar things. Today, though, I actually chose this picture because this site in Silver Spring, Maryland had a playground picture and I liked this one I had taken a week or so ago.

This was taken at Phil's Ice House where we showed the sign earlier. Obviously the cows are an homage to the Amy's ice cream served (and made in the building behind the playground).