MDS&W 2011

I am so pooped that I cannot come up with a clever title, so a descriptive one will have to do.

My parents, my two older sons and I headed down around noon on Friday. Our car (a Ford Flex) was packed to the gills, which are slightly smaller than the gills of the old van, which was traded in about a month ago. Poor Secondo had to put up with random things falling on his head every time I made a turn. Of course his older brother was right there to document that for the record.

The boys and I set up the Coopworth breed display in record time, but I have no pictures of that, mostly because nothing fell on Secondo's head. (And maybe also because it only took second place this year.)

We had a great time at the campsite with my wonderful, patient, long-suffering, I-don't-know-how-I-would-do-this-without-them parents, complete with great fires, outdoor cooking, hiking, and card games, but no pictures -- again, probably because Secondo suffered no bodily harm, just an excess of good fun.

Then onto the Coopworth sales booth... the lack of posts last week was due to the fact that I was beside myself getting stuff ready to sell. When Debbie and I and our various minions were done, the booth looked like this from the front:

On the inside (the colored roving is mine, along with some of the natural colored roving):

And from the side (you can see my greeting cards displayed on the wire rack that fell on Secondo's head all the way down to Maryland):

Pretty good for our first attempt all by ourselves!

I spent most of the weekend in the booth and it was great fun. One of the highlights was a visit from a long-time friend, whom I had not seen since Secondo was a baby. She just moved back from LA to the eastern shore of Maryland, and I was thrilled that she could take time out on Mother's Day to drop by the festival. What a wonderful treat!

Now, remember that packed-to-the-gills car at the beginning of this post? Well, around noon on Sunday, my kids and three friends from their 4-H club decided they wanted to spend the afternoon at the festival together, and all ride home with me. This is why my only criteria for a new car was that it have a third row of seats.

I put them in charge of figuring out the logistics. Much in the manner of a hot air balloon that needs to get over a mountain, they jettisoned every unnecessary item into my parent's car and/or the truck of the 4-H parents that had to go home earlier. Somehow, they managed to make it work, even if they did have to ride home with a table in front of their knees -- and they stuck to their promise of no complaining.

It was the perfect -- and very fitting -- end to a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.