Didi, the kids and I took off right after breakfast and headed over to Shipshewana. We stopped at a couple of cute shops, and at the first one there were some bonnets that Ava found. She put one on and it was ALL over. The world stopped for a minute she was so cute. So we had to have it. Grandma Artis sent some funds for the kids and Ava's bonnet was the third purchase. (the first 2 were books at the used bookstore- a wildflower book for this region, and a kids picture dictionary that is so great!). Ava wore her bonnet, and got a lot of smiles. We noted that there were a lot of people in town, and a lot of people from out of town! North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan (that one almost doesn't count as its about 10 minutes south of Michigan!) and several other places. Even though it was windy and rainy, no one seemed deterred. We found a place that was one big building with several shops in it, and went in there so James could wander the halls while Didi looked around. Needless to say he did not like being cooped up in the car, videoplayer notwithstanding. So we wandered, found some supercute Red Wing shoes that they did not have in either of our size and that they don't carry at our local Red Wing store (of course we checked!) and found some other cute stuff. It was getting late, though, so we decided to mosey on over to Elkhart and have lunch at the Farmers Market there. Talk about AMAZING! The first floor was food, the second floor was goods, (furniture, lotions, yarn, etc etc) and the third floor was offices. We ate barbecue sandwiches and corn dogs (James strangely enough did not dig the corn dog but enjoyed part of my sandwich) and apple fritters. Yummmmm. Then we wandered around building checking out all the wares for sale. I saw shops that I recognized from our time in South Bend. People were there on tour buses from Louisiana, too. It's quite a big deal. Great products too. I think if there is not a superlocal option for chicken etc I may go there for meat every couple of weeks or so. Cheese too. Again, mmmmmm. Then the kids needed to run around so we went outside and let them at it. At the back of the parking lot a gentleman had a petting zoo set up. There were miniature horses (I asked, and the one Ava is petting is 14), a llama, sheep, goats, and bunnies. Ava got to pet the bunnies and one of the horses, and James stood wide eyed at all the animals. We piled the kids back into the van for the trip home (which was not fun because the snacks that could have fed 43 football players were all consumed by my children before lunch and James totally missed his nap and threw anything I gave him to quiet him down and the movie didn't help and oh my goodness) and got a call from PJ wanting to know how much longer we were going to be. I got out of him that the weather was good for them and they were done playing their round and what he really wanted to know was if they had time to squeeze in another 9 holes. They did, so bonus round for them! We all arrived home tired at about the same time, and I made a quick dinner. We all passed out, ready for the next day.
Ava is awake and so now I am not going to be able to continue. Maybe tomorrow? Because there's more, folks, there's more!
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