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17 Oct 2015

A Great Place To Be A Kid

…or maybe its a great Time to be a kid!

With all the things going on in the summer by far our busiest and most enjoyable time of year is right now, the Fall.

This weekend is one that is typical for the fall and treasured all year round. Along with all the fall festivals out there, and there are several, this weekend, our girls get to go to the Corn Maze.

This is a well conceived festival on a local farm that not only offers a corn maze, both large and small, but hayrides and lots more fun things like:

A pumpkin barn where kids can carve, paint and create their own pumpkin

Kids Activities like Hay Bale Maze, Play Area, Covered Corn Kernel Box and Sand / Tire climb area

Petting zoo of farm animals both large and small
Scarecrow Alley, where you create your own scare crow
Hay Rides
Apple slingshots (are you kidding me!)

Snack bar and picnic area as well as the 3 mile corn maze.

Phew!

That can be a lot of fun for a kid on a great-weathered fall afternoon!

But that’s not all this weekend…

How many of you have kids that Mac and Cheese is their favorite meal in the world?

So with all the festivals here in town this time of year why not have a Mac Off for ‘melt in your mouth Southern goodness’?

A real-life Macaroni and Cheese festival where area chefs and restaurants show-0ff their talents to see who makes the best mac and cheese dish, all with a Jack Johnson cover band to set the mood. The proceeds for this cheezy festival benefits a local charity.

Yummy!

But like the logo above might suggest, this tasty festival is not just for kids.A $10 admission fee gets you in this southern roots festival and then $1.00 is all you meed to try each culinary mac and cheese sample, craft beer samples and even cocktails.

Their is even a Bourbon Trail, highlighting a southern mainstay where you stroll through the sun lit autumn trees while sampling a variety of top shelf bourbons in the process. I may need more Washingtons!

Of course, the melt-in-your-mouth mainstay is the classic that is served as a side dish, a pasta entrée, a casserole, fried appetizer or even dessert on many Charleston menus. So some 25 area venues take their shot for the title “Best Mac n Cheese in Town” on their menu.

And growing up all these fun outside fall events can add to a special childhood of smiles and great memories but what really makes a childhood special, I think, are the very special people in the kid’s lives.

A week ago, right on the heels of the great drenching our state took, we were visited by a very special couple of ladies; our very first nanny for Dylan, Jessica, and her mother Laura.

Jessica was a very special young lady we had the privilege to meet over 7 years ago. She was an amateur photographer along with her great nanny skills! Her picture of Dylan on D’s very first Valentine’s Day won top honors in a local V- Day newspaper contest.

Cupid Rocks!

(Thanks Jessica!)

Add her photography prowess was her special talent she had with creating some memorable videos for us like Dylan’s first birthday, her 3rd birthday party and the arrival of her sister, a great Christmas video, a trip to St. Lucia and more.

Jessica will always be very special because of all the gifts she has given us!

Enter her mother, Laura, a.k.a. Grandma WaWa. ‘WaWa’ was the closet thing Dylan could say when she tried pronouncing ‘Laura’. So we all adopted Grandma WaWa as an honorary Grandparent for us.

Why?

From the state of Texas Ms. Laura adopted our daughter as her own. Dylan won Ms. Laura’s heart from all the wonderful stories and pics Jessica would tell her week by week. And Dylan and my family were the lucky recipients of Laura’s love.

Dylan received her very first books, phonetics workbooks and posters and lot more special gifts from Grandma WaWa, I mean Laura.

Today in our travels we had two different strangers, a waitress and a girl scout leader comment on how smart or sharp Dylan was. Thanks Grandma Laura! It all began with you!

So when Jessica graduated with her Photography degree this past Spring, Ms. Laura gave her a present of taking her on a trip to where ever she wanted.

She chose Charleston!

We were over joyed!

Dylan wasn’t so sure though. After all, she had very few memories of Jessica from her very early years. She was forced to accept Jessica based on all the stories and memories we had told her.

Dylan was going to hide under the table; she told us time and time again.

But when game time rolled around both Dylan and Skylar were all smiles! Dylan even put Jessica’s name up on her coveted marquee blackboard!

We had a wonderful visit with these two ladies. Dylan out grew her shyness in no time (as you can see) and was more at home than ever with Jessica. It was great to watch!