pumpkin picking

This past weekend I celebrated my nephew's birthday with my family. My sister is an amazing event planner and always goes above and beyond party themes. This year she did a story book theme.  I can't wait to share the photos I took. I took hundreds of photos. Okay, 1573 photos to be exact. I know, it's a bit much, but I always end up being the designated photographer at family event. I work for food.

I love doing it. If I am lucky, I have maybe 3 photos of myself at the events, usually a selfie or a blurry photo someone takes of me after trying to teach them how to use my camera, but that's not what it's about. I had fun capturing special moments of my nephew, my family and these memories will forever be with me.

Even though I am behind a lens I am not missing out on the even. Being behind a lens allows me to look at things with a new perspective. I use my lens to gaze around the room and catch a smile, a happy moment in time that I have encapsulate forever. 

The next day, I went pumpkin picking. One of my favorite things to do in the fall is our yearly pumpkin picking day. Finding the "right" pumpkin is like a formula for most people. Finding the right hue of orange, right size. For me it's all about the the stem. We each pick our own pumpkin and this year I also picked a white pumpkin. I have always wanted to get a white pumpkin, and just never did for whatever reason. We are going to make him into a little ghost. I have also seen some interesting ways of decorating them on pinterest, like with glitter, studs (I thought about it) and chevron patterns, but I think I am going to be leaving mine just the way they are.

I hope to share some fall themed crafts with you soon. Last fall we made some fun DIY. Check out my how to and halloween section for some ideas. For example, these halloween bat bags I made last year are really fun and easy to make.

Have a beautiful week and remember to be kind to one another. I had a principle in grade school who always said that at the end of his daily morning announcements before classes started. When I was younger I did not pay too much attention to it, but now as an adult, I understand how important it means to be kind and respectful to one another. 

county fair and stopping the use of bull hooks on elephants

Last weekend we went to the country fair. Every year we plan to go, but we never do, but this year we decided we had to do it and we are so glad we did. It's a huge fair, we spent the entire day there. There were so much to do; shows, comedy, magic, music, food, animals, games, and rides.

As much as as I love fairs I have a hard time seeing animals when I am there. I went and saw the cows and the sheep and I was happy to see loving children and adults care for them.

But was disgusted when I saw elephant and camel ride. Adults and children had to pay a few dollars to ride them. That's all they did all day was walk in circles carrying people. They looked tired, sad, and their bodies didn't look healthy or strong. There were two men, and one of them carried a bull hook. You might have seen these wood sticks with a sharp hook at the end.

These are used to "tame" and "train" the elephant. Elephants shouldn't be trained or tamed, they should be roaming free, and not used to carry children around for a dollar. It made me sick watching him being abused.

As much as I had fun at the fair, I was upset by this. I almost made a scene, but instead I have been doing some research and I am in the process of contacting the town fair and making sure that they do not support this act and do not have them at the fair going forward. Let's see how that goes.

On a lighter note, we saw The Flying Wallendas, a family of stunt performers who are known to perform high wire acts without any safety nets.

We are going to another near by fair just to see them again. They are amazing. What I find so fascinating about them is not only their amazing talent, but their willing to continue their family legacy of performing such dangerous acts. I was in awe of the performance, but I was saddened by the crowd. There wasn't many people watching them and those that were watching them didn't seem as excited or impressed as much as I was. Is everyone seeing the same show as I am?

I respect and admire them greatly. They have a documentary that I plan on watching so I hope to learn more about their history and what keeps them doing this.

Have you seen this family perform at a local fair? If so, what are your thoughts?

labor day weekend and the greek festival

Every year I look forward to Labor Day weekend because that means four long days and nights at the Greek Festival. As you might know already, Yanni is Greek, so he also looks forward to Labor Day weekend. The Greek Festival we attend is one of the best we have ever attended. The festival includes greek boutique and markets so you can buy foods, like chocolates, coffee, honey from Greece, jewelry, and Greek icons. Our favorite is the tag sale, and I always find some vintage goodies like clip earrings and Yanni is always in the technology gadget or tools section.

The food is so good. We had to have some gyros, pronounced "yee-rrr-o", alot of people pronounce it "guy-ro", we also enjoyed chicken and pork Souvlaki, which is chicken marinated in lemon and other spices grilled on a skewer, and I always have spanakopita, which is spinach pie, and loukoumades, which is small fried dough, dipped in honey and cinnamon sprinkled lightly with powdered sugar.