Family Time: Enjoying the Laumeier Art Fair

I am a fair/festival/market/carnival JUNKIE. Anything with booths and some kind of music and a crowd, and I am drawn like a moth to a flame. Love love love. I'm blessed to have married a man who doesn't mind my passion and is content to tag along and enjoy the time with his overly-excitable wife. Truly--- I know he's a blessing to me. I'm sure plenty of husbands would happily stay home, save the cash, and watch a Netflix flick instead.

Since having kiddos, I've not gotten to indulge this crazy love of mine as much or as thoroughly as I once did... It's just not fair to the kids to linger in the heat/stay up past bedtimes/ponder boring things in a craft tent while they wait/drive long distances just to feed the silly excitement I get when happening upon a set of temporary tents with treasures and excitement inside. So I pass them by, or plan shorter versions of a trip, or tell myself I'll go next year... And that's perfectly okay. Its more fun to go with my family than alone, so I am perfectly okay waiting til they are good ages to go.

With the Laumeier Art Fair, which is every Mother's Day weekend, it just so happens that this year, both my kids are PERFECT ages for something like the Friday night start to the fair. I know they'll have live music, I know there is a lot of grass to run in should the bigger kid get restless or bored... I know Lucy is totally content in a stroller and VERY happy even when pushed a bit past bedtime... It was just a perfect time for a little trip to one of my favorite St. Louis Art Fairs...

And hey, it was Mother's Day weekend. I deserved a little time doing something I love, WITH the people I love, right? :)

So on a Friday evening, armed with picnic dinners for the kids, stroller, and a bit of cash for entry fees and junk food, we headed out to Laumeier Sculpture Park... Noah brought his trusty sidekick.

 

The park features a permanent display of fascinating, fabulous sculptures, this on being the most famous:

It was a gorgeous night-- cool, breezy... the music was just right, and as predicted, this little one was in heaven in her stroller, dancing in her seat to the music. (Plying her with peanut butter sandwiches and cheese sticks didn't hurt her mood either!)

After walking around many of the artists' booths, we stopped back at the live music to sit and enjoy. Lucy danced and bopped and smiled. Noah, in his strange Noah way, was sheepish and mad and embarrassed at the sensory input (he gets "shy" and overwhelmed when things are TOO awesome.. too loud, too amazing, too perfect) and had to settle into the experience before he let himself go and let himself love it as much as his initial gut response told him to. I don't understand it, entirely, but I try to be gentle with this tendency of his.

Once Noah warmed back up, he danced, too, and then wanted to play near the giant eyeball sculpture that was a few feet from the stage. I mean, come on! Who can resist a giant EYEBALL!?

Self-Portrait With Noah, Attempt 1: Getting the camera positioned right, therefore not thinking about expressions.

Too serious!

Self-Portrait With Noah, Attempt 2: Let's smile this time!

 

PERFECT. :)

Oh yeah, and the artists? Fabulous, as usual. (I only managed one photo of one little booth. Oops. Trust me, there was some good stuff at this fair!)

 

Once at this festival, years ago, we bought a piece of art. It was a real splurge for us, but felt amazing to do. Someday, we'll be in the position to do that again. I already have at least two artists in mind I'll be buying from first....Both of them mixed media types. (In an alternate life, I'd be a mixed media artist. I LOVE that stuff.)

ANYhoo... Just a few snaps from one recent family outing. Perhaps I'll get my act together enough to share photos from the TWO OTHER FAIRS we attended in May. Three in one month? Pure heaven to a festival junkie like me!