For us, the National Book Festival is a family tradition. I suppose the tradition dates back prior to having kids and even prior to meeting my husband. Before I moved to D.C., I would watch the  Book Festival on CSPAN (yes, I'm just that much of a dork). The first year I moved to the D.C. area, I could not wait to attend the National Book Festival. In those days, the festival took place on Columbus Day weekend. I remember I had Ron Chernow sign his biography of Alexander Hamilton and Azar Nafisi sign Reading Lolita in Tehran. The following year David McCullough signed my copies of John Adams and 1776. 

By the next year, I was dating my now husband and I dragged him to a mandatory stop by the festival before heading to my office's picnic, which was sadly scheduled for the same day. I missed a few years due to my wedding and the fact I was about to give birth. But before I knew it, I had toddlers to take to the festival. Meg and Clare loved going to the National Mall each fall to take pictures with Curious George, Cat in the Hat and the cast of Super Why. PBS Kids is a major presence at the Book Festival and for several years we focused mostly on PBS Kids because that was what the kids could appreciate. 

This year marked a major change for the Book Festival. Due to a change in practice by the National Parks Service (because the NPS is concerned about the grass on the Mall), the Book Festival is no longer being held on the National Mall. Ummm, seriously? NPS, you are sort of missing the point of the Mall. It is a gathering place. It is our nation's village green. Who cares about the grass? If your policies cause the Library of Congress to move the National Book Festival from the Mall to a convention center, then your policies are wrong. Period. Full stop.

I'm sorry Library of Congress. I know you tried. I know the NPS put you in a terrible spot. But the convention center just isn't as cool as the Mall. The convention center is a convention center that could be located in any city in the country. No longer do you browse books and listen to authors speak in the shadow of the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. Now, it is just an exhibit hall and ballrooms.  Gone are the open tents from which you could hear authors speak even while your kids were eating lunch or running around the grass outside the tents. Now, when the doors close on those ballrooms, you can't hear a thing outside. Someone call Laura Bush (founder of the Book Festival) to put the NPS in its place. 

The change in location was particularly disappointing this year because my mom, who has been wanting to attend the Book Festival for years, was finally at the festival. I so wish she could have experienced the National Book Festival in all its Mall glory. But alas, that was not the case and we had to move on. So, we began the festival as we always do, with the PBS Kids characters. Great news! After years of being terrified of the Cat in the Hat costume, Clare finally embraced Cat...literally.

The girls really did grow up a bit at this Book Festival. After taking the necessary photos with PBS Kids characters, they stood in their first line to meet an author. Andrea Beaty, author of Iggy Peck, Architect, was signing her new book Happy Birthday Madam Chapeau. The girls love Iggy Peck, so my mom bought them a copy of the new book to have Ms. Beaty sign. As we waited in line, my mom read the book to them, which the girls quite enjoyed. When we finally reached the front of the line, Andrea Beaty was fantastically engaging with the girls, making sure she knew their names and telling them about her daughter. I am so glad their first experience meeting a favorite author was so positive. 

In addition to having an author sign their book, the girls enjoyed two author presentations. They listened to Judith Viorst, author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I had to attend to Baby Anne during this time, so I unfortunately missed the presentation. My mom, who accompanied the girls, said that Ms. Viorst was a very enjoyable speaker and the girls quietly listened to her. (Yay!) I did go with the girls to hear Eric Litwin, author of Pete the Cat. What an experience that was! Mr. Eric (as he is known) had us lifting our kids in the air, dancing and jumping together, and singing along with those refrains from his books that have become so well-known to parents everywhere ("My buttons, my buttons, my four groovy buttons"). Even 9-month-old Baby Anne was clapping, laughing and waving her hands with Mr. Eric. 

The Book Festival brought us so much excitement today. At dinner, we asked Clare what her favorite part of the day was. She answered, "Reading in line with Nana." Clare is quite good at reminding me that while all our adventures are great fun, it is the quiet times spent together in the midst of the adventure that are the most meaningful. 

I have been experiencing some technical difficulties of late. I often update my blog from my phone and I often must do this while holding a 9 month old. Blogging from my phone limits hyperlinks and other things that would make the blog more useful. Blogging on a phone while holding a 9 month old means posts can be entirely deleted when the 9 month old decides the bright light of the phone looks appealing and she wants to touch it.

So what's the solution? Hopefully, we have found it. My husband suggested I get an HP Pavilion--part laptop, part touchpad. It should meet my blogging needs as well as some other technology needs that have recently arisen. Let's hope it does the trick.

As to those deleted posts...I had intended to share with you the story of my Van Gogh print yesterday, but Baby Anne deleted that post. Clearly, everyone's a critic. But here's the story anyway.

This week my beloved Van Gogh self-portrait print found a new home in Meg and Clare's room. It is on what they call their art wall and hangs with prints from Beatrix Potter and Mary Cassatt.

So the question becomes how did Mr. Van Gogh end up here. Many years ago, a friend of mine travelled to Amsterdam and visited the Van Gogh museum. Knowing I liked Van Gogh, she purchased the above print and gave it to me upon her return. I was very touched by my friend's thoughtfulness and loved the self-portrait. I immediately framed the print and it has had a home on my walls for about 15 years now. The print has hung in my college dorm room and in my basement bedroom during law school. It hung in my first solo apartment as well as in the home where my husband and I brought home newborn Meg and Clare. And it has hung in the many other homes I have had in those 15 years. In our current home (the home we plan to live in until we die because (1) we love it, and (2) I never want to move again), the print was first in our bedroom. When we moved our bedroom, the print moved as well. But eventually Van Gogh ended up in the family room.

During all of this moving, Meg has become Van Gogh's biggest fan. Since Christmas she has been telling me her favorite Van Gogh paintings and she currently dreams of a Van Gogh birthday cake (see her dream cake here). While we were on  vacation, Meg asked if we could move Mr. Van Gogh to her room. I agreed. So for awhile at least, our moving Van Gogh has a new home.

I am happy to report our second week of vacation was very relaxed. We had a day at the zoo, a day at Patriots training camp, a day at the beach, a day at the county fair and a day of good old-fashion play.

Every summer we go to the Capron Park Zoo in Attleboro, Massachusetts. This is a small zoo, which is the charm. At large zoos the natural habitats for the animals are so large that small children often can't see the animals. Not a problem at Capron Park.

We spent a lovely few hours in Attleboro and then headed home to rest.

For me, Patriots training camp the following day consisted mostly of entertaining Baby Anne while everyone else went to the Patriots Hall of Fame and looked over record-breaking crowds to see a bit of the scrimmage. I'll move on to beach day, which took place in Narragansett, Rhode Island--a favorite of our family. Baby Anne and I found a spot for our blanket in the sand and watched as Meg and Clare jumped in the waves with daddy.

Once the girls had enough of the beach (fair-skinned, redheads can only handle the beach for so long), we headed to Aunt Carrie's (a restaurant, not a family member) for chowder and clam cakes.

On Friday morning we went to the Washington County Fair. This fair is a family tradition for my husband's family. Until a few years ago we still ran into his cousins showing cows at the fair. It remains just great old-fashion fun. We visited the animals.

Meg and Clare rode a bunch of rides (as did I since Clare wasn't tall enough to ride many of them unaccompanied).

After buying our doughboy, cotton candy and Del's lemonade, we had some pioneer photo fun before heading home.

On Saturday morning, the girls and I headed to Connecticut to visit friends. This dear family--I've known the parents since college--have four fantastic kids who serve as honorary older siblings to my own children. As the parents and I caught up, the kids took off to the wooded area around their home. I would see Meg and Clare, dressed as knights, running across the yard periodically. They were guarding their territories and even had homemade flags to mark their territories. They played and played as kids should.

We finished our trip with a visit from family members we had not seen in awhile and by attending a parish picnic at the parish we go to in a Rhode Island. We said goodbye to the immediate family and headed out. Truly a lovely vacation.

I am very much enjoying my vacations. Those times during which I would normally blog have been taken up by my reading Margaret Frazer's The Bastard's Tale. I am completely engrossed. I'm reading it during our car trips, during our downtime at the house, and any other chance I get. But I should probably catch you all up a bit on our trip.

We woke up early Saturday morning for Breakfast in the Barnyard at Coggeshall Farm in Bristol, Rhode Island. These Breakfast events allow children to be more hands-on at this living history farm. They milk cows, find the eggs that the chickens have hidden throughout the barnyard and (if they weren't one of the lucky ones to find an egg) they get to hold baby chicks (as you see Clare doing here--that little blur is the chick running quickly from her hands and back to its mama).

The kids also had the opportunity to explore the farm house where corn muffins and johnny cakes were being made in traditional fashion. In addition to helping mix the batter, they were able to try their hand at the spinning wheel and dress up in period clothes.  My girls obviously didn't miss the chance to dress up.  

While the outing was very fun, everyone was showing signs of some serious grumpiness. We decided we needed to take it easy for awhile. The rest of the weekend was spent quietly with family and it was very enjoyable. 

I had hoped to share some of this week's outings with you in this post, but I am dealing with a very fussy Baby Anne who is getting her first teeth. So those posts must wait until later.

We spent Friday in Bristol, Rhode Island. I like going to Bristol because it is the one spot in Rhode Island connected to my family. My ancestors lived in Bristol in the 1600s, before moving rather quickly on to Connecticut. My family, however, is in no way connected to Blithewold Mansion, which is where we spent Friday.

Two Christmases ago, Meg, Clare and I went with my mother-in-law to see the Christmas decorations at Blithewold. We loved it. My tea-loving children were especially fond of the tea set emphasis in the decorations. However, there's not much to see in the gardens in December so I've been wanting to return. We love gardens!

While planning our activities for this trip, I read that Blithewold was having a family fun day so I put it on the schedule. We arrived a few minutes late but in plenty of time to spread out our picnic blanket on the lawn and enjoy the children's concert. The musician was a Music Together teacher and had the ability to teach musical concepts while having great fun. He used a variety of drums and Renaissance-type instruments to keep everyone interested. Being on the huge lawn the kids could participate as they wanted. Meg danced with a group of kids right by the musician. Clare danced some and snacked some. Anne crawled around on the blanket and waved around the little bell instrument that all the kids received.

After the concert, the kids made maracas with cups, rice and beads. They ate pizza and lined up for face painting. Meg chose to be a tiger while Clare became a cat.

We then headed to the mansion. Meg loves all things Victorian and she was quite taken with this house. (On that note, we've enjoyed all the beautiful Victorian homes throughout Providence as well). At Blithewold Meg's favorite room was a little girl's room decorated in the white cottage Victorian style. She was ready to take the writing desk home immediately.

Finally we were able to make our way out to the gardens. The girls loved the bamboo garden and there were so many areas where water fairies would be quite at home.

After we left Blithewold, we drove to the charming town of Warren for clam cakes and chowder. We happened upon a little beach with a playground and stopped for awhile.

We ended our day with one of our favorite activities--free Friday evenings at the Providence Children's Museum. They have such a wonderful variety of activities, but the water room remains a favorite.

Overall a busy but very enjoyable day.

We spent Thursday morning at Burnside Park, which is part of Kennedy Plaza in Providence. A story time and art time is offered on Thursday morning, but the girls favorite thing was the sunken ship play area (see above). They slid down it over and over and over again.

I am sad to report that the story time did not pass muster according to Meg and Clare's critical eye. They are spoiled by Arlington County Library's excellent story times. In the last few years I've learned that children who will listen to books for ages one-on-one will not do so in a large group setting. Our children's librarians know the correct mixture of books, rhymes, songs and puppets that keep a large group of children mesmerized. This story time could have used more theatrics.

The art time was cute. This summer the focus is Maurice Sendak. Hence the "wild things" in the park.

The art project was based on Sendak's character Really Rosie. I had not heard of this character but, considering her love of dressing up, she sounds perfect for my girls. The art project was to dress up and have a Polaroid taken. The girls loved the dress up clothes.

But after we left the park, Meg said, "Oh no. We forgot to do the art project." Apparently they didn't get that the dressing up was their performance art project. Still, they enjoyed themselves and, once we assured them they hadn't missed anything, they were happy.

We are in Rhode Island! A nail in our tire the day we planned to leave delayed us a bit, but we are here now.

We began our trip with a visit to Roger Williams Park. The Hasbro playground is great fun and includes a Candyland course and a giant Mr. Potato Head (see above).

After a short play time we headed to the swan boats at the park. We did this last year and the girls were very excited to ride in the swan boats again. I took Baby Anne and Clare with me in a boat. Meg and my husband followed in their own swan boat.

Our second day in Rhode Island included a trip to the urban farm supply store Cluck! for story time. The stories were more age appropriate for Clare (4) than for Meg (5 1/2), but both girls enjoyed feeding the chickens and watering the plants after story time. I missed most of this because Baby Anne had an explosive diaper that covered both of us. I attempted to clean us up in the car, but an emergency trip back to the house after story time was required.

A lot of adventures await us here in Rhode Island, so I'll be updating the blog more frequently from this point on in our vacation. The initial travel days made blogging difficult.