2011 Festivals

Monday, 12 September 2011 18:06 Written by Matt

Summer is ending unfortunately, so wanted to quickly recap the 2011 festival circuit.

We hit several festivals this year, most of them while Julie was working so she didn’t get to partake in all of the good times. Ava really loved them, and sno cones and cotton candy were helpful while her jaws were wired shut for a couple weeks last month. Kids booths were weak at Little Flower, rides were expensive at Visi and everything was free at the Electricians Picnic at Stricker’s Grove!

Cassie, Driving the Helo	Ava, Riding Merry-go-Round at Visi
Lots of "Merry go Arounds"	Riding the Turtle Coaster at Stricker's Grove

St. James Festival (2011)

Monday, 01 August 2011 20:31 Written by Matt

Julie and I volunteered to chair the Goldfish booth this year, our first time volunteering at the festival. We both worked it on Friday, Julie went to the Reds game with friends on Saturday and then had the kids on Sunday. So I was pretty busy… The booth was a blast though, we had an awesome group of volunteers all three days which made the whole weekend go well. I’m exhausted, should have taken today off to recuperate; was breaking down the booth until almost 1 this morning.

Not the prettiest booth, but it gets the job done

The UC Bearcat was a winner!

Put In Bay, 2011!!

Tuesday, 05 July 2011 21:54 Written by Matt

Family vacation #3, and we made a repeat visit to Put In Bay and stayed about 4 doors down from where we were last year! Mom & Dad have been bugging us to go on an extended Harp family vacation for a couple years now, and thankfully we talked Mom out of Gatlinburg

We had a lot of fun, with lots of golf cart rides, ice cream and swimming! Mom & Dad took the kids one night so that we could do some bar hopping with Elaine & Kelli which was good. Cassie took the following weekend to recover, they all got to bed late and she was unable to function as a non-annoying person after only sleeping for 10 or so hours.

The Harp Family (click for more pics)

Soccer, Ava’s First Season

Wednesday, 11 May 2011 21:13 Written by Matt

Early in the spring, before monsoon season struck, we signed Ava up for soccer with the WOAC. She waffled between excited and nervous but in the end we think she enjoyed it. The cost was annoying, $90 for essentially 3-4 practices and maybe 4 games because of all the rain.

Our most popular piece of advice from the coach was (said during a game) “Ava, stop playing with your hair. You can do that after the game!”

Yep, she's really into the game!

Ready for action!

Container Gardening (2011)

Tuesday, 03 May 2011 18:23 Written by Matt

I tried some halfhearted gardening last year, and it did not go well. I think there were 2 problems. First, I didn’t make a dedicated space for planting, just kind of planted along the side of the house in some areas. Second, the soil around here is full of clay and I didn’t invest in any kind of fertilizer or planting soil.

Fast forward to this past weekend, we were up at White Oak Garden and I saw an Earth Box for sale and thought that might a better way to ease into the gardening thing. But they’re kind of expensive, which goes against my idea of “easing into gardening,” so I started looking for ways to build my own and voila! Of course, ours are pink!