Syrup Sopping and Three-Year-Olds on Stage

We enjoyed a weekend with family and good food. Saturday morning, we loaded up two cars and drove to Loachapoka for the annual Syrup Sopping Festival. If you are not from the area...this is a large craft festival centered around sugarcane syrup. Thousands drive in from all over to purchase biscuits to dip in this decadent sweetness, and we, the Mantooth's joined in the fun for the second year in a row!

However...let me share some things that were different this year.

• I pushed Jack in a stroller rather than carry him around inside me...WAY easier!
• I did not lose Jamie, forget my cell phone (Which I learned this year doesn't pick-up there anyway.) or not know my husband's cell phone number should I lose him and find a friend whose phone actually had reception out in Timbuktu (In my defense...Jamie had just started a new job and gotten a new cell phone, and he took a friend with car trouble back into Auburn without establishing a "meet back" time or location with his pregnant wife and two daughters.)
• We recruited family to go with us and enjoyed sharing an area tradition with them.
• Betsy didn't talk repeatedly about how disgusting the mules smelled and instead enjoyed riding one.

So, here is a picture from Syrup Sopping. Note...I didn't get pictures of us all stuffing our faces! Betsy had syrup and hair and biscuit and donut plastered all over her face.... I'm sure there will be future pictures of Porter in the yellow sock hat Meme bought her that she loves!

Sunday, we (Lori Jean, Meme, Pawpaw, Porter, Betsy, Jack and I) watched Jamie and our Sunday School class and other friends play Softball. Good times! That evening, we all loaded up to watch Betsy sing with her choir and then went out to dinner.

Have you had the opportunity to watch a group of three-year-olds get on stage and sing along to Veggie Tales? If not, you should...especially if you're feeling down and need a quick and chemical free pick-me-up!

Now in front, there were three or four very dedicated singers of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" who participated in the choreography in a way to make their parents proud. Betsy, on the other hand, had her hands stuffed in her pockets most of the time and looked aloof for most of the song. Then...she realized there was an enormous screen behind her that was displaying the event. She then led a back row "exodus" of sorts. By the end of the song, most of the back row was watching the screen including one little girl who was looking at the screen and just shaking her bottom 90-to-nothing. Who says Baptists don't dance?!

Precious, precious, precious!

This picture was from the "dress rehearsal," not the real thing...see Betsy participate here?

I was fearful that they wouldn't make it through dinner after such a busy day without a nap, but we did ok. Good times with Meme and Pawpaw for sure!