Sierra and I drove in for "First Friday" in downtown Johnson City last night. When we got up to Nelsons Art Gallery, there was a loooong paper running down the middle of the street. Kids were pouring paint onto their hands and feet and running up and down the paper, slipping in it and painting themselves. It was great! Lost Mountain String band was playing (friend Jessica's dh is the guitarist) and the whole scene was a joyful, hubbub of activity.:)
Aleah was an interesting black/brown color from head to toe practically. Her curly head was fairly clean, so we knew it was her! Perry (another unschooler in the area) showed up close to dark and we ended up dancing in the streets to the folk music. Sierra got us going and I have to say, it was the most fun I've had dancing in a very long time! One of my favorite moments from last night was watching Aleah try to "paint" a bald head with pink chalk. She was convinced the chalk would color her own hair too. I think I'd better bring some hair mascara next time.
We finished up at our favorite hang-out, Acoustic coffeehouse. Ran into some pirates that were dressed up in honor of Captain Jack Sparrow. They promised to email me the picture we had taken with all of them, so hopefully I'll have it here soon. The guy in the trio (the other two pirates were women) was from Kenya. It was so interesting talking with him and hearing what he loves about this area and how he adapted to the weather etc... LOVELY accent.
It was pretty crowded last night. Sierra and I left messages on the bathroom wall finally, they've been out of chalk the last few times. Their bathroom walls are chalkboard, so people leave temporary graffiti in there...makes for some great reading.
I forgot to write about earlier this week, when we visited Jessica's crew. She has the COOLEST house for kids. It's an A-frame style out in the woods, with a REAL nature trail, tire swing and best of all; FROGS! Tyler and Aleah are really great at finding and catching frogs. Sierra and Jalen were fascinated. I brought my makeup kit at their request and figured I'd be doing fairy princess or butterflies or something. NOPE, they wanted FROGS on their faces.:)
I'm pretty lame at frogs we figured out. Might need to practice that one for next time....they were thrilled nonetheless.
