Questing to Raise a Greener Family: This Year It Was For The Kids

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

This Year It Was For The Kids

Ever since I moved back to Canton in 2006, my mom and I have gone to the Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton. I know I blogged about it last year, likening it to how it would have been greener to live in Colonial times, but this year I'm just basically doing an ad. My mom and I used to go and look at all the exhibitors booths, looking for Christmas presents, hoping to find a unique, hand-crafted gift for those on our list that wouldn't like something from a toy store. We'd slowly walk from booth to book admiring, and let's be honest, rolling our eyes, at what each vendor had to offer. My mom says that it's not truly fall until we've gone to Yankee Peddler. I agree. It really feels like the beginning of fall and all the fun that comes with it. However, this year, it was for the kids.
Ellie and Vince couldn't WAIT to go! Olivia was mildly amused, as usual, and Caden backed out at the last minutes, which worked well for Evan that used him to help with yard work (bet Caden was kicking himself when he was picking up dog poop!). They are finally old enough to remember last year. So this year we went to Yankee Peddler, not to admire craftsman, not to experience a Colonial village, not to walk around in the woods and experience the first tiny bit of fall in northeast Ohio. No, this year we went to Yankee Peddler to get faces painted, American Girl doll clothes, lemonades and most importantly, see the butterfly house and get a chrysalis. We DID happen to look at a few exhibitors booths. I went to my Olfactory Patch and got an oil to refresh the potpourri I bought last year, Mom got to look at rag rugs and dried flowers and of course the kids went crazy in the candle tent. Like, it was a toy store crazy. It was kind of weird and a little alarming that they both were grabbing at the glass jars faster than I could help them. (I have to admit, the beer candle really did smell like beer!)
It was a different kind of YP trip than in years past. But it was ok. Mom and I both enjoyed watching THEM enjoy YP. We've seen all the booths, and pretty much know what they have to offer, we've kind of exhausted the gift ideas, but it WAS fun to see how much fun the kids had watching the Redcoats fire the muskets, or stopping to watch the street magician and the puppet show. On one of our MANY visits to the port-a-potties I realized there's a difference between doing things FOR the kids and WITH the kids. In the past, we've gone to YP WITH the kids. This year we went FOR them. Next year, I'm sure, too. As we were leaving, giant bag of kettle corn in hand, a gust of wind blew the leaves from an overhanging tree. "It's raining leaves!" Ellie yelled, as she ran ahead, with outstretched arms and twirled around in circles as the leaves rained down around her. Yep, it's officially fall.