The day was seized

Knittergran was in town for the weekend, and we kept her very busy. Saturday was one for the books.

We started the day by heading in to Lily’s spring ballet recital. Because I wasn’t sure about traffic and parking, we left the house pretty early, so early that we had 45 minutes to spare. To keep Elizabeth and Campbell from destroying Ballet Austin, we wandered over to the farmers’ market for coffee, lemonade and breakfast tacos for all.

Look at me! Wearing an actual dress. Elizabeth’s attire got plenty of laughs and comments.

The ballet recital went off without a hitch. Lily had her serious ballet face on through the whole thing. Afterwards, we gave her flowers and presents, and she was just thrilled to be the center of attention.

From ballet we headed to South Congress for lunch at Guero’s. I don’t know what I was thinking braving South Congress on a nice Saturday. There were hipsters and tourists and hippies everywhere. We got the last available table at Guero’s, which was packed and noisy. Fortunately, they know how to turn tables there, and lunch was delicious and fairly fast.

Because we were within smelling distance of a yarn store, Knittergran insisted on a walk down to Hill Country Weavers. It was quite a challenge keeping four reluctant, tired kids together in the crowds, but we managed. I didn’t even try to go yarn shopping. Campbell and I sat on the swing on the front porch of the store and watched the crowds go by.

Hill Country Weavers is right next to the Hey Cupcake trailer, so of course we had to get cupcakes. Their new John Lemmon is to die for, by the way.

Knittergran wanted to stop in one more store, but the littles were DONE. I took them back to the car while Ella and Lily went shopping with Knittergran. And then we headed for home.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the day’s adventure. Knittergran, ages ago, had promised to buy Ella a sewing machine, and Ella decided that Saturday was the day. We did research online and found the machine we wanted at Walmart. According to their site, they had one available in a store about 30 minutes from the house. So off we went, Elizabeth in tow.

It turned out that the machine they had in stock was the floor model, which they weren’t allowed to sell us. So we went to Target, and we ended up empty handed there, too. But we did get a rug, curtains and a lamp for Ella’s room, a lamp for Elizabeth’s room, and curtains for Lily’s room. And some cute shoes for me.

I don’t remember the last time we had such a busy day. Knittergran is going to collapse from exhaustion when she gets on the plane today. Campbell and Elizabeth will miss their constant audience.