Saturday at the end of summer

Today was really a perfect Madison end of summer day. We started out at the Farmers' Market. The sky was incredibly blue with only a few whispy clouds that Julia pronounced she didn't like. Contrary child that she can be. It was still cool when we started out and there was a plethora of vegies, fruits and beautiful, beautiful flowers. Late summer and early fall farmer's markets are the best. I bought some tomitillos, cilantro, and sweet peppers for salsa, some cabbage for stuffing during the week, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers for our salads, a cookie for Julia, and a maple lollipop just before we left. Julia made it around the whole square without fuss. Ah, time is changing. Last year at this time, we were wondering if we could ever shop on the square on Saturdays. I bought some Obama buttons -- an "Obama Girl" for Julia and an "arrogant elitist for Obama" for David.

Julia and I went swimming in the afternoon. The pool closes tomorrow and it was a lovely day to be in the water. Actually I think we got more sun yesterday and today than we got during our entire east coast journey. The hot sun felt good, the water was great -- water never gets that warm in Wisconsin. Julia went down the slide with me twice. In the beginning of the summer she went down the slide, got flipped around while going down, got scared and decided never to go on the slide again. Doing it today brought her summer full circle.
At the pool, we met some of the kids who Julia went to camp with. Thalia & her dad who owned this house before us, and Julia V. and her mom with another kid. The girls are all 6 and 7 and going into first grade like Julia, and Julia was very excited to see them. Unfortunately, the girls were into talking and Julia is not. It breaks my heart to see Julia try so hard and just not get it. She is so plucky though. She teased Thalia and the others for a bit and then went in the pool and looked for someone else to play with. Last year, Julia wanted me to play with her all the time. Right now, she will play with me now and then, but prefers to go in alone and trol for friends. Today, she met with some luck. She found a little girl who wanted to play with the ball the Julia had brought. They threw the ball and swam to get it. At one point, there three little boys started splashing them and they "fought" back. This is the kind of play that Julia can engage in.

Nick and Thalia left with the other neighbor and her kids. They were all going to Nick's house where the kids were going to play on a trampoline. Nick asked us to join them, but I demured. I could see that Thalia was not interested in having Julia come over and I didn't want to push Julia on her. They might be friends at some point in the future.

For supper, we went to Taste of Madison. Another event! Lots of restaurants put up stands around the square and serve food for under $4 a plate. Julia had a great little steak or nu-nu from a steak house stand; we also had Thia food, great onion rings, and some Indian. Julia had Superman Ice Cream for desert.

We had two baloon incidents today. LOL. Both on the square. There is a baloon man on the square during the farmers' market. He made Julia a red snake was scary green eyes. Okay, this was not a complicated baloon animal, but Julia liked it. As we walked around the square, David took control of the snake let it touch, just touch, the cement and boom, it was gone. Julia was sad and pouted a bit was a pretty good sport about her snake. Then, at supper Julia was given a red baloon that we tied onto her wrist. Of course, she wanted to take it off her wrist and she did and it floated up and away. We watched it go until we couldn't see it anymore. Julia wanted it to come back to her and strangely enough, as we were getting out ice cream, two women were trying to blow up another red baloon and let it go. It landed at Julia's feet and she was sure it was her baloon come back to her. The women told her to keep it and Julia was thrilled. So much for teaching her that a released baloon never comes back. Then again, maybe she was discovering the magic of a baloon.