A Special Child--Samantha, Part 2

I'm sure you are all waiting with baited breath to see the pictures of the pottery Sammie and I painted. I picked up the pottery today and took them to her. She was SO excited! She thought they were beautiful--which of course they are!

I also took a picture of Sammie and her new puppy--an australian blue healer. I had never heard of that breed. There is already an obvious mutual admiration between her and the puppy.

Our treasures

I should have taken a picture of just the pottery, but you can get the idea. You can click on the picture to see Sammie's mirror a little better. It actually turned out better than I thought it would--where was my faith? I am obviously no artist, but, hey, it was really all about fun and adventure anyway.

Sammie's mom asked me what I was doing the rest of the day. They were getting ready to go to a "Fiber Art Festival". I wasn't so sure that was my cup of tea, as I totally can't knit, crochet, hook rugs, etc. But after all, it was an opportunity for another adventure. As it so happened, my husband was going to leave about 3:30 pm and be gone the rest of the evening anyway, at a men's dinner. So off we went to the festival--Sammie, her mom and I.

What a musician!

It was a very "hands-on" kind of place for kids. First, they asked Sammie if she would like to help the muscians. She really got into it with the bongo sticks.

Then a lady helped her make a little book mark--she made a star out of yarn on a firm piece of netting, and tied yarn to the top for a page marker. (I thought I had a picture, but apparently it didn't get uploaded)

She also found out that with a little help she could spin a piece of yarn from a piece of wool. Her response: "How cool!"

This gentleman explained the process of taking flax stalks and making them into linen. In this step she was pounding the flax in this very old device (but I forgot the name of it).

Then they ran the flax through this device, sort of like pulling it through teeth on a comb. The date on the machine was 1759. He asked Sammie if she knew about George Washington. Of course she did. He said, this machine was made before George Washington became president; he was only 27 years old when this was made. We've been using it ever since. Her eyes popped wide open, like she couldn't believe something could be that old. He said "you're holding a piece of history". She was very impressed.

After we left the festival, we went to 3 of Sammie's favorite places. First, we went to the Library, where she chose a book on Egyptology, and 3 books about rain forest animals.

Then we went to "Casa's" to have dinner. It's an Italian restaurant and one of Sammie's favorites. In keeping with my diet I had a large salad with grilled chicken. Sammie had spaghetti and she also ate one of the little loaves of bread by herself. She explained it was just because she was hungry.

Finally we stopped at "Tuesday Morning" store to browse. You can sometimes find some real treasures there. It turns out that Sammie loves to shop. Who knew?

What a spontaneous adventure we had! Sammie gave me a hug and thanked me for coming with them. It doesn't get much better than that.