Festable Day!

It has been another good weekend, this time centered around the annual Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival, or known to Daphne simply as "the festable." Yesterday after soccer, my mom and Jeff took Daphne to lunch, so Kev and I got to go to the festival on our own for a little while, which was good because it was very crowded. And VERY windy. A tired post-soccer Daphne would not have done well under those conditions, so we decided to wait and take her today.

Just like last year, we started the day with a pre-festival breakfast at the Cajun Experience. Last year, they were new and only had beignets on the morning menu. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Their beignets are delicious and authentic. Almost like being at Cafe du Monde. But this year, in addition to the beignets, they were serving real breakfast food, so I started off MY day with scrambled eggs, andouille sausage, and a great big bowl of delicious creamy cheese grits. And THEN I had a beignet. (And for anyone local who reads this, their dinner food is great too. I recommend the chicken and sausage gumbo. HOO-WEE, it's good!) Anyway, I like that we have a little spring-time family tradition now. And I'm already looking forward to next year, because that's probably the next time I'll get real southern cheese grits.

Anyway, then it was on to the flower and garden show. Since Kev and I had seen everything yesterday, we took Daphne straight to the kids' area where she got to paint on big plywood shapes and get her face painted by the girl scouts.

Then we headed down to Shoes and let Daphne lead us down a long narrow alley...

...to their new outdoor seating area:

I can't even tell you how excited I am about this. I cannot wait to sit back there on that patio with my bagel and coffee and perhaps a magazine or knitting project (if I'm by myself). I am officially voting for Shoes as my favorite place in Leesburg. And I can WALK there. I am a lucky girl.

Anyway, we wandered around a bit more and ended up at the courthouse lawn where Daphne ran around and completely wore herself out, and Kev and I sat on a bench and listened to a classic rock cover band.

The best part is that Daphne was good the WHOLE time. What a trooper. It was a long day with a lot of walking and she was great. The only iffy moment came when she accidentally let her balloon go. By then she was pretty tired, and couldn't hold back the tears of great sadness over the loss (she was in danger of washing away her butterfly!). I got her another balloon, which helped a little, but wasn't quite the same, and we decided to call it a day. Everyone is napping now, and I expect Daphne will sleep quite a while longer.

As for me, I could use a warm beverage of some kind. It's chilly today, which is better than brutally hot like it was last year. So, I think I'll make myself some coffee. But it won't be the same without a beignet. Hope you all had a good weekend too!