Saturday, January 24, 2015

Bald Eagle Days, Part Three

This will be my final post about 2015 Bald Eagle Days. Well -- maybe. I know you could be getting bored...no, wait, I almost forgot....this is all about me...and as long as I'm amusing myself, that's my blog criteria

As we walked into the building, we ran into a young family we knew. They were already on their way out of the building...their 6 year old son was hot and bored, and their one year old baby girl was crying, in her stroller. The young Dad was rolling his eyes...and the Mom told me it had been the longest two hours of her life....

Here's the thing -- any time you are taking a small child off for an event like this -- the important thing is to lower your expectations -- and PICK AND CHOOSE what you want to see and do.

I knew Lilly would not care about the vendor floor. Within 5 minutes, I knew there were four booths Lilly would enjoy...(yes, I'm that good.)

#1:There was a live snake -- the kids could touch it...(check)
#2: The St. Louis Sanctuary put their live birds in the booth, right before their show.  We were there!
#3: The kids are petting a Guide-Dog-in-Training. Lilly is all about the dogs...
#4: For only $5 -- you could pick out a face-paint design from a table full of pictures.
THAT IS AN EXCELLENT STRATEGY, people. Pick and choose. Kids are kids -- and they have a limited attention span. So you have to treat their time like the fragile, valuable thing it is. DON'T SQUANDER IT on stuff that doesn't matter...analyze the activity, and then do the top three things. Lilly and I were actually inside that building for less than two hours. But she will remember it like it took three days...
Of all the classes and seminars going on, I was only interested in the one where the BIRDS ARE FLYING...So we timed our activities (bus ride, face painting) -- so that we'd be sitting in a seat at 2:30, their final show of the day...
The St. Louis Sanctuary did a great job -- the birds flew over the crowd, and Lilly was mesmerized...
The golden eagle flew right over our heads, and the wing span was shocking...
Admission to the show: $5 for me, Lilly was free. Stuffed Eagle, $5, Face painting $5, balloon princess sword $5. Memories? Priceless...
After the show, we went to Steak and Shake for supper. Two women came over to tell Lilly how much they loved her painted face. She was SO THRILLED. When our burgers came, Lilly looked up at me and said, very seriously, "this was the best day of my life, Grandma."

Me, too, honey.  Me, too...

1 comment:

  1. This brought tears to my eyes....remembering days like this with my Grandkids......they are all giving me Great-Grandkids....but most don't live close.....my grown Grandsons who live in southern Oregon still talk about how Granny was so good at Croquet.....(they had never played....lol) when they were here one summer! We have a Sandhill Crane Festival here in March....It is geared to Adults & KIDS....wish you could bring Lilly to that! We live in one of the areas where the cranes feed.....fun hearing them! Thanks for this.....It's been fun watching Lilly grow up through you!.....Love Linda....PS we get a Bald Eagle siting occasionally !

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