The Holdren's: Batstravaganza

Today, (yes, I realize it's not technically today, but... humor me) Meema called us up around 10:30ish to let us know about a fun event going on just up the street (well, highway - but let's just continue to humor the poster).

Scott & White Healthcare, a new hospital that just opened up the street... highway, hosted BATStravaganza. Don't ask me where they got that name from or why they used it because I honestly have no idea. Maybe it had something to do with Austin's very own Congress bridge housing the largest urban bat colony in North America? (more on that in a later post) Anyways, BATStravaganza was an event to raise money for the Williamson County Children's Advocacy Center.

Meema woke up bright and early to participate in the 1K fun run that they had and afterwards called us up to let us know that The Biscuit Brothers were performing and they had a bounce house and all sorts of other fun things that Sweet Pea might be interested in. So we hopped in my truck and headed on over.

When we arrived, The Biscuit Brothers were still performing. Sweet Pea had fun listening to them sing and watching all the kids interact with them while she remained safely in my arms. I guess the crowd overwhelmed her because she did not want me to put her down at all!

The Biscuit Brothers!

After they finished, we decided to try and get a picture of Sweet Pea with them. Buford was in a long conversation with some children and their mom, so we ended up only getting a picture with Sweet Pea and Dusty.

Sweet Pea with Dusty

We then wandered around to see what else they had set up. Sweet Pea saw the kids bouncing in the bounce house and immediately lit up. She wanted to bounce too!

smoochies for the Sweet Pea while waiting in line

In we go (she didn't want to go in there alone) ...and in the corner we sat

hugs for mommy

We got in there and all she wanted to do was watch the other kids bounce. She didn't want to bounce at all! I was very surprised by this because for the past couple of months now, she's been fascinated with jumping. When she first started doing it, she wouldn't quite land on her feet and would fall down and get such a HUGE kick out of it. I mean, this was her favorite past-time. She would jump up, land on her tooshy, fall backwards and just crack herself up! I remember when she finally landed flat on her own two feet for the first time and she had such a look of shock on her face. It was very cute!

She had a lot of fun watching the kids bounce up and down around her though. I imagine that if it were just her and I in the bounce house minus the crowd, she probably would've enjoyed it a lot more.

After we got out of the bounce house, the big inflated caterpillar caught Sweet Pea's eye. She wanted to go in that too, so her and I went in. She didn't quite know what to make of it the first time. There were a lot of kids that entered immediately after we did and they were pretty rowdy in there. Not to mention, that thing isn't designed for an adult to be crawling around in there! Plus, there's an area in there where you have to climb up so you can slide down - once again, not designed for an adult, even a short one such as myself! I was pretty happy to get out of there and I was happy that Sweet Pea didn't seem all that enthused with it either.

We wandered around some more and there was a table with paper and crayons. Oh, boy, CRAYONS!!! So, of course, Sweet Pea had to sit down and color. You can see the big inflated caterpillar that we had just gone through in the background.

They had a caricature painting area set up, but it was pretty crowded in that area and the snack area caught Sweet Pea's eye so we headed over to get some snacky-snacks for the Sweet Pea. They had really cute Sweet Pea-sized apples and then they had granola bars too (which Sweet Pea loves!) and some bottled water.

After (presumably) regaining her energy from the apple, she looked back at the inflated caterpillar with renewed interest. We had to go back in 2 more times! She had LOTS more fun in there the 2nd and 3rd time around. She would've kept going back in there too but it was WAY too hot and WAY too small in there for me to be crawling around so we (read: I) decided it was time to move on and go check out the helicopter.