First Outdoor Concert of the Year! {Music in the Park #1}

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Last night was the first concert at St. Mary's Park in our town. Every Thursday, throughout the rest of the summer, there will be live concerts featuring different genres of music. On the list this year are fiddlers, acoustic guitarists, blues, and lots of impersonators: Rod Stewart, Elvis, The Blues Brothers, and (my personal favorite) The Beatles!

Last night, as a kick-off, there was a DJ playing oldies. The 50's and 60's oldies, not stuff from the 80's which has somehow gained the label of being "oldies", too, making me feel... well, old. We're talking about Fats Domino, The Beach Boys, Sha Na Na... you know, great dancing music! Unfortunately, the first half hour was rain-filled. It was just one big cloud, and the sun was still shining down on us. Quite a few people packed up and headed home, but we stuck it out. Those of us who weren't afraid of a little rain were rewarded with a nice rainbow and a beautiful scene of downtown,afterward:

 
The DJ was located at the tennis courts, making for a great place to dance. Little Guy loved it and was amazed by all of the people who were all doing the same dance (the Twist, for example.) He really got into it and had a blast - even got me (a huge introvert) to dance with him! At one point, everyone cleared out of the way and gave him his own little circle to dance in, with cheers and applause for him when he was through! How cool is THAT?!


**The really good photo of him doing his "moves" was, of course, "server rejected". Thanks, Blogger!





In addition to the music, there were a few classic cars on display and even a few artists, caturing the evening's activities on canvas. The cars, though only a handful, were really nice to look at. I'm proud to say that Little Guy knew the make and model of just about all of them. And it was fun for us to watch an artist painting the dancers! Little guy just loves painting (his medium of choice for its messy qualities!) and I was happy to show him what people can do with a set of paints and some brushes. I wonder if he'll try to apply what he saw to his next painting...

And, finally, there's the playground. I have been taking him to this playground nearly daily to get him ready for the tons of kids who will be running wild during the concerts. He's not all that steady yet and, when older kids get into games of tag, he could easily get pushed right off of the raised platform. So, I've been teaching him to hold on to the railings and to just get familiar with the slides and other components. Since a lot of people left early, it was a good day for him to get acclimated to having more kids around. There were only about 15 kids, rather than the usual 50+ that will be there next week!

When it was time to go home, sticking it out through the rain was, once again, rewarded. There were lots of puddles to splash in and we had a beautiful sunset to end our fun!

"No! Stay out of the puddle... please?!"