Favorites from Our Weekend

This weekend was the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale. Mennonite? You know what I'm talking about; the food, the auctions, the food, seeing old friends, and the food. Not Mennonite, then read about them here.

Our family looks forward to the yearly Virginia Relief Sale; everyone has favorites, many of our favorites revolve around food. We're Mennonite, most everything revolves around food.




I love the Friday evening meal, ending with ice cream.

Then Saturday's breakfast of pancakes. Our second breakfast, doughnuts, and then lunch followed by ice cream.



There is the added benefit that I don't need to cook. And if we spend our money right we will be snacking on doughnuts and potato chips for the rest of the weekend.

The kids talk about the pancakes. All. Year. Long.




And the moon bounce. They also talk about the moon bounce. All. Year. Long. If there comes a year there is no moon bounce ... well, it will be a very bad year for the Relief Sale.



JT was excited to see the Penny Power shed. He talked about it for several weeks leading up to the sale. There are two reasons he loves the Penny Power shed. First, machines are used to count the money. Change (and bills) are collected at individual churches in large water jugs. The jugs are delivered to the Relief Sale where they are dumped into the machines which sort and count the coins. Anything involving machines, my son is there.

Also, there is a table for people to count the change the old fashion way. Don't ask me why, but my ADHD son could spend a good amount of time just sorting coins, as long as he could alternate to watching the machines and helping to pour the coins into them.



Around the sale there are also some hands-on demonstrations. Friday night the boys helped to spin wool into yarn. Saturday they helped with the apple butter boiling.

It will take 8 hours for this pot of apple butter to be ready. That is 8 hours of stirring the apple butter. About the length of a school day. "Oh, you don't want to go to school today. Oh, you say school is too boring. Would you like to stir boiling apple butter all day? Your choice."



And then there are the auctions. We don't usually participate in the silent and main live auction. We also try not to participate in the children's auction.

Hubby and I don't enjoy the children's auction because children, at least our children, don't fully understand what an auction is, and what it means when you are not the one with the winning bid.

Several years ago it was ED, EM and me, sitting at the children's auction. ED had his heart set on a toy. We did not offer the highest bid. Oh my, the meltdown. It was a meltdown of Three Mile Island magnitude.

You don't know what I mean by Three Mile Island? Chernobyl?

{{{crickets}}}

Seriously, I'm not that old!

We eventually got out of there (carrying EM who was too young to walk and dragging ED who was too upset to walk) and headed to the main building, where they sold toys the old fashion way. While there a lady walked by, looked at ED and said "Oh, I'm glad to see he has calmed down." Yes, I now have The Kid who had a melt down at the Children's Auction.



Which is why we try to avoid the auction, until this year. Hubby and I plotted an emergency exit plan, just in case. Thankfully, we did not need to use the plan.




A fun time was had by all. We probably spent way too much money, but it all went to a good cause so no one can complain; and it was all very delicious. My hips are complaining, a little, but not much.

****edited to correct the word "Favorites" in the title; which, when originally posted read "Favorties." I blame it on my computer keyboard ... yes, that's right my 6-year-old computer keyboard. Six years of food crumbs, coffee spills, dust, residue from dust removal sprays, my children, ... has impeded the board's typing ability. Yep, that sounds convincing, don't you think? It is all my computer's fault and absolutely none of mine and my poor speeling;)