Over the weekend we...

Went to the National Festival of Breads! Some friends told us about it on Friday afternoon and so, we went with them. It was held at the Hilton Garden Inn, downtown Manhattan, KS. It was a bit of fun, and provided some light entertainment on a rainy Saturday morning.

Let's start with the wheat. And the children's display. With a little help from Daddy, Jimmy made up one of these wheat bags containing a few grains of wheat, some water crystals, and some water. Then one of the staff put the bag on a string and made a necklace out of the whole thing.

The necklaces were pretty popular with the children at the Festival. Jimmy was pretty happy with his. And would you look at that hair on his head - it just keeps getting longer and thicker, but it's still baby soft.

And while the necklace was a hit, when Jimmy found the basket of wheat he wanted nothing more than to get his hands in and make a bit of a mess. I couldn't blame him. It was pretty cool and quite the sensory experience.

As much as Jimmy enjoyed the children's area, and the basket of wheat, he kept making his way to the playdough display. The ladies of Kansas Play Klay were lovely and were happy to see Jimmy return again and again to play with the samples of their lovely, velvety, and scented playdough. I wish I could say that we bought some, but we didn't. Some other time perhaps.

There were things for the adults too. Mostly presentations and a few stands, a raffle or two and a few handouts. And we could see the breadmaking finalists in action - they were preparing their entries for the afternoon judging.

I was pretty taken with this collection of flour bags. They were so colourful and detailed. They put my small collection of flour bags from Kialla Pure Foods to shame, but then these days cloth flour bags are few and far between.

Jimmy was quite taken with the flour bag cow, although he thought it was a dog. I may have to make him something similar, when I am reunited with my flour bag collection.

After we were done at the Festival, we headed up to the rooftop of the car park and took in the view. In early spring those white letters (KS) on the hill are very visible. They are visible from the top of the Discovery Center (which I really should write about). We may have checked out Arlan's Wine & Cheese, across the road from the Hilton. We may have bought some cheese...