What a day...

Up this morning and off to the Farmer's Market - Zoe's first since her arrival. Lots of fun stuff to see as it turns out because it is a Civil War reenactment weekend! JJ got to see his first spinning wheel in action (very cool). Then this afternoon we went to a friend's child's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. This was the first time JJ or I (or Zoe, for that matter) had been to a Chuck E Cheese. Oh my. I can't believe people actually pay to go to those things - it was insane! The noise alone was enough to make me want to run. JJ handled it ok, but was definitely ready to go within 30 minutes. We decided we were all too stressed out to cook dinner, so we stopped at Pho Mac on the way home for yummy cha gio (Vietnamese egg rolls). JJ, who turns up his nose at anything but macaroni and cheese these days, ate an entire egg roll and some rice noodles. Yeah! Then, during tummy time, Zoe turned over for the first time. WOW! what a day...

Farmer's Market

So if there was any doubt *who* the folks at the Farmer's Market really like, it was put to rest today.  We got there and JJ had fallen asleep in the car.  As we start making the rounds people are all excited to see us until we get up.  They're like "Oh.  JJ's asleep, huh? Well, if he wakes up you'll bring him back by here won't you?"  Mr. Popularity!

Moon and Stars Melon

Every Saturday, we get up and go to the McKinney Farmer's Market.  It's great fun and the food is fab.  Well, this week we were walking around and saw this amazingly cool melonthat was dark green with big yellow polka dots and just had to get it.  It's called a Moon and Stars Melon, which is a type of heirloom melon. Apparently, it's called Moon and Stars because of the yellow spots on the skin – large yellow spots (moons) surrounded by small yellow spots (stars).  Related to the Black Diamond watermelon, this melon can get up to forty pounds!

I did a little homework and found out that it was available from seed catalogs as late as the 1920s but disappeared during that time and many people thought it had been lost forever.  However, in 1980, the Seed Savers group was contacted by Merle Van Doren, a farmer in Macon, Missouri – it turns out he had been cultivating this unique watermelon on his farm!  He gave them some of the seeds and now this melon is back from extinction.  Pretty cool!