one of summer's last gasps

BEAUTIFUL day today. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect. A great day to go running around with my girls. On our way home from church we stopped at a couple rummage sales and the grocery store for a few odds and ends. There was a farmers market set up in the parking lot at the store, so we hit that as well. I didn't get much at the farmers market since I've got a garden of my own, but I did get a big head of cabbage (my cabbage is kind of small), some fresh blueberries and lettuce.

After we got home and unloaded our loot, we headed right out again to St Patricks. St. Pats was a big catholic church complete with separate priests house, sister house and another huge building (maybe a school?) that's now an apartment building. There's also a ginormous cemetery. It's all closed down now, but still maintained by the Friends of St Pats society. Every year they hold a harvest festival to raise money. There's a bake sale, silent auction, drinks, snacks and the local food standbys, brats & sauerkraut and chicken booyah. This is all topped off by music from a local polka band. Angel #4 ran off immediately with friends while #2 and I wandered around the grounds. We explored the nun house, which is totally gorgeous. It's got some rocking linoleum floors from the 50's, along with some great retro bathroom fixtures and original stained woodwork. A beautiful house. We even snuck up to the attic, which wasn't open to the public and checked that out too. Afterwards, we bought some stuff from the bake sale and I sat down to listen to the band while #2 wandered off somewhere. I must have caught the bandleaders eye because I wasn't sitting there more than 5 minutes when he announced that the next song was dedicated to the young lady in the front row with all the food on her lap. I never had a polka dedicated to me before, so that was a first. Later on, they played God Bless America with a polka beat and the whole place got to their feet and sang along. It brought tears to my eyes, patriotism Wisconsin style. We won a few things in the silent auction, so we hauled that, our baked goods and the bucket 'o booyah the I bought home and have been eating ourselves silly ever since. Thank goodness the weekend is over, I need a break.