A few Saturdays ago, we headed downtown to SoMa (South Main....) for the Cheese Dip Festival.

We had free tickets and heck, why not?  

I'm not a super expert at cheese dip - I rarely indulge, but it was worth a trip! 

Brooklyn immediately found a face painting table and requested, of all things, an American Flag.

I think perhaps it was suggested to her by the artist. 

In any case, she was pleased. 

August was extremely reticent to have his face painted. Having a stranger invade his personal space to paint on his face is not necessarily his idea of a good time. But the booth was manned by teenagers from Central High who really were eager to paint the kids, and this one guy coaxed August into a Batman mask. Or, as it turned out, Batman in a mask post-fight with a trickle of blood. Nice details.

Dorien was even less enthused about getting his face painted, but he conceded to a Batman arm design.  And when he tried on the green glasses in a nearby store, he felt it was crucial for the shot to display the arm up close. I love it. I also love his serious expression.

Brooklyn also tested out the glasses. Very Beatles-y, minus the American Flag.

The arm brace was borrowed from Dorien, just for funsies.

This little treasure I'm throwing in just because it's proof that not everything in my life is perfect. 

Not that you would think it was, but it's nice to see visual evidence that things don't always go as planned. In this instance, what was planned was a pound cake. 

Apparently, I should have divided the batter into two loaf pans or used one larger loaf pan. It was one of those moments that I really knew I had cut it too close, but was curious in a sick kind of way to see what would happen. I never dreamed it would turn into a pound cake waterfall. It literally flowed over the side steadily until the top cake was baked through.  Thankfully, I stuck a "catch container" under it just in time, and ended up with a second "batch" of pound cake when it was all said and done. 

Note to all you would-be-pound-cake makers: do not overfill your loaf pan. Make two slightly smaller pans, if you're not sure.