The Savannah Jazz Festival is one of the 5,921 reasons I love living in Savannah. Every September, musicians offer free concerts in Forsyth Park, which quickly fills with lawn chairs, blankets and picnic baskets.

Yesterday, Lee, Camille, Boo and I took our blanket and basket and found a shady spot to enjoy the music. The sky was a perfect blue, the bands were quite good, and it was so nice to share all of this with some of my favorite people. Camille turned a lot of heads, looking quite adorable in her new UGA cheerleading  uniform (I’m don’t even want to talk about the game, though). Right away, she started dancing to the music, bouncing up and down on our picnic blanket.

I think she loved having a picnic and being able to graze on food while sitting in the grass, and not being restrained in a high chair. She had another very important “first,” too. Her first boiled peanut.

Initially, she didn’t seem sure about the soft, salty delicacy. But I think she liked the novelty of eating them out of the shell, and soon she was popping them in her mouth two by two. I LOVE boiled peanuts, and this southern mama was proud – just like I was when Camille had her first bite of cheese grits.

It was a really fun evening, and reminded me how lucky we are to raise our child in a place like this, where she can be exposed to good music, good weather, good people and good boiled peanuts all in one night.