Family FunFest

Festival season has begun! Festivals are one of our favorite warm-weather past times, especially now that we have kids. We used to go to the type of festivals where the streets were full of beer and loud bands left our ears ringing for hours. Now we go to festivals where there are face painters and bounce houses and the kids outnumber the adults.

It seems whenever we have a free weekend, which is pretty rare anymore, Dustin asks the inevitable. Are there any festivals that we could go to? If I hadn't heard of any going on, we do a quick search and venture out to see what we can get ourselves into. Last year, we were so busy that we only made a couple and Addison mostly observed from the stroller. This year is much different. I mentioned the word "festival" and the next 6 hours were full of talking about what we would see. Much to her disappointment, there wouldn't be a helicopter at this one like there was at the "Eggstravaganza" Easter weekend, but there would be PONIES!!! She's been talking about riding a horse for a couple of months now. She was so excited...fortunately she still took a good nap so she had plenty of energy when we arrived.

This was a small festival in the town of Powell, about 15 minutes from us. It was completely free, thanks to City Barbeque and Graeter's Ice Cream. It was pretty small, held on the front patios and lawns of the two restaurants and though the lines were pretty long, we managed to hit up all the attractions.

Our first stop was the bounce house where Addison took two turns going in and had a blast!

Next was the horse/pony ride. Here we are standing in line.

We might have a future equestrian on our hands. She loved it!

Pointing out the pony's "ponies". :)

Turtles. She was able to pet one of them.

She had no fear of the snake.

This is when she is telling me that it felt yucky!

No festival is complete without a man on stilts!

We took a break from the scorching 85 degree heat to have a DELICIOUS barbeque dinner.

After dinner, Addison sat to have a caricature artist draw a picture of her.

She sat more still than the older kids.

See Chase in the stroller?

Our last stop was for ice cream! Addison very, very much enjoyed her chocolate ice cream cone with sprinkles and m&m eyes!

Chase enjoyed a refreshing dairy treat himself. The poor guy's little head was so sweaty!

What a fun way to kick off the season!