Kite Festival

The kite festival this year had the BEST weather.  We had a soccer game in the morning, then back to our house for a quick lunch and nap, then off to the kite festival before it was over.  Granny and Ainslyn surprised us by showing up at the morning soccer game, so we invited them to stay for the kites.  It was a great day!

Hannah has a few years of kite flying experience under her belt.  She's a pro.

We keep collecting kites.  This year we had the macaw kite, a fairy kite, two butterfly kite, and we also brought along some rainbow streamers.

 Olive and Ainslyn were more into the rainbow streamers.

But we did talk them into flying kites for a little bit.

We even got Granny to fly, too!

My favorite professional kite.

They had a dance off to the song Happy.  Olive was shakin' what her Momma gave her.  My biggest regret in life is that we didn't get video of it.  She actually had a fan club of strangers that DID take video of her.  So proud of my little dancer!!

The girls' first time tasting cotton candy.  Well, my girls.  Ainslyn is a woman of the world and has had it several times before.

The cousin stair-steps.  We just needed Gwendolyn for the bottom step.

Kite Festival

The kite festival was rained out last year, so we were really looking forward to it this year.  Plus we brought Marissa and Casey because they were in town for Olive's birthday.  Olive thought it was pretty special to have a kite festival on her birthday weekend.  

This is the last known picture of our fairy kite before Olive let go of the handle and Steve chased it across the field.  It got caught on a power line and might still be flying there.  Oh well, we wanted to pick out a new kite anyway.

Casey was very attached to the butterfly kite.

We had a picnic lunch and then got some cotton candy for dessert.

Our favorite kites were the whale, horse, and trick kite with a little man on the end of the tail.

It got a little chilly when the sun was behind clouds and Olive decided to snuggle up on Uncle Casey's jacket.

Marissa and I wore matching shirts (unplanned) so we had to document it.

Kite Festival

Luckily, our next family adventure turned out much better!  I was SO EXCITED to go the kite festival....but there was no wind.  We decided to go anyway, and miracle of miracles, it was a little windy in Lee's Summit.  And the weather was absolutely beautiful.  We ate a picnic lunch and then tried our hand at getting a kite in the air.  Hannah was IN LOVE with kite flying.  She was really good, too!  She ran with it to keep it up, and she never got tangled with anyone else.

 

 

 

 

  

 

I think the huge purple cat was my favorite.  It was flown by professionals.
 

 

 

After awhile we made our way over to the children's section.  They had these flags set up for the kids to run through.  I think this was Olive's favorite part.  Even though she got knocked over by bigger kids probably ten times, she laughed and laughed.
 

Olive's picture with the clown fish was in the KC Star- front page in the special "neighborhood news" section.     

This is definitely on my must-do list for next year.  We didn't even make it to all the booths: food, bouncy house, face painting, kite-making, etc.  Eating a picnic and watching kites is my idea of a perfect Saturday.  When I asked Hannah which kite was her favorite she said, "Our kite."  This is funny because our kite is some old '90s thing with hot pink and turquoise splash paint on it.  We need a new kite.


Then to top off my perfect Saturday, I had a girls' night with Wendy and Andrea in the River Market.

Steve had a girls' night with Hannah and Olive at home.  He won Hannah over with ice cream.

Kite Festival

The kite festival just happened to be the day after Olive's birthday and the day before Easter.  It was a busy weekend, but we couldn't miss the kites!  As Hannah said, "This is my favorite day of the year!"  I couldn't agree more.  Casey and Marissa went with us and ate a picnic lunch and soaked up the sunshine.  And Olive actually flew kites!  This was the first year she really became a kite flyer.  It was the warmest and WINDIEST day we can remember for the festival.

Olive decorated her cheeks with facepaint for the festival.

Casey started "close kite flying" and soon all the cool kids were doing it, too.

 

My favorite

Olive is pretending to be a tiger