Kites on the Lakeshore

Labor Day weekend just seemed to be busy from beginning to end. But it was Saturday that was the highlight of the weekend. We had planned on attending the local kite festival just as we did last year. Only this year my sister-in-law and her kids were going to drive up and come with us. Well, it ended up being my sister-in-law, her 3 kids, my in-laws, and then my brother-in-law and his son. The more the merrier, right? Right.

The whole kite festival was planned around letting the 2 cousins, Kiersten and Leah, have a sleepover together. That was one of Kiersten’s birthday type ‘gifts’. Since we live an hour and a half apart it takes a bit of coordinating…that and school had already begun for both girls. It was super fun for all. And would you believe it, the girls even slept! :)

Anyhow, back to the kite festival. It was a beautiful day and the lakeshore was swarmed with a multitude of people. It is more about letting the kids get wet and have fun in the lake then the kites really. This year more so than last. The day was beautiful…but there wasn’t that much wind coming off of the lake. So the kites were sparse where the laughter and fun wasn’t.

Here are a few of the kites we did see in the air. The colors are always so beautiful!

As a good wife I felt I just simply had to get a decent picture of Bucky the Badger.

The only downside to the day was I thought I had let Katie drown. When I told you that girl was a handful I was not kidding. I swear she has 12 legs and 12 arms. So what happened? We were all playing in the sand the water and Katie was right beside me. I stopped to take a ‘quick’ picture of the sand fort the bigger kids had been working on and when I put my camera down Katie was no where to be found. I immediately yelled something to my Beloved even while I was turning around to the water and moving my feet around to feel for her little body. (The water wasn’t clear so even a foot deep and you couldn’t see the bottom of the lake.) Oh the terror! Then my Beloved spied the little bugger who had walked right under his nose to head back towards another little girls floating ducky that she simply could not get out of her head.

Can I just say how relieved and thankful I was right there and then? Then I lost it. I tried hard to keep the emotions at bay but still had to turn myself around for a few moments to get it together. That moment came back to me throughout the day, especially as I was helping my Katie girl up the ladder steps and down the slide once we were back home. It was horrible and not unlike this time some months ago.

Even after that the day still went well. The kids played fairly well with one another all afternoon. We enjoyed a scrumptious lunch together, some laughs and play time. I even managed to snap a rare photo of my Beloved's folks with the grandchildren present. If you knew my mother-in-law you would know what a feat it is to get her to pose in any picture without much arm wrestling! :) I know you are wondering...if push came to shove, yes, I could take her! :)

Hope your weekend was filled with laughter and fun family memories.