Festive Festivals A Plenty

We've been keeping busy the past couple of weeks by filling our weekends with fall festivals to celebrate the autumn harvest.  

First, we went to the Hunt Club Farm Fall Festival.  That was a more traditional fall festival that included pumpkins and hay rides.  There was also a little petting zoo and a whole lot of giant inflatables for Kasia to play on.  Suffice it to say, she loved it.  It took her a little while to get over the scary factor of some of the inflatables, but once she got them down, we couldn't get her away from them.  In fact, when it was time to leave at the end of the day, she screamed and cried because she didn't want to leave (of course, she was also extremely sleepy as well).  

Kasia picked out her own pumpkin and then we went for her first hay ride.  It was also the first hay ride that both Kara and I have taken in a number of years.  Though there was something off about the whole festival for me.  I think that when you compare it to the Peach Festival we went to earlier in the summer, this one was just too structured.  You may remember the Peach Festival where the guy operating the roller coaster had the cigarette dangling from his mouth.  That kind of attitude just didn't fly at Hunt Club Farms.  No, here there was strict structure to everything and proper supervision.  We even got yelled at while we were on the hay ride because we gave Kasia some crackers to eat.  No eating on the hay ride, the man said.  There were signs posted apparently to warn us against it.  At the Peach Festival, we could have brought a slab of ribs and a six pack of beer and it would have been totally fine.  

That's the difference of the laid back lifestyle we enjoy here in North Carolina versus the nanny state of the big city.  The rides at the Peach Festival were what they were.  If you thought they were unsafe for your child, then don't let your child ride.  As a parent, we had to make that call.  We gambled that she'd be fine, and we won.  At the Hunt Club Farm, it didn't really matter.  She would have been strapped in with double seat belts and had someone watching her the entire trip.  Sure it's safe, but where's the fun in that?

Then last week we went back up to our old stomping ground and went to the Virginia Children's Festival at Town Point Park.  This was just a big festival that centered around kids and toddlers.  It was just perfect for Kasia.  There were pirates and storybook characters walking about.  Kasia got to have a little tea party with Alice in Wonderland and her friends.  She got her picture taken with Darth Vader, and listened to a story read by Mother Goose herself.  We also had a really good time at Play-Doh Island and Lego Land.  It wasn't really a fall festival per say, but it was a lot of fun for the little one, and in the end, that's the main reason we go to these things.

The inner geek in my got a big kick from the following picture:

End of Line.

(if you don't get it, relax, it means you're not as geeky as me)