Kite Festival in Two Rivers

Today we spent the day on the Lake Michigan beach in Two Rivers, WI where the Kite Festival was being held....it is quite an event! We LOVE kite festivals--there is something very relaxing about seeing those HUGE kites flying in the air and having the kids splash in the water and build huge sand creations in the endless "sandbox"!

It is pretty common knowledge that *I* am not a beach person, but I do enjoy this festival, so it's usually our annual beach day...and I can usually tolerate the sand that is impossible to clean off until it has traveled in the van all the way back to Appleton and into our house ;) This year, I was especially apprehensive about Colin--a new walker on the beach with SAND?!?!?! More on that later.

This year, we had extra fun as we shared the day with our dear friends, the Landsverks. Our children rarely see each other anymore and it was such a treat to spend time catching up and enjoying the end of summer with them.

Here are the girls near one of the kite displays....with their kites they actually made. Turns out, every other child was able to fly their kite....yet for some reason the Glynn/Landsverk children could not get their homemade kites up in the air....good thing we brought our 'real' kites with us!

Ellie and Silas had quite the adventure digging "the hole" in the sand. It was very cool...and huge!

Here are Ellie and Silas leaning in "the hole"....

And how could we pass up a turtle "kite" with Jayna?!?!?!

Jayna working hard on her kite making....

Jayna spent a huge chunk of her time building up a sand wall and watering it down--she loved it.

Ava LOVES playing in the sand...and she enjoyed building castles and making 'pies'. She also spent a good amount of time swimming in Lake Michigan with the girls and Andy...apparently it did warm up a little bit as the day went on...

Shae, Jayna, Ava and Colin playing in the sand. One of the children had made a 'hole' in the sand and we promptly put Colin in it with a bucket of water--he was happy there for a VERY long time.

"King Colin" as Silas named him during lunch--everyone else was sitting in the sand yet Colin was up on his throne with an umbrella shielding him from the sun!

Even Colin got to experience Lake Michigan. *I* thought it was freezing...yet Colin was not fazed...he just kept walking deeper and deeper...

Ava and Colin playing in the sand...you'll notice the paci in all of the Colin pics. We determined that IF we could keep the paci in Colin's mouth, he might not eat the sand. That worked until it accidentally dropped out and Colin tried to put a shovel in his mouth, only to end up with a mouth full of sand. That was the beginning of "the end" for Colin...

Peek....
A Boo! (Even works with a shovel!)

And this marked "THE END" for Colin.....after the sand in the mouth fiasco, he was inconsolable....and I finally suggested that Andy get his blanket from the van. Within a minute of seeing his blanket, he had grabbed onto the tag (if you look close, you can see how he holds his tag when he sleeps!) and was fast asleep!

As for me....the mess of the sand was ALL worth it to see the happiness on the children's faces, to hear from Andy that "it doesn't get much better--swimming in the Lake and throwing a football with friends!"....and then getting to snuggle my little babe in the warm sun!

Until next year.....we'll have photos to remember the beautiful kites we saw and the fun day shared with friends!