Don't ask me to look after your balloon

There is a yearly street festival near our place that the merchants association puts on. Last year we were visiting family and attending my cousin's wedding so we missed it. This year we missed the parade portion of the event but we made it to the rest of it. For better or worse we went to the street festival.

I say it like that because it seemed that the Peanut was at once pleased to be there and not quite satisfied with what was on offer.

We started great; with a free pinwheel and pencil, Daddy got her a flower balloon. There was music playing everywhere. Which was wonderful; except the Peanut thought that even though it was happy music, it was also too loud, and she wouldn't stop to dance.

Then we waited in line for face painting. Daddy ran off feed us (because this is what good Daddies do) and came back with a tasty sandwich and water. The Peanut was given a helium balloon which we tied to her stroller, the flower balloon we also added to the helium string. (it was a good idea at the time and was working). We managed to get in on the last of the face painting (only two other kids were painted after us) but the Peanut took one look at her Lion Queen face and melted into a sad puddle of "But I wanted a pink nose" to which the face painter quickly added a pink dab onto her nose.



Daddy got her an ice cream which she happily enjoyed while us parents went to get one of our own. The sun was out (after what feels like a forever of rain and gray skies an extra blessing on the day) and her ice cream was quickly melting in rivulets onto her hands and clothes. We stopped so I could clean her up a little, and ended up entertaining an older couple sitting on the side of the road when instead I missed her ice cream entirely and it landed on the road. Of course the Peanut took one look at her ice cream and melted into a puddle of "I want my ice cream!" In an attempt to appease her, since it was my fault, i gave up my ice cream and we carried on.

By this time it didn't matter what we did or where we went the Peanut was ready to melt into a puddle at the drop of a hat, so we were somewhat pleased when we noticed her flower balloon missing but she didn't. (I did say that it was a good idea at the time, and it did work for at least 2 hours) We found a bouncy castle but were turned away because the festival was coming to a close which resulted in a repeat of above with the title of the puddle changed to reflect the situation. Then we hightailed it homeward.

Later, once we had made it home and were all relatively puddle free, the doorbell rang. My Niece and her partner had dropped in for a surprise visit. They are planning on moving here in a month or so and had spent the day looking at places (insert my happy dance here). We offered them dinner (high class cuisine of chicken fingers and watermelon) and they suggested going out to eat. So out came the stroller so that we could walk up to the Italian place at the top of the hill and off came the helium balloon in the process which resulted; yes you guessed it, in a Peanut puddle of "I want my red balloon!"

So what did we learn from all of this?

Next year we're going to catch the parade
The Peanut's ear protectors will be added to the stuff we bring with us
I will hold out for the Butter Chicken, Naan and Rice from Bombay Bhel
oh, and the wings from Burgers Etc.
Oh yeah,
and I am not going to be put in charge of cleaning up ice creams or holding onto any balloons.



All in all it was a pretty fantastic day, if you keep the puddles out of the equation (and I'm going to). How was your Saturday?