Summertime is festival time locally and the surrounding towns and neighborhoods have been begun their celebrations. The kids have been looking forward to these, especially since they have been working towards their first kids' runs.  We got up bright and early – super unreasonably early lol – and got set up for my husband and Brendan's 5k.  He is getting his time chip attached to his shoe below. 

The girls were planning to do the 1mi run.  More like they were chopping at the bit excited about this and have been talking about it for a couple weeks. Which doesn't mean you might not still try to squeeze in one more chapter while waiting. 

Brendan kinda blew everyone's minds.  We had told him he would probably be tempted to start fast but that he should follow his dad's pace instead and he did.  For a while.  Then his natural runner instinct kicked in and he ran the way he wanted – right past his dad and the other adult runners to make a solid fifth place overall finish.  

The girls were more than ready when their turn came.  It was not to be however.  The other children signed up didn't show, likely due to some last minute race time changes.  To compensate they gave the kids tickets to the carnival later in the day.  Not a bad deal.  

We headed over to the little parade which was more of a candy throw.  That suited them fine, especially since their neighbor friend showed up and watched with them.  

Later on we hit the carnival.  It was so old school fun.  

They started off slowly.  Then eye'd up the rides on the other side of the park, not without a little trepidation.  

What followed was an hour of spinning, soaring, sinking, and screaming.  

We got so close to the fireworks at the end of the evening that I couldn't fit them into the camera frame.  It was all big and loud and wonderful.  The whole thing.   The kids dropped into bed thoroughly and happily exhausted.  

I am making no guarantees there won't be variations on this theme throughout the season.  God willing, they will festival all the way through.  I feel so blessed to be there alongside them.