Harvest _________ Festival

Today we took a break from work to head to the Harvest Balloon Festival down in Flowery Branch. Only... there were no balloons. Yep, you read that right. The Harvest Balloon Festival had no balloons. So this was more like a Harvest ______ Festival. Which was still fun to go to - you just felt bad for everyone hoping to go up in a hot air balloon.

That was actually us to begin with. But when we felt the wind, we remembered Downtown Disney and how their balloon didn't go up when it was even slightly windy. That's when we figured there was no way a balloon was going up today. It was not just windy - it was one of those days where Madison could jump in the air and land a few feet away, being carried off a bit by the gusts.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't that windy. But it was strong enough to cancel the balloons. Still, as mentioned earlier, it was a good time. In fact, it was a great time! This was an event in which the proceeds go to Madison's school, so it was an easy choice to go. It didn't hurt that as a student of the school, Madison got to do everything for free. Yep, that's right: free. She did spin art at the spin art station...

We'll call this "Extreme Close-up of Surprised Squid"

She bounced in inflatables and slid down over and over again...

Definitely having a good time.

She painted a pumpkin...

An impressionistic pumpkin.

She got her face painted...

(With a rainbow!)

And, she got all sorts of prizes, got a baby pumpkin, got her hair done in a wild color: purple. She really enjoyed that. No kidding. She sat there patiently and let the hair stylist do her thing:

When her hair had just enough purple, then it was time to take a look in the mirror:

It was a fun hairstyle with braids and purple - here's a shot of her from behind:

So as you can see, we had a good time. BUT, we weren't quite done yet!

The most fun we had together was on the dragon boat. That's right, they had a dragon boat or two on the lake, and together we put on our life vests, grabbed an oar, and started out to the dock. Madison was very much wanting to do this, and quite anxious. She hopped in Daddy's arms, into the boat, and waited for further instructions. Soon, it'd be time to row!

We couldn't take pictures, because all of us were actually in the boat with oars, but you should have seen her. She was so focused. She had her hands on the right parts of the handle, and lifted up her oar when instructed.... and then plunged it into the water when it was time to move. Slowly, we rowed our boat out to the center of the lake, with Madison keeping her oar in the water, moving it back and forth.

Soon, the guide was beating the drum, and everyone paddled with their oars to the rhythm. Well, most of us anyway! It was neat - a first time for all of us!

Afterwards, it was time to head back to work and home. It was a full, fun time together - we'll probably be back next year. Maybe there'll actually be balloons!