Fall Festival 2017

The World Series continued tonight with the Astros winning a thriller against the LA Dodgers, evening out the series now, making it 1-1.  Meanwhile, Madison is seen above, swinging for the fences.  Because with this sort of thing, you either go big, or you go home!

At KidPak's Fall Festival, we usually go big.  Here she is, riding a pirate ship, dressed as... a pirate.  She's at home here, and would find herself on this ride throughout the night, although this time she has it all to herself.  That's because she comes here early with Daddy, who has been helping set up today with the others at KidPak.  Madison got to go out before all the other kids and try the rides and inflatables.  She can make it across that one inflatable obstacle course with no problems at all, somewhat of an expert on that one.  And when the other kids came, she was already winning at knocking other boys off their tower in that one game.  It features these little stands that rest on an inflatable surface, so your balance is already tricky to begin with.  And that's where Madison had the advantage - she's got balance.  She reminded me, "I'm in ballet, Dad!"  Oh, like that's all it takes.  Because the other part of the game is using these big cushions to try and knock your opponent off.  Yes, she won against the boys. That's my girl!

Tonight Daddy didn't use the David S Pumpkins costume in order to join NASA with Josh, Lance, and you can see one of our college students in an orange jumpsuit as well.  We took this picture here, and even did one of those pictures where you walk slowly towards the camera with purpose, sort of like every other movie with astronauts walking towards the camera with purpose.

But the real space guests of the night were these guys here:

Members of the 501st Legion actually showed up.  Above, you can see a stormtrooper, a snowtrooper, a biker scout, a rebel pilot, a jedi, and yes, R2-D2.  Madison is in there, pretty happy about what she sees.  But all the grown-ups were too - it was pretty amazing.  Daddy spent a long time talking to the legion tonight, back in the office, and it's a wonderful organization.  They build their own costumes, and they volunteer for all sorts of events like these, like baseball games, and of course hospital visits.  They love what they do.  And again, it's all volunteers.  They recorded their event tonight at the end, in Daddy's office area.  In order to join, you just have to do at least one thing a year, and of course have the costume.  And apparently it doesn't matter how obscure the costume.  Yes, there are a few Willrow Hood Costumes.

As for tonight's event, we had probably the most children we've ever had.  And it went relatively smoothly.  There were some kids that were crying because of fall or a lost sibling or something like that, but we had enough volunteers to cover these incidents and accidents.  We had enough people to cover the entrances, to keep adults without badges out.  And we had enough people to cover the rides and inflatables.  Daddy was covering a few of them, including the bungee run.  It was fun!

Although... it was chilly!  But that's the way it's supposed to be, right?  It was a great Fall Festival, and yeah, all the kids got a big bag of candy before going home.  Nana got the Kit-Kat bars, and Madison had one piece of candy before going to bed tonight.  We read from our devotional, and said our prayers a little quickly.  We got home late, and it was way past bedtime.  But it was a fun time, one she really loved.