Neon Festival

Maddie got to destroy a gingerbread house with Mjölnir this morning, and what a great start to your day, right?  

This was part of a funny skit we had, an illustration of the perils of not building your house on the Rock.  Eventually Nerdo learns this the hard way, as shown in this great picture here with an airborne gingerbread house.

We ended Forward, and today we ended "Storm Chasers" as well, ending it with a great illustration that was lots of fun.  We got the gingerbread houses several weeks ago for just two dollars, and at home Madison and Mom were decorating them.  We've done this illustration before, and like then, it turned out really well.  Kids like seeing stuff get destroyed!  But here's something else we did this morning...

 The indoor rain storm.  Maddie helped lead her part of the audience in doing various sound effects that waved across the room, making it sound just like a rainstorm.  At the peak moment, there was even a sound effect of thunder playing.  It was super fun today.

We got home after this, and yes, I was asleep.  We had a few hours to take a nap and relax, but yes, we were back for the last unofficial part of the Forward Conference, a Sunday night celebration called "The Neon Festival."  It took place at this year's Forward Island, which is apparently a moving island.

Before the festivities outdoors, there was a great concert indoors.  There was a live music set as our church was promoting its new release, a concert experience indoors, and after that the weather was just absolutely perfect for a night out riding rides, eating food and having fun.  Maddie spent the night with her friend Lily, and the two had some funnel cake, and also got to ride on the pirate ship ride.

Maddie likes this one a lot.  She already rode the giant slide earlier, so she was pretty excited to see this pirate ship here, ready to go back and forth.

They had a great time.  It was a really good night, a lot of fun!  I was snapping pictures of the event, ones to share with others later, and happened to run into Maddie a few times.  Later on, they were looking for me, and found me by one of those carnival games, relentlessly pursuing victory.  It was one of those games where fifteen people line up with squirt guns and shoot at a target.  As you shoot the target, your racing turtle competes with the others to get to the top first.  I lost the first several times, but I was determined to get Maddie a turtle!

In the end, I won not just once, but twice!  My last attempt, I won a turtle for Maddie's friend, so the two could have a prize on the way home.  That's where they found me.  One time they were trying the game too, but it's obviously something meant for professional quick-draw squirt gun artists like myself!  

Obviously I'm exaggerating.  But this was one of those things that I've always wanted to do - win an item at a carnival game.  Tonight, I won two, and the girls really liked their prizes there.  I asked Madison what the name of her turtle was, and she told me Jackie Chan.  So we have a sea turtle in the house named Jackie Chan!

We got home late again, and tonight we read a chapter from "Kingdom Keepers IV:  Power Play," a chapter where Willa had quite a few surprises, including a visit with Judge Frollo and Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  It's fun reading at night, but as you can imagine, it's been a long weekend.  We said our prayers, and we got to sleep not long afterwards.