Up, Up and Away...

This year we FINALLY made it out the Plano Balloon Festival. We have wanted to go for years and for one reason or another we just weren't able to make it there. But this year, we braved the heat and all the people and we made it.

We parked at the DART station and took a bus over to the festival.  Landry LOVED the bus, she hasn't been on one before (that I can remember) and she was so pumped.

Once we got there, we walked around to see what all  there was to see. Then the girls were starving since it was close to dinner time so we found them some dinner and parked ourselves on the hill while waited for the Launch.

While we were walking around, we were able to see a neat show in the sky...

...the girls were curious and so excited to see...

...the parachute dudes!

 Both girls were totally enthralled with what these guys could do.

This was our view from our spot on the hill while the balloons were getting ready to launch...pretty cool!

...and there they go...Up, Up and Away!

I wanted a picture of the girls together as a way of documenting that they were there...but as you can see, Landry wasn't in the mood...she was actually telling Daddy, "noooo, don't take my picture!"

There were some really cool balloons, Ashton liked this pirate one and Landry loved the Ladybug balloon (which I didn't get a picture of...ooops!)

After the launch (which didn't really excite Ashton or Daddy all that much) we met up with the Scheers. We walked around some more and found the kids some dessert.  They all chose snocones which was a perfect way to cool them off!

While this picture was being taken, I was in the potty (port-a-potty that is) with my littlest P. Daddy snapped the obligatory "snocone tongue" picture of the big kids.

The Scheers brought some glow necklaces. The girls were thrilled,  especially Landry. You see, one of her favorite episodes of the Fresh Beat Band is "Glow For It". Marina has glow in the dark drumsticks so Landry was thrilled that now she had her very own glowing drumsticks too. She was tickled pink to drum away while we waited for the Balloon Glow.

ARB was loving that she could put them on her ankles....she is into anklets right now so this was waaaayy cool!

One of the neat things about the Balloon Festival is that when it gets dark, they light up the balloons and make them glow. It was neat the first time, but the interest fizzled pretty quickly with the kids. After you saw it one time, it just wasn't neat anymore.

The kids had fun experiencing some things for the first time. I wanted them to have this experience of seeing a hot air balloon up close and I wanted them to take in all the sights and sounds that go along with it. I know they can make mental connection based on what they have seen, but it is just different  when you can see it for real. Ashton was surprised at how BIG the balloons were and she was pretty taken with how they go up.

This was something we can say we experienced, and I think Ashton liked it even more than she wanted to let on.

I have a side note story to go along with this day and I only wish I had taken a few pictures. Since Landry is newly potty trained, I was nervous about how this day would work out for her. I knew she would have to use the potty at least once (usually it is a gazillion times when we are in public) and I had a feeling there wouldn't be a real potty. I was right.

Not long after we got there, Landry told me she needed to go potty and I got really, really nervous!  The only potties they had were PORT-A-POTTIES!  Great!

So we walked over to the cleanest port-a-potties I have ever seen. The poor girl was so  confused.  She said, "Mommy, what kind potty is dis?  Why we going in here?"  So as I was covering the potty with her disposable potty toppers and her potty seat, I tried my best to explain to her what kind of potty this was. She was bothered that it didn't flush, she was bothered that it was small, she was just bothered and confused. She didn't go the first time and I thought, "oh Great, she isn't going to go here and I know she can't hold it til we get home in 6 hours!  What am I going to do?"

Luckily, she wanted  to try again and this time she went and all  was fine. In fact, we had  to go back and visit the potty several more times. All I can say is thank god for the person who invented the disposable princess potty toppers...those bad boys are genius...especially on port-a-potty seats!

All in all, it was a fun time and a neat experience and on top of it all, it was great Quality Family Time which is what I love more than anything!