In which we enjoy the Zilker Kite Festival with friends

The Boy and I have been looking forward to the Zilker Kite Festival since my good friend Tanja suggested we make an afternoon of it. Last week we got together for dinner and made kites with the kids. So obviously we were pretty thrilled to get our first look at a popular Austin tradition.

After a nice ride down with plenty of laughs and great conversation we arrived at the designated parking garage to grab a shuttle to the actual event. And then our adventure began…

I’m currently blogging from the car while Tanja tries to get us home without getting lost. I think it’s funny. Her supplications are cracking me up. But I digress.

Upon arriving at the parking garage we came face to face with the longest line ever. We were pretty tripped out by it and after some careful consideration decided to try and trek the three miles to the festival. With three kids. My gimpy feet. And a few parcels of food and drinks.

We made it to a third of a mile before we decided to go back to the aforementioned longest line ever where we promptly found ourselves at a position further back then we originally were.

Needless to say, whenever we hang out with Tanja there are plenty of laughs and good memories to be made. We did finally make it to the festival where we tried hard to fly our kites without the assistance of the wind and where we enjoyed the sight of toms of people enjoying the weather and flying kites. We really had a blast.

I’ll be sure to post pics once I get a chance tomorrow. We all decided that next year we’d have to attend with the boys. It’s just too fun to pass up!

kite flying at CTC

Today was definitely one of those days I should have been dreading. Little Brooks had an appointment in the morning, followed by Co-Op, followed by errands, which preceded basketball pictures and practice! Oh boy, oh boy!  I’ve been trying really hard to be Zen-like about everything: I refuse to let this deployment stress me out, I refuse to be overbooked schedule wise (obviously today isn’t a good example of that), and I refuse to be late for anything.

These are big developments for me, because in all honesty that was me last deployment: stressed out, overbooked/overextended, and notoriously late for everything. I couldn’t keep my calendar straight. I had a good friend who was my calendar. She reminded me about appointments, errands, phone calls to make… you get the picture. I’ve become so good at being stress-less that finding out this week that I was going to have surgery on my foot, which would then render me carless, didn’t faze me. It is what it is. Why stress about it? I’ll just find ways to make it work. What else can you do?

So I wasn’t looking forward to today, and I dislike errands more than I dislike shots in the arm, and I had a few to run. So this morning while getting in some homeschooling (we covered the battle at Saratago during the American Revolution, math, and language arts) I decided that a beautiful day couldn’t be wasted and that I needed some fresh air. I told Brooks we’d have a picnic lunch at the Central Texas College campus, feed some ducks, play catch, and fly his kite. FYI, these are all activities I find immensely pleasurable. I am a big kid at heart, and can’t see myself ever changing.

Little Brooks was ecstatic. He’s been itching to fly a kite since my wonderful friend Tanja suggested we all head to Austin Sunday for the Kite Festival. He coached me the whole way on how to eat my sandwich quickly and how it was imperative that I keep conversations to a minimum, so we could eat more, talk less. After a quick lunch and a little bit of duck feeding we headed to the other side of the duck pond to fly his kite.

Last year when I took him kite flying I always had to help him. He didn’t like that too much, because he wanted to do it all on his own, so more often than not I was chasing the kite and helping him get it up for a little bit before it would crash back down. He loved it, me not so much. All the running was tough on me.

How exciting for us both to discover that not only did he not have issues getting the kite up but that he was able to manipulate it and keep it up. He was beyond thrilled! He nicknamed his kite Air Shredder.

We had a blast kite flying and were sad to pick up our stuff to head to his appointment. Thankfully the rest of the day wasn’t as hectic as I’d feared. Co-op is always fun and the parents and kiddos are wonderful. We got a nice break in-between errands and basketball.

We are both plum wore out and exhausted. For sure an early night for me. Here’s to dreaming about kites and spring and living life to it’s fullest!