The Dogwood Festival

Mid-April we took the kids to the annual Charlottesville Dogwood Festival.  It's a very small carnival with some shaky rides, games that people can never win, and expensive fried foods... and the kids loved it.  Each ticket was $1, and each ride cost 3-4 tickets... so it all added up pretty quickly!

We started out with Ella riding on the swings

Then Ella and I braved a big kid/adult ride.  Ella was just barely tall enough (or maybe just slightly under the height limit)... and she was super brave and loved the ride.  When we got on the ride, the girl sitting next to Ella looked at me with real concern in her eyes and said "Do you think this ride is safe?  I'm nervous that it might be really dangerous..."  I'm thinking, "Girl... do you see my four year old sitting next to you?!  Please stop before you completely freak her out!"  I reassured her that she would be fine, and that it was completely safe (well, as safe as a carnival ride can be, I suppose).  Then halfway through the ride she looked at me and said excitedly, "You were right!  This isn't dangerous and I'm going to be okay!"

This was Ella's first experience with a ride this intense... and she was laughing and excited the whole time.

Next, the kids waited patiently for a ride on the carrousel.

 

And since Ella was able to go on a couple of special rides by herself, we let Isaac get on the cool car ride that he had been asking to get on.  This was his expression the entire time... like 3 minutes straight...

 

 

We didn't last terribly long there because between 4 people, the amount of money that we were willing to spend on those tickets went pretty quick.  So we took off and stopped at McDonalds where we were able to get the kids ice cream cones for 49 cents each (instead of the $4 ones at the festival!).

Isaac riding on Craig shoulders... then Isaac riding on Ella's shoulders.  I love the look of satisfaction on his face in that last one.