Let's Party!!!

On Saturday, we went to not one, not two, but THREE festivals.

The original plan had been to go to one and stay the day. After much consideration, Kris and I decided that we had't had Greek food in a long time so that was the one we would go to. We drove north of Indy to Carmel to the Orthodox Greek Church where the festivities were to occur. On the outset, we knew that it would be $10 total to get in, but were surprised that we had to pay for parking too. Oh well, it'll be worth it... we thought. Once inside, we walked the food and Greek souveniers booths, settled in at a shady table and Kris went to go get food. It was okay, but not great, but we figured we'd have some great entertainment and relax for the rest of the day. Nope. We were there at 12 and music didn't start until 1:15. By that time, the kids were restless, we'd eaten, and we were done. There were no kids activities, so we decided to head home. On the way to the car, Kris half-jokingly remarked that we could still hit another festival... so we did!

We decided to go the the French Market Festival at St. Joan of Arc because it was free. Once there, we parked in the neighborhood and walked around listening to jazz and smelling the food. This festival had kids stuff so Jacob jumped in the bounce house a couple of times and got his face painted. Ella had fallen asleep in the car on the way over, so she mostly just watched. They both took a playground break and had a great time. We were out of money after the Greek incident, so once the kids had played as much as they wanted, we decided to go home. But on the way to the car... we decided to check out the Chinese Festival downtown.

We drove around, passing through mansions, ghetto, mansions, ghetto... a switch about every other block. It was weird. We drove by IUPUI and Kris pointed out the building where he'll be working next semester. It's a really big campus and looks really nice. Across the street was the park with the Chinese Festival. The park, itself, was really nice with big trees and park benches. There were foods of all kinds, craft booths for the kids, info on China, and demonstrations of dance and martial arts. The kids had fun trying on costumes and petting the lion costume head. They played on the bounce house, did some Tai Chi, then waved their lanterns in the lantern parade. That concluded the festivities, so we headed home and put two very tired kids to bed.

Lesson learned: Ain't No Party Like a Chinese Party! Greek is Weak!!!