27: Kite Festival

After waiting an interminable four days, the kidney bean has finally made an appearance above the cup. The long-awaited group portrait is complete.

We planned to go to the Dorey Park Kite Festival today, as we have every year since we first discovered it when our oldest was a toddler. However, the hosting county is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year, and every event on its schedule is Bigger and Better this year. So after waiting in traffic for 20 minutes, we realized we would be spending the greater part of the day in our car and switched gears.

We stopped for ice cream and hit a nearby park, where we joined a handful of other crowd-avoiding kite flyers.

Visually impressive and the first family event of the spring, the kite festival has come to signify freedom and beauty and hope to me. I was greatly disappointed to miss it this year.

But at the end of the day, we had ice cream, kite flying and a lovely afternoon together as a family, not to mention an entirely unexpected collection of blue photographs. Next year the county will be 401 years old. Here's hoping they aren't planning another big birthday bash.