Harvest Festival

(Warning: LOTS of pictures) As I mentioned in the last post, last Saturday we were able to attend the Hurricane City Harvest Festival with Stan, DeNae, Tia (DeNae's sister Tanya) and the kids. I was sure what to expect, but we heard there was going to be bounce houses, big blow up slides, pony rides, face painting and fireworks.... all FREE!! It isn't that I am cheap and refuse to pay for things, it is just that we have no income and therefore have no money so when free fun activities come around... I am ALL over that! Anyways it had been raining the day before so I wasn't sure how much fun we were going to have, but let me tell you WE HAD A BLAST!!! I haven't had so much fun in a long time!! (And it was much needed!!) We started out by getting the kids faces painted. Gabby got a unicorn, Matty got a spider, Leah got a dragon fly and Ethan got a skull. Luke waited in line planning on getting a dragon and then at the last minute decided he didn't want to get it done. Ok... It was fine.

Then we headed over to the Fireman demo where the kids all got fire hats and badges. They watched a movie on fire safety and then got to go outside to watch the police dog demo. They had this guy all dressed like a sumo and showed how on their command the dog would attack this guy. The kids loved it!!! (And by kids I mean the dad's too ;).) We all got to go do the Chili Cook Off tasting, yummy!!

Next was the pony rides. Gabby thought she was in heaven!! Again Luke decided this wasn't for him so Nate took him over to the blow up slides for a few turns while we waited to ride the pony. As soon as that was done the kids saw the merry-go-round and wanted to play for a few minutes. Stan was brave enough to get on with Leah, I was getting sick just watching them!!By then the kids were pretty hungry, none of them wanted chili, so we got some dinner. We had to pay for that part, but they were giving away free cotton candy so dessert was free!!

Poor Leah fell down in the mud!!We headed over to the games and while the bigger kids tossed rings etc, the little girls dances to the music that was playing on one of the game boards. They thought it was a stage just for them! I wish I had a video of it, it was sooo cute!When the dads decided that they wanted to fight on the gladiator platform, Luke decided he better try it out first. There was another little boy in line that was the same age so they suited up and went for it. Luke wailed on the poor kid!! He knocked him down over and over again, and never fell off himself. I was pretty impressed with my little seven year old!! The other kids were sad that they didn't get to go down the slide so we went back for round two.

We also went to this little petting zoo and the kids got to see a kangaroo!!! There were a lot of goats, llamas, pigs, rabbits, tortoises and other animals. It was too dark then for any good pictures. Then finally it was time for the fireworks show!! I tell you what, it was the best firework show I have seen in YEARS!!!

Town of Hurricane West Virginia, Thanks for the great evening!!! (And thanks Israelsen's for coming up to spend it with us!!)