It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a... hot air balloon

We have been looking forward to having a "family fun night" at the National Balloon Classic in Indianola all summer. Jack has been really curious about hot air balloons this summer, so we knew he'd be way more into "the Classic" than he was last year.

Of course, we were running behind schedule (a topic for another blog- two kids has made it near impossible for us to be anywhere on time!)... as we neared Indianola a little before 7, I feared we were going to have missed all of the balloons, whose flight takes place at 6:30. Just as we were getting close to the balloon field, we saw our first balloon and Jack was SO excited. I knew this was either one of the first or one of the last balloons and was so happy when I realized it was the former. Our timing was perfect- just as we parked and got settled, dozens of balloons were taking flight. It was beautiful. Jack loved it- at least for a few minutes, until he realized there was an "amusement area."

Jack talked Nick into buying some tickets and after two failed attempts, went down the big inflatable slide, jumped in the bounce house, rode the barrel train and won two prizes from the duck pond (including the ridiculously obnoxious trumpet, which mysteriously disappeared when we got to the car).

Will has luckily returned to his smiley self and had lots of fun, too. He had a few curious little girls come and play with him while we sat and watched the balloons.

After all of the balloons landed and it started to get dark, the character balloons came out. There are theme balloons like a tree, a monster, a penguin and Jack's favorite- a space shuttle. These balloons and many of the others inflate and light up with once it gets dark. Jack was so fascinated by all of it. He said, "Bye bye balloons!" the whole way back to the car.

We put on his jammies on the way home, thinking surely he'd fall asleep. He even told us he was going to go to bed in the car on the way home. I think he was so excited about our night that he just talked and talked. About half way home, he asked what Lexi was doing. I started to make up silly answers, so he asked me probably 100 times and each time I came up with a sillier response. He laughed so hard at the thought of her talking on the phone to her dogfriend, Maddy, and the idea of her doing laundry. Although he didn't get his much needed sleep, it was a great way to cap our night. Luckily he was so tired when we got home that he crashed hard right away (and was back up before 7 this morning).