Let's Go Fly A Kite!

The weather has been amazingly cool for St.George this time of year and we have enjoyed many lovely days in the sunshine with a cool breeze just perfect for kite flying. Just a few weeks ago we went and flew a kite at the big field behind the elementary school and it was one of those fun times as a family that I wanted to freeze in my mind forever!

A few weeks prior to it we had another kite memory that was a bit more dramatic. Daddy came home from work and the weather was perfectly kite worthy so he suggested the idea to a very excited and eager little three year old and out the door they scurried to fly Lydia's beloved Dora kite in the Cul-de-sac. They were having a great time and Lydia hollered for me to come and see how high her kite was flying. As I watched and showered her with my praise I heard Dan keep telling her to hold on tight to the handles and not let go of the string.

 

No sooner had I turned around to come inside then I heard Lydia gasp and cry out "My Kite!" I spun around just in time to see Dan chase after it and jump to grab the string as it flew just out of reach in the wind's strong pull. I still had my camera in hand from taking pictures of their victorious flight and couldn't help but snap a couple of the sad little girl who'd just lost her kite.

 

To our great excitement it stopped flying away as it got stuck in the neighbors tree. Dan and I were excited thinking there was yet hope at saving it. But poor Lydia didn't notice as her head was in her hands and she was sobbing. We couldn't quite reach it but that didn't stop daddy!

 

He drove his truck into the neighbor's driveway and got high enough to where he could reach the string. He started to pull the string back down but unfortunately by this time the kite itself had become stuck in another tree in our neighbor's front yard.

 

Long story short we had to cut the string and then Dan had to use a broom in the other tree to get the actual kite down. The kite's poor tale was the only casualty and can still be seen way up high in the neighbor's tree (we hope they'll forgive us)! Lydia was thrilled to have her Dora kite back and once again her amazing Daddy had saved the day! Is it any wonder he is her Hero?

 

Our kite adventures don't stop here. Two weeks after the kite drama we spent a delightful afternoon at the annual Kite Festival our community holds.

 

Here are Lydia and Dan flying their kites together.

 

The Dora kite was still a suffering casualty with out a string so the night before I ran to Target to buy a new kite. Apparently everyone else in town had the same idea because when I got there they only had two kites left. One was Spiderman and the other was a set of Princess kites. Well, that was a given, Lydia loves princesses and although I thought it was totally steep to pay $6.99 for a kite, this did come with two so I went ahead and bought it. When we got home and opened it I was ticked off. The second kite was literally two inches by two inches with a tiny picture of snow white. It was ridiculous and even the big kite wasn't very big. When Dan saw them he couldn't believe what a rip off it was. I was a bit embarrassed that I'd bought them but was determined we'd make them fly! On our way to the festival the next morning Dan stopped at Kmart and bought a Disney Cars kite for $2.99 and it ended up flying better than either of the Princess kites! Unbelievable! I'll spare you my soap box about rip off mainstream products. But would advise you not to buy the expensive kites!

 

At least the kids enjoyed them!

 

The weather had been windy all week and even that morning and then we arrived at the kite festival and the wind started dying down on us. We hit a couple good gusts that took the kites in the air but also had many failed attempts. Luckily the Kite Festival had far more going on than just flying kites. We listened to some pretty terrible local high school bands while riding on the tractor train, watching Lydia jump in the castle bounce house (they had about twenty different ones but she decided to use all of her tickets on the castle)and cooling down with some ice cream! It was a fun family outing and we look forward to going again next year. Maybe we'll be real ambitious and try building our own kites next time. We'll be sure to let you know how they fly!