Sugar Creek Arts Festival

This morning on a whim I decided to take the boys to the Sugar Creek Arts Festival while Tim was painting. It's held every year in downtown Normal, and I've always wanted to go. Just as an aside, downtown Normal actually goes by the name "Uptown Normal" now. I refuse to call it that because I think that it's totally lame. They are completely renovating everything down(up)town and it's going to be very nice. The Sugar Creek Arts festival has all different artists selling photography, paintings, jewelry, glassware, etc. It was really neat.

Anyway, I asked the boys if they wanted to go to a festival and they were very excited and told me "Yes Mommy!!" So I packed up the wagon and a couple bottles of water and off we went. The boys could not have been more lame. They would not get their faces painted, I had to twist their arms to string together their own necklaces, and they refused to have funnel cake. All I could do is shake my head as a trudged through the crowds of half yuppies, half hippy wannabes. But finally, something caught Benny's eye. What could possibly get him this excited? He wanted a balloon. Easy enough. They were free, but while the boys picked out their colors, another lady in the tent was asking me if I wanted to buy $5 raffle tickets to win a chance to go to the World Series. I politely responded that I only had $3 in cash left and thanked her for the balloon. In my mind though, I was thinking how could she be so insensitive as to ask me if I want to go see the World Series this year? Has she seen the Sox play this season?!

The boys got their balloons and we started back toward the van. Sammy was able to hold on to his balloon for 30 seconds before he got distracted and tried to pinch Benny with his balloon-holding hand. Rookie mistake.

Here is a picture of my one purchase. This lady had tons of lawn ornaments and such, so I chose one for the garden. I thinks it's pretty cute. Benny told me that he didn't like it and he did not want to pay for it. While I was waiting to pay, I heard Benny yell my name and looked over and the wagon had started to roll away when I let go. The boys had only rolled 3 feet away from me, but you would have though I had just tried to ditch them in Cambodia.

We finally made it back to the van, and we were driving for 30 seconds before I looked back and saw Sammy already asleep. I have decided that I really enjoyed the festival and I plan on going again next year. However the boys are not invited.