Every year our town hosts a big festival called "The Festival of the Forks". It has nothing to do with utensils. It actually refers to the Kalamzoo River which forks right in the middle of town. The festival is held every year to celebrate the diversity and unity of the community. They have a big street fair where people sell anything you can imagine. There are also booths from different community organizations to share information about themselves. The missionaries even had a table this year and passed out lots of pamphlets and Books of Mormon. In addition to all that there is a parade and different musicians and dance groups and kids programs and crafts set up at different areas all over downtown. This year we especially enjoyed the Hispanic Heritage section with the Folklorico dancing and as usual we couldn't resist the southern BBQ chicken and the elephant ears.
Taylor marched in the parade with the combined high school and middle school bands. They sounded pretty good! Kendall and Lynnsey also marched with their elementary schools. They were all at the beginning of the parade so they were able to join us for the last part of it. Spencer especially liked the fire engines and the stilt man who was at least 12 or 13 feet tall and who not only could walk on those things but could juggle while he did it! 
This year Laura the Elephant came to visit and give rides. I have conflicting feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand I think poor elephant! but on the other hand, what an opportunity for the kids to see and ride a real live elephant. At any rate, they had a ball!
At the Kid's Corner they had a group called "Drummunity" where they had a whole bunch of different percussion instruments and so anyone who wanted to could pick a drum and join in the music. It actually sounded really cool and Lynnsey had a fun time adding her own noise to the mix.
6 comments:
How fun! I think community festivals and celebrations are great! What better chance to get to know each other better. Looks like you had a ball.
How fun! And I wouldn't feel too badly for the elephant...he could probably barely feel your kids up there. Isabel rode an elephant at the Philadelphia Zoo a few years back. They are closing their elephant exhibit, though, and getting rid of all their elephants. How sad! So I'm glad Bel got the chance to ride.
p.s. Taylor looks so little in that crowd in the band!
I think that it all looked like allot of fun and I do have to agree with Alison. Taylor was so small compared to the rest to the people in the band, are they all the same age or grade or is it allot of different age groups who volunteered to do it??
The elephant would be fun to ride, I haven't ever done that and I think it would be awesome!! I'm glad to hear that all had fun!!
Taylor was walking next to several of the high school kids and a couple of larger than average 8th graders so he definitely looks small in the photo but there were several others around his size too, just not visible in the picture.
That's pretty cool. You are so good to get involved in the things your community puts on. I'm such a loser and haven't even taken my kids to the library since we moved...
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