Plano Balloon Festival

On Saturday afternoon, Wayne and I took Nathan to the Plano Balloon Festival. There was tons of food, a kiddie section with inflatable bounce houses, stages with entertainment, and we assumed hot air balloons :) We've never been before so we tried to get on the website to find out what the schedule of events was. The website wasn't working when we checked so we decided just to go and wing it. It turned out that the hot air balloons only launched two times a day...early in the morning and 6:00 in the evening. It was 2:00 when we got there so we just did everything else...I would have thought they'd have one or two balloons on display for people to see at other times of the day, but they didn't ask me :)

After walking all around and sampling some of the goodies, we took Nathan to the kiddie area. He was so excited when he saw it that we could hardly keep him in his stroller!


Mr. Independent


Nathan and Daddy

We bought tickets for Nathan to go on the bounce houses, but I wasn't sure that he would really do it. The last few times we've played on bounce houses, Nathan has fun, but wants me to be right there with him...on the inflatable! (not too fun for Mommy)


He's testing the waters...


"I love it!"



He had so much fun on the first inflatable so we figured we'd try a second one...the big slide!


Up he goes. And he didn't even try to get me or Wayne to go with him!


Daddy's giving him some words of encouragement...


Weeeeeee! This is slide number one...


And slide number 2! He loved it!


If he liked the slide, the real test will be the inflatable maze. You go in (I know because, again, I've done this with Nathan several times) and then go through obstacles on the inside. It really is kind of challenging, and I can see why it might be a little scary for a toddler.


No problems here! "Hi Mommy!"


"Hi Daddy! I know I've been in here way past my time limit, but I don't care!"


"That's the exit...I'm not coming out yet!" Nathan spent FOREVER inside here! He kept doing the obstacles over and over. He'd go toward the front and when Wayne or I tried to grab him, he'd run away and go to the other side. I think he was in there for 20 minutes at least. We finally bribed him by telling him we'd go get ice cream if he'd come out. Thank goodness that worked and that I didn't have to climb in after him :)

So even though we didn't see any balloons at the balloon festival, we still had a great time. Now I want to take Nathan to Pump It Up Jr. which is an indoor play area with all of these inflatables. He would have so much fun and could play on them as long as he wanted!

Here's a video of him sliding