Last night we took the kids to the Italian Festival at Freehold Raceway. There were rides and food and fireworks.  John was very excited about going on the rides.  The first one he went on Gillian was able to go with him.  She was a little unsure at first going by herself, but after the ride started she was so happy.

Gillian loved her first ride and was very disappointed that she couldn’t go on the next ride with John.  John flew the airplanes solo.  The airplane ride was one where the kids could control if they went up or down.  John spent most of the ride up in the air.  John and Daddy went on the spinning monkey ride. 

The next ride was the Flintstones ride.  Gillian was big enough to go on it, but accompanied by an adult.  I got to ride with the kids.  John drove while Gillian and I hung out in the back of the car.  John is really funny on the rides.  He kept telling Gillian, “If you push the buttons, then you will fly out of the car.  You can’t use the steering wheel, cause I’m driving!”

Gillian was too small for the next ride, and John actually had to have an adult accompany him.  So I got to ride the hang gliders with John.  Of course he wanted to get a green hang glider, the first one we got to was broken.  He was so disappointed.  But luckily we were one of the first people in line, so we were able to get a green glider.  He has been on a ride like this before, but this one was a little bit bigger and went higher than before.  He was really calm and cool while we were waiting for the ride to start.  He told me where to put my hands and that it would go up high in the air.  As soon as we were up high in the air he said “I am not doing this again.  Never ever again!!”

Our next ride, Gillian was able to go with us.  John, Gillian and I got to ride on the dogs.  On this ride, the dogs go up and down. Gillian and I rode together and John rode with another little girl in the car behind us.  As we were flying up and down, I could hear behind me “Mommy, Gilly!  Push the button, you can hear the music!”  Daddy and John got to go on the next ride together.  It was a barn that went up in the air and twisted around. After the barn, we all went on the ferris wheel together.  John was really scared to go on the ferris wheel.  He didn’t like the height, but by the end of the ride he loved it. He admitted “It was fun!”

We met up with one of Daddy’s colleagues and walked thru the rest of the festival with him and his wife.  John got his arm painted and no trip to a festival is complete without some cotton candy.  We used up the rest of our ride tickets and by then it was 8:30.  The kids were pretty exhausted, so we decided to leave instead of staying for the fireworks.  I think that was a good decision, considering John slept until 9 am this morning.  He never sleeps in that late!