Street festivals: to go or not to go...

What are street festivals, really? Big buying fests, right? You just walk and walk, look at stuff, and buy. As I get older, I realize, not really my scene. For the family lunch (this was for the kids, myself, and Abu), I ordered two hot dogs, two sausage sandwiches, three orders of fries, and two lemonades. When the kind lady asked me for $41 I thought I had heard incorrectly. "$41?!" I repeated back to her. She seemed kind of embarrassed and assured me that yes, that was the price of the street food I'd just ordered. I told her I didn't have $41 in my wallet. I gave her the $25 I had, and returned a bit later with the remaining money, although I know I could have gotten away without paying it. (I know you are cursing me, Mom.) It's just the way I am. Those that know me are not surprised. Did you know my own parents used to tease me by calling me "goody two-shoes" and "Richie Cunningham?" It never bothered me. I am what I am.

Let's figure a total for all we spent, shall we? I allowed my kids one treat each. (That was the part they were really interested in.) Emilia wanted ice cream. (No surprise there. I call Emilia the dairy queen. She can be a pretty picky eater, but if there's milk in it, she will eat it, and she will love it.) We read a book last week that made a reference to a candy apple. Lucas had his heart set on one of those. ANY food that is mentioned in a book or television show, Lucas wants to try it. I enjoy indulging him. He had that candy apple in his hands when we got home from the festival. I went out for a trip to Target and the supermarket, leaving the kids at home. When I got back, the thing was STILL in his hands. The whole apple was still there, and a lot of the candy. He had just been licking it like a lollipop. For some reason, he had covered the whole thing with a paper napkin, which of course had stuck to it. Kids.

Both of those treats cost $3, bringing our total to $47. I wasn't intending on allowing the kids to buy any toys or trinkets, but they spotted these pretty cute umbrellas that looked like big duck heads. I have been wanting to buy them umbrellas. Not really necessary but, well, I don't know, I can kid myself that it's something practical. Useful, there you go. I did make them spend their own money on those, though. (I've started carrying their money around with me. Don't fret, it's not much.) They were $4 each. We had then spent a grand total of $55. The kids did not play a single game. We ate a meal, and bought one small thing for each of the kids. I certainly didn't buy anything for myself. There were lots of cute bags and kids' clothes I'd have liked to buy, but no. $55 was more than I'd intended to spend. I left the festival thinking this was just a big rip-off.

I was discussing all the above at dinner with Claudio. (Daddy had been away for most of the weekend on a man camping trip.) I was kinda summing it all up as not worth it. He asked the kids if they had had fun. "Yeah!" said Lucas. "We got to play that game with the balls!" There had been a toy store that had a little tent with some of their toys. There was a toy where you put the balls into the top and they travel down some tubes or ramps or whatever down to the bottom. Then you put them in the top again and watch them go down again. We had sat there for maybe 15 minutes while the kids played with it. Emilia mentioned some game she had played with Alexander, her friend that had come with us. I didn't pay for any games, I have no idea what she was talking about. Maybe she was playing this game, whatever it was, while I was getting more napkins and paying off my debt with the food lady. This game was what she remembered.

So I guess I have my answer. For the kids, yes, the street festival is worth it, and not necessarily for the things we spent our money on. Maybe we'll eat before coming next year!

CIAO! Tracy