Berkeley Kite Festival 2016

Yesterday the girls and I headed down to Berkeley's waterfront for the annual Berkeley Kite Festival.

We've been to the kite festival many times before and it's always a fun day out for the whole family. It's also always incredibly windy! Ha! There's just something about this particular spot by the marina that makes it windy all year round. I guess that helps with the whole kite flying thing.

Kim was working on Saturday so he wasn't able to come with us. As he's the only one in our family who knows how to get our kites flying properly, the girls and I didn't manage to get them up in the air. Ava and Lola did get to fly a friend's kite for a bit though, but to be honest, they were more interested in seeing the other kites on display than flying their own anyway.

After a little kite flying with friends we grabbed lunch. It wouldn't be a festival without my girls eating corn dogs, so that's exactly what they had for lunch.

The huge octopus, gecko and fish kites on display are always a huge hit with my girls, and this year was no different. They all agreed that they liked the American flag octopus the best. Or was it a squid. They was quite a lot of discussion between Ava and Lola about the exact species based on the shape of their heads! I'm not sure who won, but apparently my girls think they're cephalopod experts! 

The girls were quite fond of the teddy bear catching a ride under a large kite too.

We checked out the kites for a bit and then the girls were eager to try out some of the amusements. The first one that caught their attention was made up of large inflated balls floating in water. Both Ava and Lola thought this one looked like fun so they gave it a go. They each stood inside a deflated plastic ball and covered their ears while it was blown up with a noisy leaf blower type device. They were then pushed into the large wading pool to bob around with the other kids. Ava was pretty active in her ball, doing somersaults, rolling and crawling around like a hamster in a ball. Lola on the other hand was happy to just sit in her ball and bob around gently in the water. She said it was very relaxing. 

Mathilde was keen to go for a pony ride again. She remembered that there had been pony rides at the Fourth of July festival and guessed correctly that there would be ponies again. At the Fourth of July festival Mathilde had been a little scared of the pony ride and held onto me the whole time as I walked next to her pony. This time around she wasn't scared at all and was happy for me to stand a little distance away.

We then took a break from the amusements to take funny photos with the giant octopus (or squid) kites. Mathilde took this as a chance to flash her underpants to everyone. This is one of her favorite things to do lately when I'm taking photos. Good thing her underpants are chunky!

Time for more amusements! Lola chose to go on an inflatable obstacle course and Mathilde chose a bouncy house.

Ava's choice for her second activity was my favorite. Strapped into a harness with bungee cords attached, she bounced higher and higher on an inflated trampoline. Once she plucked up the courage she started doing backward flips. It looked like so much fun.

By now the girls were all bounced out and in need of ice cream! We had seen an ice cream van by the entrance of the park which was perfect as it was getting late and time to start heading home. We passed the large octopus (or squid) kites on our way out and stopped for a few more photos before getting our ice creams.

We ended up walking the whole way home which took about an hour. Mathilde hadn't napped during the day so I put her in her carrier and she promptly fell asleep for the entire walk.

Our day at the kite festival was such a fun day. We saw lots of great kites, ate yummy (trashy!) carnival food, and the girls loved their bouncy activities.

Have you been to a kite festival before? The kite festival here in Berkeley is always such a great event. We'll be back again next year for more kite fun!