Floating Lights and New Adventures

My daughter loves Rapunzel, the hair, the strong spirit, the floating lanterns.... So when a Water Lantern Festival advertised coming to our home city just minutes away it caught my attention.  I quickly did some online research, and with good reviews and a ticket to participate I figured we'd be silly not to step up and have a little magical adventure.

Although I knew that the lanterns wouldn't be launched until dark, with two kids who love to stay up past bedtime, I figured we'd stay busy. We even included Gram & Gramps for the extra family win!

Needless to say, the day leading up to going was beautiful. We enjoyed being outside at home, chasing bubbles and being together. AKA it almost made me regret that we had to pack up and go somewhere, but tickets were bought and it would be an adventure.

We got there and were a little surprised, big crowd, odd music/DJ, not too many vendors, no kids activities. We'd been to events at this location before, I naively assumed it would be similar. But as my husband reminded me, we were in it now. So we set up our blanket amongst the crowd and got to drawing and decorating our paper lanterns. We took a few walks, and the kids were getting silly with what was available, posing with inflatable hearts and what not. They even got their photo taken by the local paper (more on that later).

Turns out, although we were there to draw Rapunzel and Pascal, A zoo, and a few happy thoughts, others at the Water Lantern festival were there to mourn a loss or celebrate a victory. Everyone was in it for their reasons. Ours was to see a little magic. 

Then it was time to launch and we did it! Tired and ready to go home, we walked in a crowd to the edge of our village pond and set those joyful lanterns to float. Plenty of photos and then yes, we can go home now.

We got go well after our usual bedtime and struggled up stairs to pjs, stories and bed.

That night I was glad we did it but wondered if it was worth it. Mom guilt flourished in my head before I finally got to sleep.
PerfectionJust one of those nights I dragged you all to a festival and then beat myself up because it wasn’t as great as staying home. Ya I guess we are guilty of making things so cool and sometimes over the top that others don’t always add up. I hope I didn’t let on too much how much I regretted it and wanted to go home, I hope you had fun with the parts that were fun and keep the good stuff. I hope you know that it was for you, that you are perfection without even trying, and just by being together it was good, really good.

The next morning you all woke up happy, asking for pancakes and jabbering on about how cool last night was... "I can't believe all the lights on that water," "I wonder how many there were," "My favorite part was drawing Rapunzel and Pascal!"

So I guess it was as great as I hoped it would be after all. Take that mom guilt! 

The next day I remembered that photo taken of the kids by the local newspaper, the New Lenox Patriot. So I found it on Facebook and reached out to see when the story would run. Unfortunately, their photo wasn't chosen but the nicest guy from the paper sent me a copy. 

And then, just on a high of bravery and mom victory from the earlier weekend adventure I did it. I messaged this nice guy from the paper if they ever would be interested in running a "Mom Column" ?  Back story - I used to write a lot pre-mom life and always wanted to get back into it. And because I believe that some things happen for a reason this was the moment to be brave.  The paper got back to me after a few detail exchanges with a yes! I started this month and my first column Be Brave Mom runs October 6, 2019. I’ve kicked it into high gear and tapped my marketing roots to set up social media and this blog too. And just like that I took an adventure and made a new one. 

With a journal of thoughts and constantly reminding myself to be brave, I’m here!  I like writing, I love being a mom, and this adventure for me is just beginning.... I hope you'll follow along.