1st Annual Gaylord St Festival After Party

Memorial Day weekend in our house was a blast.  Ryan was home from work "early" on Friday evening and the fun began Saturday with a surprise party BBQ for his co-worker Justin.  On Saturday night we even got to enjoy A House of Cards episode and act like it was only Friday night.  On Sunday we slept in and then quickly got to work on the final prep for the 1st Annual Gaylord St Festival After-Party at the Heimer Haus.  Gaylord St was host to the Halloween fun and Hayride I have previously blogged about.  They are definitely most famous though for 34 straight years of a street festival on the Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend.  The fun at the festival includes vendor booths, food, live music, plenty of adult beverages and plenty of fun for the kiddos. 

Wichita friends Blake and Betsy (who live here now) were thrilled that one of their favorite bands played. 

 

We were there from about noon until 3 on Sunday before Ben made it very clear that a nap would be very important to him surviving the day.  MeeMee and I walked him home and when I laid him down to rest he just repeated, "Ben have fun, Ben have fun," as he tried to get up.  Ryan made it home shortly after and took him for a drive to force a nap.  If only we'd known then how important that would be.

Ben was a lone dancin' fool :)

this inflatable Ninja Course was Ben's favorite.  It wasn't long before he realized he was unreachable when in the middle of it.

People started arriving right at 4 so we fired up the grill a little earlier than promised.  Throughout the afternoon and evening, more than 40 of our friends and family came for short and looooong visits to help us Welcome Summer.

 

we were ready for the onslaught of little kiddos

our new table with both leaves fit ten people with ease :)

Friends Jay and Onie and their son Peter and new addition Maura were in Denver visiting other friends and they all came for the fun.  My one regret of the day was not having more time to talk with Onie as she and I had lots in common when we lived in Wichita.

 

Here Ben is trying to bargain with Aunt Amy to skip the hot dog.

 

 

the Stramel clan including New-roof DeDe

 

Most people were gone by about 9pm but a smaller group stayed and we all chatted on the deck until just past 11 while the kiddos watched a movie.  Ben finally settled to sleep a little before MIDNIGHT!! I kept thinking I was being such a bad mom but I was surrounded by a table full of equally delinquent parents and the kids were all having a blast so, cest la vie!

We all slept in very late Monday, but we had drink and ride tickets left from Sunday to use at the festival so we wandered back for a couple hours.  A few trips through the obstacle course for Ben and a couple strong cocktails for Mom and Dad meant we were all ready for the 3 hours nap that shortly ensued.

We enjoyed chilaquiles al fresco Monday morning.

 

 

The sun through the jars Monday morning was amazing.

The weekend and late evening were all so delightful that I was quoted as saying we'd host the same every Saturday all Summer.  I'm not sure our neighbors or waistlines would be too pleased with that but I'm certainly looking forward to next year.