Kite festival

It is an annual ritual with us. Mother and children pack up kites and a picnic lunch and head off to the Mall to attend the kite festival. Early spring the Smithsonian sponsers the annual kite festival on the capital Mall (a gorgeous piece of grassy area between the museums, stretching from the tidal basin to the capitol).
It is usually cold, but sunny and windy, ideal kite weather.
Thousands of people are gathered with kites of all kinds and shapes, from simple kites from the drugstore (ours) to splendid 3-D ones.
They also have kite shows and competitions in various categories. Cherry blossom festivities are also on during this time.
My kids absolutely love it and look forward to this day. Kites get tangled every now and then.. the kids put their heads together with the other party and sort it out. By the end of the day, the kites are torn, string knotted up here and there. We get hot pretzels and ice cream from the street vendor and wearily head back home negotiating the metro crowd, a few more happy faces -seldom seen during weekdays.
This year, I got two kites for the kids each and D picked up some extra string a few days early. But of course, one had to be opened right then and flown in the backyard and S lost one to the wind, string holder and all.. A held on tight apparently. The morning of the festival D got one more for S since he didn't have a spare.. The idea was to replace the torn one with a new one.
But that didn't happen. The kids flew their kites till they were in tatters with two new unopened ones in the bag. We walked around, flying some more near the monument. walked over to the tidal basin to admire the cherry blossoms. Lunched and Snacked. Headed home near sunset.
Kids promised each other that resume kite flying once they got home.

As we were walking to the metro, a mother/son came up to me and asked if she could buy a kite somewhere on the mall. I told her I didn't think so and that we'd brought ours from home.The older one had wandered away so I figured I'd check with S to see if he'd be willing to give up his tattered, but still good, kite - so that he could use the new one at home.
To my surprise, he didn't want to -saying I could give away the new one if I wanted to, but that the tattered one was his BEST kite.
go figure! Mommy's protective instincts were all wrong.
As usual, we now have notebook paper kites in every room -in preparation for next year?? or rather prolonging this year!!