Our House is a Very, Very, Very Fine House

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 1 Comment

Our house is small. Not Tiny House small, but substantially less floor space than the suburban houses Chris or I grew up in. While having a small house has its advantages, adding a third person to our family highlighted the need for more space. Fortunately, after years of saving and months of work, it’s now substantially bigger than it was. With the remodeling of our basement, we expanded from 950 sq ft to about 1400! Of course, like any construction project, it was not without its quirks.

Remodeling the basement was in the cards since we bought our house four years ago. Our entire house had been remodeled right before we bought it, so the main living area didn’t require any work. But we knew once we had kids, three tiny bedrooms and a single bathroom weren’t going to be enough. Even though the family before us raised ten kids in it, I don’t have the constitution to handle either that many kids or that little space. But we also knew we couldn’t buy a “starter house” and then move up. If nothing else, we wouldn’t be able to afford enough additional house that met our demanding requirements (single family, at least a bit of yard, close to Metro, walkable/bikable, good school) to justify moving. For those who aren’t familar with the D.C. market, it’s perfectly normal for an upper-middle class family to live in a house that costs half a million dollars or more.

Although we always planned on remodeling, we also knew we weren’t doing it ourselves. My interest and experience doesn’t extend further than painting, so there was no way in hell we were touching drywall installation, plumbing or electricity.

In fact, if I was in charge of the project, it probably wouldn’t have happened. I’m usually the planner in our house, but Chris really stepped up. He figured out the layout, modeled it on the computer, measured everything out, and taped the floor to indicate the locations of the new walls. He even stacked everything in the basement Tetris-style into the 5 square feet that was neither being remodeled nor already occupied by the washer, dryer, or hot water heater. As it took us half a year to pick a rug for the living room, I was very impressed by his level of focus and commitment. The layout was so accurate that except for a few tweaks, the contractor based his plans right off of Chris’s.

So far, so good. Of course, everything is good until you actually start construction. Our first major barrier came when we found out that unlike almost every other municipality, our town requires that you have an outside exit if you remodel the basement at all. (Most places only require it if you have a bedroom.) We had originally wanted to put in a door but put it off because it was too expensive. Now, despite the extra $10,000 cost (a third of our total budget), it was add in a door or cancel the project.

The situation changed once again when the construction crew tried to dig out the door and tested where the natural gas line runs through our yard. Of course, the line is at exactly the wrong depth. In the end, we were able to save the project by expanding the bedroom window instead of the door. Unfortunately, it still ended up being $5,000 more than our original budget without the functionality of the door.

On top of that detour, we also had picky plumbing inspectors, quirky permitting systems, forgetful plumbers, and over-scheduled duct-work specialists. None of them were show-stoppers, but they added up to a hell of a headache.

In particular, we were afraid that the construction wouldn’t be finished by Thanksgiving, as both my parents and in-laws were staying with us. If the basement wasn’t done, everyone was sleeping in our living room.

I was surprisingly unshaken by all of this. I had great confidence in Chris and the luxury of ignoring the problems. For once, I didn’t have a strong opinion and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this was the opposite of what Chris needed from me. Between the high expense, the delayed schedule, the construction noises interrupting Sprout’s naps, and the nuisance of having people in the house, he was stressing out in a way that he rarely does. Responding with “meh” when he asked me for input aggravated the crap out of him. Meanwhile, I was having my own unrelated mini-meltdown. Both of us were pissed at each other, wanting the other person to drop their worries to deal with what we felt was a higher priority.

Fortunately, by getting some of the toxic thoughts out of my head, I had space to think about the remodeling project. In the past few weeks, I’ve tried to be much more interested, especially as our vision became more tangible. When it was just lines of tape, I found it difficult to imagine what it would look like. But once the walls were up and we needed to pick wall colors, I was able to care more.

With us working mostly in tune, we made the best of a frustrating situation. Chris was particularly annoyed at the switch from a door to a window. The lack of a door left an awkwardly-shaped spot where we were going to put a mud room. Instead, I realized we could use it to fulfill a lifelong dream – having a library. Sure, it’s tiny. But a “room” (albeit one without a door) devoted to books? Heaven.

Once we actually started talking, choosing the wall colors and accessories also fell into place. The color wheel’s absurd names (Palisade?) provided some needed levity. We chose an orange-tinged white and tan carpet for the main area and light blue paint with sandstone tiles for the bathroom. While I’m far from an interior designer, everything looks pretty nice together.

Like a reality TV show, the construction team finished right on the deadline. With my parents arriving Wednesday morning, the contractors left at 5 PM Tuesday night.

Our finished basement!

Like any design show, the big reveal topped it off. While Chris and I saw it every day, Sprout hadn’t. That night, we brought him down our newly carpeted stairs. At first, he gave us a look that said, “Was this always here? I don’t remember this.” After standing in the middle of the floor for a while, he walked from room to room, investigating each one. He was particularly interested in our huge storage closet, touching all of the shelves and pointing at the light fixture. To finish off, he ran in circles, enjoying the squishiness of the carpet that he doesn’t get from the hardwood upstairs.

In the end, the whole project turned out beautifully. Everyone had somewhere comfortable to sleep, Sprout has way more space to play, and we have a lot more storage. All of the delays were just little bumps on the way to our destination.

Why Toddlers Are Better than Newborns

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 2 Comments

Why Toddlers Are Better than Newborns (Picture: Chart describing differences in showing affection, receiving affection, communication, play, sleep and independence)

During Sprout’s first few months, every time someone said, “Oh, take advantage of this time while you can,” I wanted to smack them. I was strung out with sleeplessness, lonely, isolated as hell, and emotionally frayed. I loved my son and was amazed by his very presence, but was also terrified that I’d break him. Those first few months were definitely the hardest of my parenting experience and some of the hardest of my entire life.

In contrast, hardly ever anyone says that now that I have a toddler, even though I believe it would be much more appropriate. While Sprout certainly doesn’t lack his challenging moments, I enjoy my time with him so much more now than I did when he was first born. Toddlers get a bad rap.

Here are just a few of the ways in which for me, I find toddlers better than newborns:

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The Best Ethically-Made Toys for Your Holiday Gifts

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 12 Comments

Ethically-made toys can be challenging to find, but these companies make toys in an ethical manner. 

The Best Ethically-Made Toys for Your Holiday Gifts (Photo: Toy fire truck, pounding hammer toy, stuffed raccoon, green wooden toy car)

Browsing the internet and flipping through catalogs, I sigh and frown. I wonder if the toys I’m buying my kids for Christmas won’t just make them happy, but will also do good in the world. While I want them to enjoy them, I don’t want their toys to cause toxic pollution or be made by people who are underpaid and treated poorly.

Ideally, I’d love to buy perfectly ethically-made toys, with workers paid well in safe conditions, materials that are sourced in environmentally-friendly ways, and production that supports local economies. Of course, I also want them to be high quality, encourage creative play, and be usable over a long period of time.

While there’s no such thing as a perfect product, the companies that produce these ethically-made toys get about as close as possible. This post is not sponsored and I do not have affiliate links with these companies. I just personally like them and want to encourage ethical shopping.

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Fighting the Good Fight for Family Biking

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 4 Comments

Early November is a challenging time to bike. In my region, it tends to be cold, windy and wet. So I really wasn’t looking forward to our last Kidical Mass ride of the season, a joint ride with our sister group in nearby Gaithersburg.I was tempted to cancel our half, considering the low temperatures. However, the city had promoted it in both their monthly newsletter and their Facebook page, so I felt obliged to show up in case anyone from Rockville trekked over. Despite a few literal wrong turns, I’m glad I went. My ride to the meeting place and lunch with fellow family biking advocates highlighted a number of our shared challenges.

Our meeting place was about eight miles from my house, so it was too far to bring Sprout in the trailer. As the car trunk doesn’t fit both the bike and trailer, I rode there towing the trailer while Chris drove himself and Sprout. Unfortunately, I got rather lost on the way. While my intended route wasn’t ideal, my detour truly illustrated the infrastructure barriers families face in using cycling for transportation. I cycled over paths and curb cuts that were so bumpy and narrow they’d be uncomfortable or even unsafe for a kid in a trailer. Multi-use trails paralleling major, high-speed roads ended abruptly, forcing me onto the sidewalk. Even those were piecemeal. One sidewalk was split by a single piece of property with a fence, rendering the entire sidewalk on that side of the road useless. Crossing signals at intersections were too short, infrequent or non-existant. Intersections at major roads lacked islands to stand on as you crossed multiple lanes of traffic. I was very glad I didn’t bring Sprout – I would have been quite nervous about his safety.

In contrast, my destination – one of the first planned “smart growth” communities in the country – it was lovely. The residential roads had street parking, but were relatively quiet. A whole network of trails connected different parts of the development.

Moving from one area to the other, it was obvious that while there are islands of high bikability, they’re separated from each other and riding between them is problematic. I’m fortunate to live in one of those islands, especially one that’s well-connected. But the further you go out in the suburbs and away from the semi-urban core, it becomes increasingly more difficult. While it’s nice that people can ride around their neighborhoods, achieving even a “car-light” society where people can rely on biking, walking, and transit for their transportation needs requires a much more comprehensive, connected system than we have now.

When I finally arrived after my misadventure, the ride ended up being me, Sprout, and the Kidical Mass Gaithersburg organizers. We went ahead anyway, believing seeing families out and about on their bikes in such brisk weather sent an important message to the community. Afterwards, we went to the Farmer’s Market and a cafe, where we discussed the particular issues we face with family biking.

One problem we kept coming back to was a lack of understanding of family biking from pretty much everyone, non-cyclists and cyclists alike.

On the non-cyclists’ side, there’s the eternal cry of “But it’s not safe!” The Gaithersburg folks told me that their elementary school won’t allow students to bike there, even though the school is inside a neighborhood designed to be walkable and bikable. If that’s a rule in a “smart growth” community, the rest of us are doomed. Perhaps most frustratingly, the school appears completely uninterested in changing that status quote. The cry of “unsafe!” shuts down the conversation instead of opening it up to the question, “What can we do to make it safer?” Besides just benefitting students, answering that question could help everyone – the school is next to a large park that’s a prime biking location.

Within the cycling community, one fundamental disagreement we have is with “vehicular cyclists.” This group believes bicyclists are the safest and best off when they act and are treated like cars by always taking the lane. While there are plenty of quiet, residential streets where that’s a fine approach, holding it as a philosophy on which to base infrastructure policy decisions is fundamentally incompatible with family biking. Parents who bike with their kids are already nervous enough, when both the American Pediatric Association and Consumer Reports emphatically state use a bike seat or trailer anywhere there might possibly be cars. So to expect parents to take the lane in streets with speed limits above 25 mph or that have stop-and-go traffic is unrealistic. Sticking to the slowest of streets may work for recreational rides, but there’s no way to ride for transportation without a busy road blocking your way, especially in the suburbs. Then of course, there’s the issue of what to do once kids get older. For kids to be able to ride to school or stores on their own bikes, we have to have places they can ride safely as well. If we want parents and children to ride for transportation, we have to provide infrastructure they are comfortable with, such as protected bike lanes and good, well-maintained multi-use paths. Neither on-road cycling or protected infrastructure are the be all end all of biking – rather, having both as viable options is important if we want to make family biking a reality.

Lastly, there’s a bit of a culture gap between the majority of biking advocates in D.C. proper and the suburban family biking crowd (all two of us). People who lead large group rides that attract young professionals don’t have a lot of advice for marketing to families or reaching out to schools. Folks who are used to dealing with biking infrastructure in the city aren’t as familiar with the suburbs’ opportunities (lots of space for protected bike lanes and multi-use paths!) and challenges (everything else). While these aren’t anyone’s fault, they’re another set of communication issues to work on.

Lately, I’ve been telling people that family biking is the “next big thing” for biking in America. But it can be lonely working on something just starting to get off of the ground. It was good to connect with my fellow Kidical Mass leaders to share frustrations and compare notes.

The Myth of the Real Adult

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 4 Comments

The Myth of the Real Adult. Who is this real adult my mind keeps claiming I'm not anyway? (Picture: Woman talking to two kids at a kitchen table, dressed in a 1950s fashion)

When I look at our gross kitchen floor with bits of food that have been there for several days, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I put Sprout to bed at 8:45 PM for the third night in a row, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I look at the baskets of unfolded laundry, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I think about all of the friends I haven’t emailed in months, years, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I look at all of the unchecked items on my to-do list, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When the lawn is way too long and the garden is an overgrown mess, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When the dishes aren’t washed at 11:30 at night, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I only remember my mom’s birthday because of Facebook, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.

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A Halloweening We Will Go

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 1 Comment

Halloween is a holiday that is a hell of a lot more fun with kids. I love Halloween, but as an adult, I’ve found it oddly dissatisfying. As a teenager, I imagined celebrating Halloween as an adult would be mysterious and attractively dark, like a Victorian masquerade ball. But instead, I found out that people’s costumes are less interesting, parties are less well-attended, and it’s just another excuse to drink. While I suspect adulthood in general would be disappointing to my teenage self, I did rekindle my love of the holiday this year through a series of activities with Sprout. With a kid, you once again have an excuse to participate in all of the Halloween activities you remember nostalgically.

Our Halloween started early, with the Silver Spring Zombie Walk followed by a whole week of activities. My newly retired mom came down for the week to celebrate with us, bringing Sprout’s costume with her. She sewed all of my beautiful, original Halloween costumes, so of course we wanted her to make Sprout’s as well. (Unfortunately, her craftiness did not pass on to me.) We ended up picking a dinosaur, as he refuses to wear hats and it was the one toddler costume that didn’t need head-gear to be recognizable. Although I wasn’t impressed with the photo on the pattern envelope, my mom turned the costume into something spectacular. She found scaly, shiny green fabric that gave him a lizard-like feel. She added spikes up the back even though the pattern didn’t have them. She raised up the tail so it didn’t drag on the floor, increasing its aesthetic attractiveness and scientific accuracy. (Although I don’t think any dinosaur with spikes walked upright.) It ended up coming out better than the most expensive store-bought costumes, and of course, it was made with love.

Fortunately, Sprout really liked it. He didn’t fuss while we were putting it on, except for the head piece. (We have exactly two photos with the hat, both with me trying to shove it on and him in the process of pulling it off.) At first, he had a lot of difficulty sitting down because the tail got in the way. But once he figured that out, he seemed to enjoy the costume quite a bit while it was on.

That was a particularly good thing because we put it on him as often as possible. Early in the week, he wore it to a Halloween party at one of our town’s community centers. Despite the variety of activities, he spent most of his time sticking googly-eyed stickers on a pumpkin. But he was far from the only one enamored by the stickers and the fact that he didn’t try to eat them is definitely something for the win category. Later that week, they attended an party at the local kiddie gym that teaches his movement class. There, he cemented his tendency to be a bit of a thrill seeker by going down the baby roller-coaster multiple times all by himself.

Of course, Halloween evening was the pinnacle of the activities. I worked from home that day, so I was able to enjoy the whole evening with my family. We started the night with the annual neighborhood Halloween parade. The fact that my town and its neighborhoods put on numerous events is one of my favorite things about where I live. The parade had close to 75 parents and children, with a full spectrum of adorableness. Among the kids, there was a lightening bolt, a police officer (with his dad as a prisoner!), the dragon from How to Train Your Dragon, a train, a truck with working headlights, a bunch of princesses, Pooh Bear and Piglet, and many others. I wasn’t the only parent in costume either – quite a few adults got in on the action, with funny hats and full costumes. There was even a friendly dog in a purple and green tutu, which slobbered all over Sprout’s face when he got too close. We dawdled along, with the pace being slow enough that Sprout could walk on his own in parts. When he started going too slow and backed up the group, I would scoop him up and hustle to catch up to the rest of the group.

After the parade, we did an abbreviated trick-or-treating route. He was too little to know what was going on, but he also likes trying new things. Also, we knew our immediate neighbors would love to see him in his costume. At first, he was confused as to why he was standing in front of a closed door and would turn around towards us. When someone finally opened the door and greeted him, he got really excited. By the last house, he had the routine down pat, except for the words, of course. Our neighbors were so charmed that they gave him handfuls of candy.

For his hard work, we allowed him to eat a single piece of candy. As most candy is either too small (choking hazard), too chewy (ditto) or has peanuts (haven’t introduced yet), it was surprisingly hard to choose one. We finally picked an Almond Joy and plucked out the almond to avoid the aforementioned and ever-present choking hazard. He loved it, gobbling the whole thing right up. I’m not looking forward to the day he realizes what happened to the rest of his candy.

The one single disappointing thing about Halloween was that we didn’t carve a jack-o-lantern. We left our hard-earned, beautiful pumpkin outside since we picked it a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime, we had a number of warm and rainy days. By the time we went to carve it, it was so mushy that it wasn’t structurally sound. As it was the night before Halloween, we just used Sprout’s pumpkin with way too many eyes instead.

Parenting offers you the chance to see the world through your kids eyes, but this Halloween, I also remembered what it was like to see it through the eyes of myself as a kid.

Celebrate Election Day!

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 2 Comments

Even though tomorrow isn’t a official holiday in the U.S., it’s totally worth celebrating. It’s Election Day!

It’s very easy to get cynical about politics – I live in the D.C. area, after all – but it’s still worth it to participate, especially if you’re a parent. Decisions made on a national level about clean energy, climate change, health care, poverty, and agriculture can affect the country and world for generations to come. Elected leaders at the state and local level influence how our cities and suburbs grow, how we move around them (including how safe it is for children to walk and bike), what industries thrive, and how clean the air and water is. Even the smallest, most local elections can affect your daily life. For example, school boards have a huge influence over the curriculum and structure of our schools.

In addition to the direct impact of voting, it sets a great example for your kids. I have fond memories of standing in the voting booth with my parents and pulling the big, old-fashioned red metal lever that registered the votes. I’m sure that seeing my parents participate in the democratic process seeded much of my community involvement today. Voting with your kids shows them that you’re invested in the future of your community and they should be too.

Now, if you are a regular reader, you can probably guess my politics. Despite that, I won’t tell you to vote the Democratic Party line. For one, some Democrats are terrible leaders (I’m looking at you, Andrew Cuomo). Secondly, most of their politics are way too conservative for my taste, even it’s often the best our system has to offer. But most importantly, I would never recommend that because no one should ever unthinkingly vote the party line. If you haven’t already (I admit, I haven’t), do some research into the candidates before stepping into the booth. Every community has different needs – make sure our system can serve yours appropriately.

So go out there and vote tomorrow! If you don’t know where your local polling station is, you can look it up on Google. And when you finish, wear your “I voted” sticker with pride.

What Kind of Monster is Your Kid?

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 1 Comment

What Kind of Monster Is Your Kid? (Pictures of vampire, fairy and Bigfoot)

Wrapping up my son in a blue hooded towel with three eyes as I pull him out of the bathtub, I exclaim, “Who’s the cutest little monster?” Looking in the mirror, I want to keep him that adorable size forever. Seven hours later at 3 AM, I hear the shriek of the banshee and shudder. Then he’s a monster of a completely different type.

While our children are often the cute Muppet monsters, on their worst days, they can wander into old-fashioned horror movie territory.

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Just Shambling Along: Bringing a Kid to the Silver Spring Zombie Walk

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 2 Comments

As toddlers often have a loose grasp on the mechanics of walking, they sometimes lurch or shamble. So we thought it was appropriate to bring Sprout on his first Zombie Walk this past weekend.

A Zombie Walk is pretty much what it says – loads of people dress as zombies and then shamble along a route. Moaning, saying “Braasinnns,”and/or gently teasing bystanders is highly encouraged. A town near us has been hosting a Zombie Walk for the past several years and they’re immense fun. Like the Renaissance Faire, they’re an opportunity to dress up and become something radically different for a little while. As someone who gets Very Concerned about Big Issues (and sometimes stupid little ones), the idea of playing something totally brainless has a certain appeal. Unlike most zombie movies, Zombie Walks (or at least the Silver Spring one) aren’t meant to be scary at all. Instead, they wholeheartedly embrace the camp aspect of zombies, recognizing that often the zombies in movies are more interesting and sometimes more sympathetic than the protagonists.

Before heading out, we zombified ourselves. In the past, I’ve actually gone as a specific type of character – I was an activist zombie one year, decked out in as many buttons as I could find and holding a placard saying Occupy Graveyard. This year, I wanted do a family theme. While there are some very clever (and gross) costumes people have created with baby carriers, our inward facing Ergo-Baby doesn’t quite have the same Evil Fetus costume potential. Plus, Sprout’s too big for it now. Instead, I wanted to do an idealized 1950s zombie family. I put on my purple button-down retro-style dress for myself, so I had my part down. While they weren’t exactly period-appropriate, we dressed Sprout in his skeleton pajamas so he could fall asleep in the car on the way home. Unfortunately, Chris didn’t want to fuss with a suit. He did put on a button-down shirt, but it wasn’t quite the effect I was going for.

For the makeup, we used gray water-based make-up on Sprout. The application process wasn’t all that different from putting sunscreen on him, which he’s used to, even if he doesn’t like it. Chris and I both used oil-based makeup to provide more color, and I dripped fake blood around my mouth. (I used corn syrup and red food coloring, which is less drippy, cheaper, and easier to wash out than the store-bought stuff.) Unfortunately, our makeup ended up barely visible in the poorly-lit street. Afterwards, Chris commented, “Our faces just look dirty.” I guess we needed more green and less gray.

People dressed up as zombie versions of Thing 1 and Thing 2 at the Silver Spring Zombie Walk
Arriving at the starting point, we found a broad array of interpretations of the theme. A zombie family with everyone dressed in wedding gear celebrated the mom and dad’s real-life anniversary. The dad was holding a sign saying “To have and to hold in life and undeath.” Zombie 1 and Zombie 2 were the undead versions of Thing 1 and Thing 2, holding the decapitated head of the Cat in the Hat. The prince’s kiss seemed to wake up Zombie Snow White, despite the fact that she was actually dead. Zombie Sharknados got props for a clever costume idea in general, but points off for it clearly just being their Halloween costume with zombie makeup. Zombie Elvis was decked out in sequins, strumming a guitar, and singing versions of the classics tweaked appropriately for the audience. There were even a few folks facing the invading hoard with panache – Shaun from his eponymous movie was there, as was a church lady of the Dana Carvey sort with a Repent Zombies! placard.

We didn’t quite match up, but our one saving grace was having the darn cutest zombie on the walk. While there were a number of other kids there, and even a few around the same age, none of them were quite as prominent. We hauled Sprout up on Chris’s shoulders so he could see everything and be seen. As we walked, bystanders gave numerous, “Look at the baby zombie!” and “He’s so cute!” We even had a number of people take photos. While I’m not fond of strangers taking photos of my child, it’s inevitable if you participate in an event like this.

For his part, Sprout seemed to enjoy it. Most of the time, he had his “I’m taking it all in” expression on his face. I think he especially liked being up on Chris’s shoulders and seeing everything. The only problem was that he kept sticking his finger in Chris’s ear! We joked that he was trying to dig for tasty daddy brains.

I had a couple people I told about the walk ask if Sprout was scared; I can definitely say he wasn’t. While he gets startled easily, he isn’t old enough to understand why this would be scary. I think he just interpreted this as “another weird thing mom and dad are doing,” along with all of the other weird things we do. Heck, it’s not that much weirder than Disney, which has a giant mechanical bear singing about murder on one of their classic rides. As he gets older, I suspect we’ll take a couple years off between when he’s old enough to understand the concept of zombies but too young to appreciate their camp aspect.

To sum it up, my kid has been to some weird events. But with parents like his, weirdness is inevitable.

An Autumn Extravaganza: Halloween at Butler’s Orchard

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 3 Comments

Photo: Child walking through a tunnel framed by a jack-o-lantern. Text: "An Autumn Extravaganza: Halloween at Butler's Orchard."

Autumn is my favorite season, with the changing leaves, the cooler weather, the fall harvest, and Halloween. Oh, Halloween – a celebration of imagination and as much candy as you can mooch off the neighbors. A perfect chance to be someone else for a night and engage with the not-so-scary monsters of the world before you have to face the ones in the real world. So of course, I’ve looked forward to celebrating Hallowern with Sprout. And you can’t have a good Halloween without a high quality pumpkin. So off we went to the local orchard to pick a pumpkin and attend their fall children’s festival.

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