Loving the LEAF festival

Happy Halloween. We are getting all jazzed up to celebrate the holiday with trick-or-treating tonight, I've got two ninjas that I'll be walking around with.

Last weekend we attended the Lake Eden Arts Festival for the first time after hearing about it from so many of our new friends, it happens twice a year in an idyllic spot in the mountains of North Carolina and we found it to be the perfect blend of adult and kid friendly attractions. While there was live music that we wanted to hear in other parts of the large fair, we were hardly able to convince our kids to leave the "kids village" a special spot set up for children where we spent almost our whole day visit. The village was so full of fun things for them to do. My favorite was the kids handcraft market a special spot for children to set up and sell their own hand made things,

the setting on Lake Eden was picture perfect, a bit chilly to swim but there were canoe rentals and a zip line going down from the mountain into the water,

next year we hope to book one of the coveted camping spots and spend the whole weekend,

More sights in the "kid village", lots of active bouncy/climbing things to do, fairies parading on stilts...

our kids spent hours swinging in these hammocks, that were set up in the sand next to the tight rope line,

Carys became a butterfly,

and the kids visited one of the best costume tents I've ever seen, with a dress-up idea to fit every kid's fantasy,

We know families in Charleston who go to this festival every year with their kids, and I enjoyed seeing older children there who had obviously been coming for years and felt so comfortable running around without their parents, it was that kind of place. We'll definitely be back!