The National Book Festival. 9/21

Scanned polaroid they took of our family!

We all went in to DC for the National Book Festival. Seth took the boys two years ago when I was newly pregnant with Conrad and opted out. It was held outside on the grass at the Mall. They have lots of authors doing readings/signings and then other tents for activities. We mostly hung out in the kids tents. The kids favorite activity was visiting the Pavilion of States. Each child received a passport that had a spot for each state and territory to stamp after you visited their table. We battled a massive crowd but the boys visited each table. Each state was different as far as their set up. Most presented books where the authors were from their state and handed out book-marks, pencils, pins, pamphlets, beads, and more. Maine takes the award for the best hand out with a gummy lobster. At the end they all got a reusable shopping bag for completing (lame). The kids also got to make their own book, decorate a book mark, get their picture taken with a PBS character, and received s Skippy John Jones Book (I really struggle reading those books). They were completely entertained for FOUR hours when it was decided Conrad was done so we were done (he was actually done hours before but thankfully he had a patient Daddy who entertained him). We hauled an incredible amount of crap souvenirs back to the car and stopped for ice cream to top off the day.