Scarecrow Festival, St. Charles

When Raj got home from work, we drove out to St. Charles to the Scarecrow Festival.
 Illinois Festival Guide

  "Join generations of visitors who flock to the annual St. Charles Scarecrow Fest every year! For over 25 years, this award-winning festival has brought heartwarming memories to both children and adults, and is a tradition for thousands of families across the Midwest. The heart and soul of the festival is the Scarecrow Contest, which boasts 150+ hand-crafted scarecrows. Visitors view and vote for their favorite in each of six categories. Both children and adults will find plenty to do all weekend long which is why so many choose to make it a weekend in our charming community. Enjoy live entertainment, a huge arts and crafts show, carnival, and petting zoo those are just a few highlights! You can even make your own scarecrow to take home. Plus, enjoy plenty of delicious food. The possibilities are endless. Best of all.admission, parking, trolleys and parking shuttles are all FREE! Come on out and experience why Scarecrow Fest is a four time winner of the Top 100 Events in North America." 

 We really had no idea what to expect when we got there, but the gray & rainy weather earlier in the day helped us get very close parking by scaring off those who might melt in inclement weather. ;) As we parked though,the sun came out and the clouds parted into blue skies - a great day to be out at a fest! First, we visited a make-your-own-scarecrow booth. (Free of charge!) They handed us a shirt & pants packaged together with a pair of pantyhose and some twine. A highly experienced volunteer guided us through the scarecrow-making process and gave us plenty of tips along the way. (While I'm sure we would've figured out the basics of the Frankenstein-like project, we would not have been nearly as successful without his help.) Shawn watched from the side, but occasionally brought us more straw from the bales around the enclosure. He was much more interested in seeing the other parts of the festival.  

I think I have a bale's worth of straw in my diaper bag now! We also joked about how eerie it would look for the scarecrow to be seated in the car until we were ready to go home later. So, Raj stuffed the body into the trunk instead. (I'm not sure that looked much better!) Afterwards, Shawn rode some carnival rides and perked up significantly! We also walked around a park where various people & groups competed for the best children's/mechanical/whimsical/ etc. scarecrow. They really put ours to shame... not that it was a hard thing to do... Shawn found a great playground where he ran around for a little while, then did a few more rides. Even Lilly went on her first - a ferris wheel ride for all 4 of us that gave a beautiful (yet a bit chilly) view of downtown St. Charles. While there was plenty of over-priced, over-fried carni-food around, we opted to dine at a local establishment: The Filling Station. Shawn was starting to run out of steam and by the time we headed out of the restaurant, most of the festival had shut down.
We were ready to call it a night, too. Until... Raj and I decided to see what our new house looks like at night. While the kids snored in their car seats, we drove to Stevens Glen and admired our new address. We drove around the neighborhood and found a park a few blocks away. It's nice to know it's close. (It was hard to see much, but there definitely were soccer goals and a playground.) Raj tried giving me another tour around the businesses in the area, but I'll need to explore on my own before I learn where anything is. Looking forward to the adventure!

Celebration time

We went out to dinner to a new restaurant in Roselle that has been getting a lot of rave reviews. It's called 8000 miles, which is the distance from Roselle to a city in China where the main chefs and their operating partner met. (Here's an article from the Daily Herald.)

The menu was Chinese - Japanese fusion. While there were a lot of sushi choices, there were still plenty for non-sushi eaters like us. I had a mildly spicy basil chicken; Raj had garlic chicken; Shawn had sweet & sour chicken; and even Lilly feasted on a few grains of fried rice. Shawn hijacked my pomegranate & lime mocktail and I got stuck with his apple juice - I really got gypped!  The whole meal was all really flavorful and we understand what all the excitement has been about.  I'm sure we'll be going back.

Little did we know, but the evening out was actually a celebratory one. While we were eating, Mr. Haque, our realtor called. Our offer on a house in St. Charles was accepted!

We placed an offer on the house in late September (admittedly low-balling their asking price), but they came back with a counter-offer that was higher than what we were willing to agree to. We were under the impression that their counter-offer was as low as they were willing to go - take it or leave it.  After our offer, they held an open house, but it must not have been productive. We had also been told that the owners were going to take the house off the market for the winter, since it's such a slow time in the housing industry. I guess the owners didn't want to sit on it for another season and start over again in the spring. (We think they already live somewhere else.) They ended up accepting our original offer!