franken-kite

this past saturday we woke up to a blustery day. a perfect day for some kite flying. so around 11am, i hitched up the bike trailer and a and i went over to crap-mart to look for a kite. after about thirty minutes in the store and asking three different sales associates if they had kites, we walked out of there empty handed. so. home we went with the promise to a that i'd build him a kite. so during his nap, i looked up kites and after he awoke, we built one based off of pbs.org- the benjamin franklin kite. unfortunately, though, it didn't really get off the ground. we even charlie brown'd it once (got it wrapped in a tree). after another couple of failed attempts, the kite was packed away in the laundry room.
sunday we awoke to a calm day. no chance of kite flying.
i watched the weather report that night and they mentioned a windy afternoon on monday.
so after racing home monday night after work, i quickly changed and asked boo if he wanted to try flying the kite again. another couple of failed attempts resulted ina broken cross beam. i took it inside and taped it together with some blue painters tape. then, after another unsuccessful flight, grandpa murray (built/assembled his own plane), took up the reins and made some alterations. he bowed the horizontal beam and started to add weight to the tail. we headed across the street into the dirt lot and tried again. this time, it rose into the air, but would dive only after a couple of seconds. looking around the dirt lot, gp murray picked up some orange rope and yellow plastic tape he found strew about the lot and tied it to the tail. the next flight proved to be exceptional. it actually flew. the franken-kite was airborne and aiden was excited to finally have a kite to fly.