Life is [a] Fair!

For the most part, my sister and I had a fairly idyllic childhood. Summers were especially special. They were s.l.o.w. and smelled of soil, grain dust, wind, not-much-rain (unfortunately), grass, grease, sweat, and vinyl pickup seats. We had time for things like suppers in the field, quietly playing after the noon meal so the men, who were already exhausted, could take ten minute naps, bouncing along with Mom on the never-ending task of lawn-mowing (perhaps not the safest idea in the world nor one I'd do with my own critters, but I loved it!), biking into town to play at the park and maybe get a grape soda from "Vince's store", or driving into the bigger town on a nice night to get a "slush" and look at the fields' progress on the backroads way home. We savored summer, and in many ways, I suppose that's why with our girls we've ended up saying "no" to a lot of the really, really good activities they could be involved in all summer (swimming lessons all summer, t-ball, dance classes, park programs, programs the children's museum, art programs, etc., etc., etc. - it's sooooo hard to pick and choose a few things to take advantage of and then to leave the rest in favor of teaching our children to just "be").  Mike's "being" time happened most out in the middle of a lake, and over the 4th we had a wonderful day spent like that (none of which was captured on camera because the silly photographer - me - left it up at the house.....).

Anyway, when my family took a vacation day or two, it often involved a fair which is probably why I braved (or "stupided"?) the trek to our county fair last Wednesday with the girls when it was 96 degrees with high humidty. I refused to even check the heat index - because it didn't matter. We brought along water and snacks and lots of sunscreen, and we headed out for an afternoon of fun at the fair!

The girls were as thrilled as I was with this hay bale display. Miss Mouse insisted we needed a picture for Grandpa Bob, the former hog producer.

There were cute little pictures for the girls to stick their heads through all over the place, but there were only two that even Miss Mouse could reach. Looks good on a tractor, doesn't she?!

She's pretty proud to be able to really reach this one.

Sunny can almost reach. Almost!



This is a duckling water slide. There is a kiddie pool at the bottom that they "slide" down into and splash around in. We didn't see any use the actual slide, which really did have water running down it, but they walked down frequently to splash.

It's maybe hard to understand what this is from just a picture, but they are all little peeps of some sort (some are chickens, some are button quail, etc.) that are meandering around a miniature "fair" scene. The light you can see is a heat lamp for the babies.

More of the fair scene.



This is the bottom of a tree house. Can you see the little chick thinking about entering? You can't tell very well, but he's actually green. He was dyed with food coloring (it doesn't hurt them, and they don't care!).



If little green peep is brave enough to enter, he can climb all the way up the tree house from level to level through these little tunnels. At each level there is a sort of flat "play area" for the peeps. It's hilarious!



I thought Grandpa Dick would particularly appreciate this peep display; there aren't any babies in this picture, but the display is an airport crawling with peeps!



They're all hanging out in the hangar! I think it was mostly button quail in this display.



The girls are fascinated by each display. We tend to stay in this agricultural education barn for at least 45 minutes.



These peeps have a castle!



Miss Mouse answered a question correctly, so she got to race a remote controlled car. She thought it was pretty awesome, especially when she ran into a little boy's car and was able to push his back by moving hers forward. It wasn't that they were actually "racing"; she just thought it was hilariously funny that her car was deciding where his should go! The question she answered was "what is a female chicken called?". She looked at the girl asking it and said, "Um, a hen" really sweetly, but sort of as if the girl must have been from Mars or something to ask her a question like that!



More brightly-colored chickens! I wonder what they think about themselves.....



Apparently last year there was a big stink about the coloring of the chickens/peeps because some people thought it was horrible and cruel. I'm not sure why it would be, given the amount of people who dye their own hair with food coloring or kool-aid and such, but I was glad to see that the 4-H clubs (or whoever does it) stuck with it this year. They're awfully adorable!

I did nearly tip over, though, when the young 4-H girl we were visiting with (she was telling the girls about chicken ears and such - she must have been about 11) was asked by a grown woman, "So, when they grow up, are their eggs different colors, too?". At first, neither I nor the 4-H girl realized what she was asking, so the girl said, "Yes, some are brown; some are white; some have a greenish tinge; some are spotted." Then the grown woman said, "Oh, wow! So will some be purple, too?". Honestly, I nearly tipped over. The poor young girl just said, "Oh, no. Um, that's just food coloring. It wears off."

Miss Mouse was so very, very proud to be able to hold her own peep!



Around this huge round table, they had bins of nearly every kind of crop grown in our state. You were supposed to look at it and then lift the flap to see what it was. Miss Mouse got the sunflowers right, and she was impressed to see the difference between confectionary and oil (Daddy was describing that to her the other day....he has a history with sunflowers having done some rogueing (sp?) of them in his earlier days!). She also got several others correct, and Sunny just loved having her hands in all the bins. Personally, I learned that "pink beans" are grown here. Someday I would like to see a field of "pink beans", I think, and I believe I know someone who can hook me up with that opportunity....



Here Sunny is gazing at a whole box full of hatching eggs. The girls got to watch them hatch, from where they were just pecking out of their shells, to where they squirmed their wet, little bodies out into the world. When they dried off, they were taken over to the different display areas, but they made sure to keep a few dry ones for children to hold from this display.



None of the 4-H kids watching the displays would let Sunny hold a peep, an opinion of which I was completely understanding! The adult woman running the egg-hatching table, though, didn't seem concerned at all. In fact, it was I that was sweating profusely by the time Sunny finally decided she'd held the little guy long enough (I kept making sure she was holding him directly over the table so that when - not if; it happened several times - he jumped out of her hands, he didn't go *splat* on the floor). Truth be told, she'd have stood there all day with him (she would periodically put him up to her chin and "snuggle" him) if I'd let her. It took quite awhile to get her to even consider parting with her new friend. She was so proud and felt like such a big girl!



After we had toured the ag education barn thoroughly, it was time to head back out into the blistering sunshine. The only item left on the girls' agendas before seeing the rabbit and poultry barns on our way out was to ride a carnival ride.  I had told them they could each pick one, thinking that it wasn't fair to let one or the other completely decide which ride they should go on. Plus, I was afraid Miss Mouse might pick the high-flying-for-a-small-child bumblebee ride that I wasn't comfortable letting Sunny go on without an adult!

It shouldn't surprise me by this point, and yet it still does.....the girls walked around a bit and decided - together - that they wanted to go on the spinning dragon ride. I suppose at some point in the future, they'll start understanding that if they had each picked a ride, they could have potentially weasled their way into getting on two rides a piece from me, but right now, they're just so incredibly sweet and innocent in that way. It almost (almost!) makes me feel guilty!

So here they are, hand-in-hand, wearing their butterfly sunvisors from the zoo last weekend, waiting for their turns on the spinning dragons. Since their Daddy is not a big fan of carnival rides (to put it lightly!), and since I'm perfectly fine not having them running around the carnival all day when there is so much else to do at the fair, we don't get the all-day ride passes....which means it cost $6 for the two of them to go on this ride! I had a little sticker shock, but considering we made sure to arrive during the "free admission" period....



They walked in rather hesitantly but ended up picking this purple spinning dragon.  For some reason, that I think we'll just chalk up to pregnancy hormones as long as I can use that excuse, I suddenly had this humongous lump in my throat as they climbed into the dragon and out of my sight! Honestly, I was thankful for the heat making me drip sweat because it wasn't nearly so obvious that I had tears in my eyes!

Somewhat, I was scared to pieces that Sunny was going to be, well, scared to pieces. Or sick. Puking. Screaming for mommy.

I don't know why I bother worrying about that. I should know by now that Miss Mouse would hold her and take care of her! But, um, yeah, that's not exactly what I wanted to pin on a five-year-old, either.

So, they climbed in, and I cried.

Thankfully (thankfully?!) the ride ended up breaking! Chalk one up for Daddy and his distrust of carnival rides, I guess!  The girls got through about 1/2 a ride before I saw the carnival worker struggling with the machine. I continued to sweat harder as I wondered if he was trying to get them stopped and couldn't. He fumbled and pulled this switch and that switch and pressed this button and that button. Finally they all stopped, and he let the kids all off. This was, though, after I had been, ahem, privileged enough to see the girls spin by me about three times. A mom and her probably-four-year-old boy were also in the same cart as the girls, which did make me feel a lot better. Still, I was glad to see them get off!

When I asked Sunny if she liked it, she said she "wuved" it, but that the other little boy hadn't liked spinning very much. She then pointed out that he must have been a "baby" because he didn't understand that it was supposed to spin. Hmmm...yeah, I'm pretty sure he was at least a year older than Sunny, but, hey, who's counting?!

Miss Mouse was mostly concerned with whether or not they had been supposed to be spinning the table/wheel contraption. She was most relieved to find out that it had been perfectly appropriate. Sound like anyone you once knew, Grammy?



Because the other ride had broken, the carnival man gave the girls each a free ticket for another ride. It was really nice of him, and I can very, very truly say that I enjoyed watching them on this one immensely!

Doesn't Sunny look thrilled, though?!

I'm not sure if you can really read Sunny's expression in this one, but she's gritting her teeth and smiling really wide at the same time. It's an almost frightening expression, and she kept it on herself the entire rest of the ride. I still have no idea what it meant for sure, but she's not had any nightmares or anything. I guess she must have enjoyed the ride?



Miss Mouse wanted me to take this picture for someone special. I think you'll know who you are!!!!



This picture was also a Miss Mouse request for my same friend. They were such funny-looking birds that I couldn't hold the camera still. I tried to adjust my settings properly and be of a serious photographic mind, but with those silly hair-dos and their mouths hanging open (much the way I suppose mine was most of the afternoon!), I couldn't seem to hold still or to get a decent camera setting for them. But, alas, there they are in all their ridiculous glory!



Before we left for the afternoon, Miss Mouse begged me to ask how much the horse rides were. They were the sort where you ride on a pony in a circle, and there was no price posted anywhere. They were positioned next to the petting zoo, which was free, so I think she had some hope that they might be free. I told her that I didn't intend to spend much money on her riding a pony in circles when she can do that this fall at our church's Rally Sunday event.....and can ride a horse at her aunt's house, too, for that matter. Plus, privately I thought the poor animals looked horribly hot on that 96 degree day and felt sort of bad even putting 40-pound Miss Mouse on one of them!

She convinced me to say, "How much are the rides?" and then if they were too much to say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have that much cash, but thank you". So, all the way over, she asking me if I remembered what she had told me to say and if I would say it just the way she recommended. Quite the little coach, she was!

As it turned out, the rides were $5 a piece, so it would have been $10 for the girls to both ride in a circle. Not going to happen, given what I explained above. I suppose if we had no access to another horse all year, then, maybe.....still....$10 for a circular horse ride just sort of rubs a farm girl wrong, I guess.

In her last-ditch attempt to get us to stay at the fair longer, Miss Mouse begged to go "pan" for "semi-precious stones". That event was in a barn (shade!) and was advertised clearly as costing $1. I gave in, and we spent the next 30 minutes "panning" for these stones. It turned out to be really cool! There were members of the local rock club, which I didn't know we had, wandering around explaining what some of the different types of stones were, and it was really fun for both girls. Sunny was completely wilted before we were done, though, because although we had the advantage of shade, the barn had taken away all our breeze, leaving us a sweaty, weary bunch of girls. At one point, poor Sunny was standing by our table and tipped over. The grandfatherly rock expert was pretty sure he had seen her eyes close, and that she had fallen asleep! If a girl can sleep-eat, she probably can sleep-pan-for-stones, too, I suppose! Shortly after that, we left and headed for the van, though. I really do try to not wear my children out!

All-in-all, we had a wonderful time at the fair again this year. There were a few events we missed, mainly on account of my not being able to muster up enough energy to head back out there again for a cattle show or horse show, both of which the girls wished they could have seen (yes, truly, they enjoy cattle shows where you sit and listen to someone on an often-poor-sound-system explain which of the animals is better and why!), but we really did get in an awful lot in one afternoon. We even heard a one-man accordian show while we snacked under a large tent mid-afternoon. Miss Mouse leaned over at one point and commented to me, "This one is a polka.". Good girl!

It really was a fun day, a memory I will tuck away for the ages, and one I hope the girls will, too. It did, though, leave me missing my Grandpa Don, being alive, and my Grandma ,being the way I remember, more than usual this week. Wouldn't it be something to be able to have our own grandparents at the ages where we remember them as children at the same time as having children of our own? *Sigh*. Rather than focus on the impossible, I suppose, I talked to the girls both about our own trip to the fair and about how one particular set of their great-grandparents enjoyed being with their Auntie Laura and their Mommy at the fair so much so many years ago. It probably really doesn't get better than being able to create our own memories and to pass on the ones from my past at the same time!