Fun Times

We packed up the kids and headed to the Fair yesterday.  I feel lucky that we have so many to choose from around here.  I LOVE going to the fair!  I love everything about it (except the crowds, it was the most crowded I’d ever seen it yesterday).  Especially the food.  And the animals.  And the grange hall with all its displays.  And the food. Yeah, especially the food. LOL

The kids always want to stop at the fountain first.  I’m not sure the appeal but I guess at least it’s a good place to get a starting out photo.

 

There’s also a stage nearby and it just so happened that The Gothard Sisters were getting ready to perform within minutes of our arrival.  Perfect!  They are a Celtic trio of sisters (not triplets, just a trio) who sing, dance and play all their own instruments.  They were super good! 

 

Elias clapped and clapped.

Then we danced.

Then he just watched and watched.

 

Next we stopped at the caramel apple stand to see if they sold them sliced up and lo and behold the woman said that she’d slice a whole one for us so we bought an M&M caramel apple.  There were six slices.  Perfect!  I could have done without the M&Ms.  Elias could have done without the actual caramel and apple.  Next time we’ll have to work out an arrangement.

 

Then we meander on through the carnival games to Sillyville where all the kids rides and entertainment are.  There is a Pirate show for the kids.  I hoped that Elias would be happy sitting in the little boat so we could watch.  It worked!  (For a  while.)

Zion got to be IN the show!  I thought it was pretty cool how they let children volunteers dress up and be part of the show.  Zion was a fish/ocean waves.

Random bubble photo.

 

Holy cow ride tickets are expensive!  We bought enough for the kids to pick two rides, Elias got one ride and sheesh, that was enough!  But the kids had fun.  Zion and Gabe went through the fun house together.  Zion clung to his arm before going in saying “You need to take care of me!”  :)

Gideon chose the kids’ roller coaster but was too short to go alone so I went with him.  I FINALLY got him to put his arms up a round or two before the ride ended.  He’s so brave!

We wanted Elias to have a ride with a steering wheel, that would be just his sort of thing, but they were all either down for maintenance or he was too short.  So we picked the canoe because Gideon wanted the canoe too.  But with no belts in the canoe who would keep him from jumping out (that would be SO like him).  The guy manning the ride was nice enough to let all the kids go through even though we didn’t have enough tickets (we didn’t ask, he volunteered when we asked him how many tickets were left on our ride card).  So all four of them got one ride together.  So sweet!

 

As usual there was the junk music statue.  The kids love to drum on all of the different elements.  It is very popular and VERY loud!

 

Gideon has come such a long way in his ability to handle noise and crowds.  This year he was excited to go and had fun right from the get go, he wasn’t at all overwhelmed and enjoyed participating in everything we did.  Yay for Gideon!

 

Another stop to find some shade and have a snack.  This time chocolate sprinkle mini doughnuts.  yum!

I don’t even recall what upset him.  I think it was Rob stepping away to buy a corndog for Gabe.  He’s just so darn cute even when he’s upset so I had to take a picture.

 

Random Ferris Wheel shot.

 

Time for the animal barns!  This is an Americauna chicken.  They lay colored eggs.  As in blue, green or pink.  The Americauna mixes are called Easter Eggers.  Though we were told we were buying Americaunas when we bought some of our chicks I’m pretty sure they are Easter Eggers.  Still it will be fun to have colored eggs.  :)

 

This is a pheasant. The male was nice and calm, just hanging out.  The female was kind of freaking out.  That’s her zooming by in the background.  Poor thing.  But the male, SO gorgeous!

There were many variety of geese as well.  I don’t want geese.  I wouldn’t mind some ducks though.

Elias let himself nap for a while.  He slept until he tried to roll over to his tummy and realized he was sitting up, not laying down so that was kind of impossible.

We walked past the draft horse barn but it was roped off so they could ready the horses for and exhibition so this was the only shot I got.  I edited it to give it an old timey feel.  I like it.

After that we tried to walk through the sale barns with the folks shucking their wares and the grange hall but it was SO crowded.  At times we were stuck in a glut of people, moving like molasses and really unable to stop and look at anything or move on to get out so we decided it was enough and time to go home.  We’d been there 7 1/2 hours though and the kids were pretty tired.  What a fun, fun day!