Going to the Fair

Monday the kids didn't have school.  Every year the school has a day off during the fair.  Usually that's the day we go.  Since Aaron was on call, he wasn't able to go with us.  The boys had a piano rehearsal that morning.  I forgot to mention that the previous Friday I completely missed the boys' lessons.  Usually I pick up David from cross country and then take them to lessons, but his coach was out of town and he didn't have practice, somehow I completely forgot about piano lessons until David said something at 5:45 :(  Anyway... I took them to the rehearsal, and then we came home and got a few things done around the house until it was time to go.  Unfortunately Melanie fell asleep on the way there at 10:15 am!!! We got there pretty early - the gates don't open until 11:00am.  But we found some free street parking. It was raining, so we sat in the van for a bit to wait out the rain and let Melanie sleep.  Eventually we loaded up the stroller and walked over.

 As usual the first stop was this crazy noisy thing

 We walked through the arean with all of the vendors, but didn't see anything really exciting. 

 Melanie enjoyed the free Franz Circus animal cookies

The rotating exhibit was called Sweet!

 It's pretty self explantatory

 made out of candy wrappers

 Amy actually wanted to pose for pictures!

 After that we found the bucket of junk contest

 Here's our entry

 We got fourth place

 First place was amazing!!!

 2nd place

3rd place

 5th place

 We also found our pumpkin - it weighed in at 60 lbs.  The winning pumpkin was over 600 lbs!!!  Not that we thought we'd win, but it's fun to enter.

We never found the other vegetables we entered.

The kids were hungry so we stopped and got a couple of huge cheeseburgers to share.  Amy threw a fit because the bun started to fall apart when she tried to take the cheese off.  I was about ready to leave right there.  We didn't pay for parking, and the tickets came free when we entered things in the fair.  She did calm down and ate almost all of her cheese burger.  Then we wandered some more.

 There was a bird display

 If you held out a dollar bill the bird would fly to you and take it back and put it in the donation bowl

The kids had fun in the kids' barn

 a corn bin

 The big kids got on the big tractor

 Melanie enjoyed the toddler area

 Amy "milked" a fake cow

 they loved the little farm house

 and the train

 and the school house

I didn't take many pictures after that.  We saw the animals, and wandered around the carnival games. The boys wasted $5 on the coin game and got a couple of cheap prizes. Then they wanted to get $4 ice cream cones. We couldn't stay much longer because Timothy and Amy had their drama and dance classes.  So I made them a deal. I told them if we left right then they could have an ice cream at McDonald's.  David wanted o use his money for a chocolate shake, and I said that was OK.  So we left.

 one last stop at the noisy display on the way out

 Melanie putting her feet up

So we drove over to McDonald's, got some ice cream and then went to Costco to pick up a few things including some pictures I'd printed.  Then we went to the classes.  I mentioned that Amy got to try her class for free as a guest of Timothy's  She really enjoyed it.  There were a couple of other kids not in leotards also trying the class.  They each got to put their name in a drawing for bringing a friend.  The prize was a giant teddy bear - you know, the ones from Costco. They were giving away two giant teddy bears.  David was completely bored.  We played outside for a bit, and sat inside, and wandered around.  Eventually it was time to go home. I was glad I didn't have to go to Costco on the way home. Unfortunately Melanie fell asleep on the way home. She was really whiny when I woke her up. It made getting dinner together really difficult. Aaron had to help. That's about it.  Phew what a day!