It's no secret that we love community activities and our small town fair is one of our all-time favorites. I love that it feels perfectly safe to point one child in the general direction of the bathroom, while keeping an eye on another child from a distance, while striking up a conversation with someone I've never seen before. The atmosphere is both relaxing and festive at the same time. The fairgrounds are full of action over the weekend and we spent quite a bit of time there.
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| Pippi the Clown mingled with the crowd and did a wonderful job of entertaining preschoolers. I never had to wonder where Ethan was as long as she was around! |
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| There was wooden and bucket stilts laying around the lawn for anyone to use. Michael loved the bucket stilts. |
Unfortunately, the carnival backed out a few weeks ago but the fair board managed to pull in some other fun activities. It was certainly not as fun as rides but they were free to us and the children still had a great time!
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| It took Michael a few minutes to work up the courage to do the 20 foot jump. |
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| And he did it! Makayla did this as well but I never got a picture. |
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| Emily prefered to jump on this contraption instead of the high jump :). |
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| Makayla racing her friend Mikayla to the top of the climbing wall. |
We were a bit surprised to see how fast Makayla took to climbing. This was her favorite activity and she spent most of her time here. Michael will tell you that he didn't make it to the top because it started raining and it was to slick. Emily made it 3/4th of the way up then looked down and freaked out. I wasn't there but Eldon managed to coax her down.
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| Repelling down. |
The Friday night rodeo was a combination of bull-riding and medieval jousting. We weren't sure what to expect but it was a fantastic show! The jousting announcer was hilarious so that made it even more fun. This sport is even more crazy then bull-riding and certainly requires skill. We watched a small lady knock a huge man right off his horse!
This evening was especially fun since another full-time family that we met 3 years ago drove 1 1/2 hours to attend it with us. After the rodeo we roamed the livestock barns and chatted in the parking lot for awhile.
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| Knights preparing to charge. |
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| Bull-riding! |
Saturday was drizzly and cool but we headed out anyhow. First on the agenda was the parade. The children didn't even notice the vehicles because they were so busy collecting candy. I've never been to a town that throws more candy than this!
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| Demolition Derby cars |
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| I like pink :) |
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| Back at the fairgrounds. the bubble tower was blowing out bubbles, much to the delight of many children. |
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| The mural kept Ethan coloring for along time . |
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| Talk about a cute little car! |
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| The petting zoo! I dropped Ethan off here and he stayed for a good hour. They had hair brushes to use on the animals and he just loved it. |
Saturday at 1:00 we enjoyed another rodeo. Michael and Emily were so excited to have made it on the list for mutton busting.
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| The clown act is always a favorite! |
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| More bull riding. Ethan was fascinated with the bull fighters. |
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| Emily, all geared up for mutton busting. She scored a 79 (plus a facefull of dirt) |
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| Michael, preparing to climb on his sheep. He scored an 84 (for reference, the highest score was 93) |
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| They both got a $2 bill for doing a good job! |
The petting zoo also held turkey races. Yes, it's as redneck and fun as it sounds. The owner has a remote control truck with a bowl of feed on the top and it's hilarious to watch the turkeys chase it around the track! Occasionally he would ask 4 kids to help, give them all a feather duster, and assign them a turkey to chase. He had us all roaring with laughter until it was over!
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| Michael helping with a turkey race |
Last year we dabbled with open class fair entries just a little bit and had so much fun that we went crazy this year. The children did a lot of hard work and it was fun to search for their entries in the exhibit hall. I've taken pictures of our things that placed so you can check them out too. Normally we get ribbons but they ran out of first place ribbons and opted not to give second and third too. So you'll see only a few ribbons but lots of stickers!
Ethan
Ethan is still in the children's division and every entry gets first place for their effort. He as pleased with that!
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| He loves cutting and glueing so he did a mosaic, drew a hay bale, then painted stripes. |
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| Lego's, clay, and other crafts. The turtle is my personal favorite. |
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| The children all chose a garden item to enter as well. I was happy with how well it all did! |
Emily
This child worked hard and entered a lot of things. Some of hers went into the children's division but some was in classes with kids much older than her.
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| Our green beans got second premium! |
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| Artwork......sorry it's sideways |
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| More artwork |
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| Crafts. She had a wildflower bouquet in the jar but we pitched it instead of bringing it home. The pillow was an embroidery project that she worked on long and hard and placed third (in a class for 17 and under!) |
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| Emily's clay items. |
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| Sugar cookies! I messed up and had her frost them so we took a plate of frosted and unfrosted in. They kindly entered her frosted ones under "decorated" and she won second premium for both! |
Michael
Michael spent hours perfecting his legos, to have only one get judged because apparently we could only enter 1 item in each class. I don't know how I missed that, but he survived and still walked away with plenty of ribbons.
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| Lego's. The eagle was a kit and he was thrilled to get first place for it. |
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| His crafts. |
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| Michael's artwork. |
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| He took a few photos so I printed and entered them as well. |
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| And another win for produce! |
Makayla
This child had lofty ideas of entering 100 items but thankfully she lost steam about 35 😂. She's been working since the last fair on some of these projects!
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| 1st place cucumbers! |
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| Her skirt won second premium and the purse first premium! |
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| Photos....I was pleased with this outcome! |
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| Her crafts. The prairie dog was a lego kit. She had flowers in the boot. The seashell windchime was pretty but such a pain to make! |
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| Artwork |
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| Her greatest accomplishment was the spice cake she baked. First place premium, best of division, and reserve grand champion! |
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| Clay items |
Monica
I decided to get in the spirit and enter a few things too :).
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| My photos that placed. |
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| Hurray for good produce! |
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| I was shocked to receive second premium for this dress. Apparently, I'm not to sloppy! |
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| Excuse the half eating pie but.third on the blueberry crumb. The cappuccino muffins got first premium and best of division. I was tickled pink :) |
Eldon
While going through pictures I found some drone pictures Eldon took and entered them. Two of them placed!
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| Eldon's photos |
Sunday evening we went in to collect all our items and attend the demolition derby. We had a great week but I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when it was over! I've added a few videos but I'm not sure it they'll work or not. Hopefully so!
Michael's ride
Emily's ride
A turkey race
