Fair Day!

When I was little, we went to the fair every year. I actually don't ever remember being interested in the exhibits, except the animals - I guess they weren't very interesting to me at that age. :) But probably since the twins were born, our family has kind of fallen out of the habit of going - we were usually at the ocean the same week, or had fall festivities of our own to attend (music recitals, etc). But last year Maggie and I met a friend at the fair and all our fond childhood memories came rushing back - we had a blast!

This year the kids entered a bunch of stuff, so after our dinner out on Thursday, Maggie and I headed over to see who won. :)

Maggie's honey, the first she's harvested from her hives, took second place in her category (I didn't know that honey had different "grades," but it does... her honey is considered "white").

You can't really tell it's a belt in this picture - I was stymied about how to photograph the displays behind the chicken wire; too high to shoot over - but Lizzie's pieced belt took first in its category.

Ruth entered a doll's dress and took first in her category, too! She wasn't able to come with us on Thursday night because of the heat and her asthma, but she was pretty excited!

Anna entered this quilted table runner in white and cream and won second place... however, when we arrived, they had it displayed inside out. ??? I still can't figure out if she was judged based on the back or the front. Dad and I found the manager of the display and made her fix it. :)


One of Lizzie's quilted tote bags took first, also... the girl was sure racking up her blue ribbons! :) She hopes to start selling these handmade bags through Anna's website once Anna's company website gets up and running, and it looks like they'll both do well!

And lastly, Lizzie decided at the last minute to enter a quilt she had deemed "not good enough" to enter, but the girls talked her into it... and it won grand champion!

Her name went up on the champion board. :)

It was beautiful Saturday night... some of the kids made comments about it still being too warm, but I was quite comfortable (and we all know how much I LOVE the heat >insert sarcasm<. However, Maggie and I were supposed to meet Natalie and Abigail the next day at the fair, and the weatherman was calling for unseasonable heat, which completely came through - we ended up breaking the 1970-something record for hottest day in September. Ick! But I have to say, I was still pretty comfortable, which was a blessing. I spent some time this week pulling out my seasonal clothes bins and packing away a lot of the clothes I knew wouldn't come out of my closet until next spring, and I came this close to packing ,my favorite tank top away for the season. I'm so glad i didn't, cuz I definitely pulled it out today!

Abby, I think, was bearing up just slightly less well under the heat. She did so well but neither of us like the heat very much. :)

After wandering around to see the various animals and displays, we went over to see the pig and duck racing. :) This is possibly my favoritest event at the fair.

Natalie and Abby, waiting for the pig races to begin.

The track.

Piggy racing!

Duck racing! These are Indian Runner ducks, and they look twice as funny in motion. :)

Natalie took Abby home right after the races, and we did one more pass around the exhibits and took some cold sodas to Maggie's occupational therapist (who had a display in one of the commercial buildings) before heading home ourselves. All in all, it was a great day, but a pretty exhausting one. I was really afraid that I'd gotten a sunburn, because I was sooo red, despite the fact that I'd slathered on a ton of sunscreen that morning, but after I cooled off I only had a light blush which I think might just be irritation from the sunscreen (it doesn't matter if I use sensitive skin formula, my skin just doesn't like sunscreen). My only regret is that I didn't take a water bottle - I could tell I'd gotten too dehydrated, and the kids and I all have headaches this evening.