Fair Week

Fair week is here again! The kids managed to get a few things entered in spite of the craziness around here. John Mark made a chocolate cake and Becca made a banana bread. She waited until the last minute- Friday morning- and we had to be at the 4-H office at 11:00 am! We pulled that bread out of the oven at 10:33 and I prayed that it was done... it was. It was gorgeous- just the way a banana bread ought to look, but I was too rushed to take a picture. We let it cool in the car and pulled up the Extension Office at 11:00 and anxiously turned it onto the plate we had brought. Miracle of miracles, it slid out perfectly! We carefully cut it in half and put the other half back to eat later that afternoon- mmmm!

She also entered a ceramic horse that she had made from clay and painted at the Ceramic shop. John Mark entered a clock he put together from a kit and painted, and Philip made a last-minute poster on Electrical Safety. And I don't have pictures of any of it! Maybe later. I didn't get it together to enter one single thing this year- too busy with piano.

We went to the opening night of the fair last night because it is usually less crowded, and the kids are always anxious to see how they did. They each received blue and champion ribbons on their entries, except for the clock, for which JM won a blue ribbon.

It was perfect fair weather- warm but not hot and no rain- but because there was rain in other parts of the area, the were very few people there. We purchased an arm band for each of the kids and let 'em go- even Philip and Ben! Ben was thrilled that he was tall enough this year to ride everything, and this is the first year that I was able to ride something besides the Ferris Wheel and the Dizzy Dragons, since GranMartha and Daddy D arrived in town in time to go to the fair with us. They hung out with Nathanael, who was very dismayed to find that he is only 47" tall and you have to be 48" tall to ride the "good" rides. Next year, buddy! John and I realized that we officially qualify as old now: when you are riding a ride and all you can think about is, "I wonder if this thing is going to hold together...", then there's no getting around it: you are old. Of course we also ate our way down the midway, but I was good- only two chocolate covered frozen bananas! We had a fairly wonderful time. (Ba-da-bing!)