For starters, it was lightly raining. We grabbed rain jackets and celebrated the cooler weather that would allow me to stay at the fair longer. Two challenging pregnancies left me with a weakened heart and it has been acting up lately with the heat. I had told the girls that we would not stay past 1:15 (when the pig races are done) because I was worried I wouldn't be feeling well. However, as we walked to the gates with the cool mist around us, I knew that the weather could not have been better and it was going to be a great morning.
The second thing that made the day wonderful was something that I felt torn about celebrating. The crowds were nonexistent. My girls and their friends were able to braid, weave, and explore to their heart's content and no one elbowed them out of the way. This was the first year I allowed them to make a rag doll because no one was at the table. In the past it was a thirty minute wait just to get a spot at the craft table, and I wasn't willing to sit in the sun that long for such a simple craft. When I saw the three volunteers sitting there chatting and looking around, I asked the girls if they wanted to make one. They were so excited and made some very cute rag dolls. My friend made a comment on the lack of kids to the volunteers, and one responded that it was probably due to all the cut backs made at the schools. I felt bad that so many kids were unable to come to the fair because their schools didn't have the bus funds, or the time to spare due to fewer working days. And it was another reminder to my girls about how blessed they are that their parents are able to home educate them and provide all these great experiences.
Bug's rag doll.
After spending a good hour and a half in the pioneer village, we headed over to the milking barn. Remember that stack of paperwork I mentioned earlier? Along with admission and parking is a slip for free milk for everyone in your party. My girls insist that fair milk tastes better than store milk, and they love lining up for their little jugs of chocolate milk. After drinking it down, we went in and watched two cows show where that milk came from and how the dairy farmer got it. :o)
Next to the milking demonstration was a Dairy Farmers Association table where they were giving away Holstein patterned pens and pencils to kids who could answer milk related questions. The kid would spin the wheel and have to answer the question the arrow pointed to. It was fun, and Bear also picked up a pamphlet explaining the value of chocolate milk. She liked the picture on the cover, but it was Bug who saw the value of it. With a lawyer for a father she has learned the importance of having facts to back up your argument and she read it carefully on the way home. She has enjoyed chocolate milk for the last two nights and thinks that she might never have to choke down "regular" milk again. Her father appreciates a strong argument and is fair minded, but I don't think she really changed his mind and we will see how long the flavored milk victory lasts. :o)
I was pretty hungry by this point so we headed over to some picnic tables to enjoy our lunch. I was also ready for my backpack to lighten! The girls ate fast, not wanting to waste precious fair time, and we were soon ready to pet some goats. Well, to be honest, the girls were ready to pet some goats. I was ready to walk quickly through the enclosure, pulling my skirt out of no less than three goats' mouths and one baby cow's, and stand safely on the other side out of range of puddles and piles. Bear loves cows, and spent the majority of her time petting the baby Holstein and a Scottish Highland. This cow was quickly dubbed "Merida's Cow." Boo walked around with her hands up in a position of surrender. I wondered why until I realized that the goats could see that she didn't have food and would turn away from her, allowing her to move freely through the pen. Trust my Boo to come up with a clever and simple solution to a problem! Bug was thrilled with the two llamas, but her true love was a black and white baby goat. She sat down by it and it laid its head in her lap. Bliss!
Merida's Cow
(Merida, the princess in Brave, lived in Scotland.
Bear was convinced she would have had a cow like this one.)
You might think it would be hard to extract such happy girls from the petting barn, but I did it quickly and with smiles all around using just two words: "Pig races!" It was time to watch little pigs run around a track looking for their trough of milk and Oreos. It sounds goofy, and it is! Especially when the man introduces the duck and turkey races. The ducks look hilarious, waddling as fast as they can. The turkeys stole the show, however. The man prepped us by telling us that turkeys are not intelligent birds. He wasn't kidding. One turkey knew what to do, and another was smart enough to follow his lead. The third realized they had turned a corner and wandered after them, but the fourth just stood there at the first bend, looking very bewildered. The girls were laughing so hard and yelling, "Run, turkey, run!" When the three other turkeys were back in their pen, happily eating their treat, the fourth guy must have heard them eating, and finally trotted around the track and into the pen.
This is where we usually leave the fair, and I was feeling some migraine aura coming on (half of my face becomes numb and my thought process slows down making me cranky and easily flustered), but the weather was so nice and the day was going well so I let the girls talk me into staying a bit longer. We went to check out an exhibit on American inventors. The girls enjoyed sitting in a chair that Benjamin Franklin invented. They found that if they pushed on the stick under the chair, the fan hanging over them moved back and forth. They also got a kick out of seeing the large iPhones. The highlight of the exhibit was the flight simulator. One at a time, the girls laid on a platform in front of a large screen and pulled a large stick forwards to make their plane go up and pushed back to go down. The plane moved so slowly and I wondered aloud what real pilots thought as they tried to fly it. The volunteer said that USAF pilots have come in and crashed repeatedly because it is so different from modern day flight. Each girl got to take a couple flights and Bug really improved so that she was able to stay aloft for her entire flight time.
This is what the girls saw as they laid on the platform.
Stepping out a side door, Bear discovered her second favorite part of the fair. That's saying a lot about the cuteness of the baby cows, because my little princess discovered an area built for knights and princesses. There were Disney princess songs playing, dresses, jewelry, shoes, and a little pink house for a princess (or six) to call home. The thing that cracked me up about the house was the abundance of cleaning supplies. There were dust busters, vacuum cleaners, brooms with Cinderella's mice perched on top, and three ironing boards set up. Someone apparently did his or her homework and realized that in all but a few Disney princess movies (ie: Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid) there is a cleaning scene. After a good thirty minutes of singing a happy little working song, rolling sleeves up, and pitching in cleaning crud up in the kitchen it was time to go. ("Happy Working Song," from Enchanted.)
It was a great day, and I was very glad that I had made the decision to go. To read about more great days, or weeks, check out Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up.
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