8/2/08 The County Fair

I took the kids to the last day of a county fair this morning. It's greatly scaled back because of lack of county funding (ironically), but it was plenty big for us. And does fun get any more all-American or clean than this? Figuratively speaking, that is, since county fairs involve a lot of livestock. Very clean livestock.

First, a petting zoo (sort of), run by some very aggressive little girls who kept a production line moving quickly. "Take a seat, put a towel on your lap, and we'll bring a rabbit or chicken." The boys both held the fluffiest bunnies you've ever seen. Katrina was more interested in the chickens.




Gabriel was shocked to see that ducks aren't actually yellow.


Funny, we were just talking last night about where ham comes from!


The boys already knew where this fellow was headed.


A jump house and pedal John Deere tractors were big attraction for the kids (well, boys, I didn't attempt Katrina in the jump house). For me, standing around in blazing sun while they played on essentially toddler toys that were too big for my actual toddler wasn't so much fun. But I wanted to earn my Good Mom stripes today to make up for next week, so went along with it.

We walked through a building that showed off kids' matchbox and doll collections, winning baked goods and tablescapes and all sorts of stuff I never knew county fairs were for. It strikes me as a fading but charming anachronism, from a time long before people could compare notes via the Internet.

This was overall a lot of fun, though I'll enjoy these outings a whole lot more when I don't have a grumpy toddler and a stroller in tow. Katrina was really a pain, not letting us stop when and where and for long we wanted, demanding that the stroller keep moving and refusing to walk. I have friends who love doing this sort of thing with their toddlers, but I am so done with the stroller life.

(In fact, Katrina fell asleep in the car moments before arriving back home at 12:30, and that pretty much killed her nap for the day, making her high-maintenance and demanding this afternoon. Every time I think I'm being too uptight about protecting toddler nap, this sort of thing happens.)

In between dropping everything at any moment to go deal with a Katrina-screech-fuss, I started working on a pear mince streusel recipe that calls for snipped raisins. Luckily, I have great help!

I'm delighted to have found a great outlet for my baking experimentation: the construction crew at our jobsite. I'm going to bring them something every Friday when we have our weekly meetings there. Perfect!

8/2/08