fair enough

We took the boys to the local 4-H fair this weekend. It's small as fairs go (certainly no where near as large or as crowded as the local agricultural fairs), but for boys this age and this size, it was perfect. And the timing was just great -- we finished up reading Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright a week or two ago, in which the main character of the book, Garnet, raised a piglet and showed it at the fair, winning a blue ribbon. One of the big highlights for the boys was walking through the hog barn and pointing out the blue-ribbon winning pig. "Just like Garnet!" they both cried out.


Here's said pig, basking in his glory.










Of course, as much fun as pigs are (snort!), one of the big attractions for the boys were the rides. There were only a handful, but they were plenty enough for these guys. J even tried out a "real" (non-kiddie) ride (the swings), but found it a bit too intense for his liking, although he was a real good sport about it.







Our fun was doubled because we brought friends along with us to the fair. Here Zoo Boy and Russ ham it up in the tea-cup type ride. (You can see J in a car in the background, and The Map Man, Justin, and Lori watching from the outside.)




We had to try some of the classic fair food. J shared some of his plain (no syrup, silly kid!) sno-cone with Justin.










Popcorn was more Zoo Boy's style (I don't blame him, it was delicious!), and Lori and her kids got cotton candy (also delicious!). The Map Man and I shared an enormous piece of fried dough with the boys, too, J eating off the cinnamon side, and Zoo Boy off the powdered sugar side. (The Man and I pretty much ate anything that was left over.) It, too, was delicious. There's just something about food at a fair.... (oh yeah, fat, calories, sugar....)





We watched some of the Doodle Bug pulls while we ate our snacks. Despite the loud noise (usually a deal breaker for my guys), the boys seemed to really enjoy it. Honestly, that surprised me, not just from the noise perspective, but because my guys have never really shown much interest in that sort of thing before.



And of course we visited all of the animals - there was a rather impressive assortment of donkeys and mules, tons of goats, a bunch of cows and sheep, and of course a barn full of poultry and rabbits. Here the four boys are checking out some chickens. We got to see kids milking their goats (J says he didn't know that milk comes from goats too, and was fascinated to see that the milk looked the same as cow's milk), trimming their sheep, washing their cows. And one really nice 4-H teenager brought out a baby goat just so our boys could pet it.

We also walked through the building with the baking and arts and crafts and other projects. J was particularly interested in the decorated cakes, as he's taking a cake decorating class this fall.


There were pretty much ear-to-ear grins all evening. J's been talking ever since about the sorts of projects he'll enter in the fair when he's old enough to join a 4-H club.

And Zoo Boy's still talking about the rides.