We went to the fair yesterday to celebrate Rosy’s birthday. Unfortunately we couldn’t go with Rosy because we were about six hours apart, but we were thinking of her! I was anyway, the kids were just thinking “rides, rides, sugar, rides!” We went yesterday afternoon for bracelet day, which basically means you pay a small fortune upfront and the kids can ride all the rides they want for four whole hours! A pretty great deal really. Especially for those little, crappy, over-before-they-even-start rides that cost three tickets each. I hate spending tickets on those things, but with the bracelets the kids just went over and over and over. They loved it! They were also quite brave this year! The rode the Tilt-A-Whirl (with me because that’s my favorite!) and the Scrambler and this ride called Cliff Hanger, plus all the kiddie rides. Eve had a sudden fear of the Ferris Wheel, so Lex and I did that one together. We were there with a friend, don’t worry, I didn’t leave Eve unattended! :)

We started small with the kiddie rides.

This was a game you’re supposed to pay $3 to play, but Lex was unaware of that and the carnie was nowhere to be found, so Lex grabbed the mallet and tried until he rang the bell. Then happily walked away feeling proud and accomplished. I was happy to not spend $3 and not have to carry around a prize. :)

They did the slide about a hundred times!

While we were there Eve kept making friends with random little girls. One was there with just her mom and she decided to join us instead. She kept following along, her and Eve were holding hands and making plans, and I kept reminding her that she had to stay with her mom. I chatted with her mom a bit and they had been there for many hours longer than we had and mom was bored! I think she was happy to have her daughter tagging along with a different family for awhile.

I was surprised that Lex wanted to go on this and even more surprised when Eve agreed to go with him. They sure are growing up! The little girl in the middle is one of the girls Eve made friends with at the fair. They got off the ride and immediately did it again two more times! Then three more times later.

Flying high!

Lex was excited to see the ferris wheel is wheel powered! :)

Me and Lex at the top of the world! (at the top of the fair anyway)

Lex, waving to Eve down below. Eve was hanging out with Elizabeth and Alistair.

This is a blurry picture but I love Eve’s face. Once again I was surprised that they both wanted to do this, and do it multiple times! This was post ice cream and cotton candy, so I only let them do it twice before moving on to something a little less scrambling!

Lex’s hair got all blown back on the Scrambler. They started the ride with their hats on, but fortunately grabbed them fast before they blew away. :)

We took a break part-way through to watch The Jump Rope Warrior! This guy has been on national TV and he’s a Guiness Book world record holder for the most number of jumps while laying down! Pretty amazing. The description in the flyer sounded just awesome so we were psyched to take a break from the rides and go see him perform. Unfortunately he spent the first 40 minutes inviting kids from the audience up to do little jump rope tricks with him. They were neat, but we had much higher expectations! For the final five minutes of the show he did a few tricks of his own, including a few laying down jumps, which he calls “Rump Jumps.” (Here is a video someone else made of his whole performance. It’s pretty amazing!)

We left the fair at 6pm when the ride bracelets were no longer good. We were full of french fries, cotton candy, and ice cream. What more is there to do?! Lex dragged his feet all the way back to the car and Eve almost fell asleep in the bathtub at home. We all had a blast. They wanted to go back today and tomorrow. I told them they had to pay this time! We went to a friend’s (free) picnic today instead. :)

Eve got lots of great big muscle activity at the picnic today. They had a really great tree with high branches and cool ropes and swings hanging from it.

The goal was to swing on the rope and land in the hula hoop. Or climb the rope. Whatever.

She has a plan here. She got this far, thought for awhile, and decided her plan maybe wasn’t such a good one. :)