My Annual Fair Round Up.

SuperH took this and it's pretty good! I'm in front of the local dairy stand.

I made this shirt. I like how it turned out. It's the free Sorbetto
pattern from Colette patterns. It was really easy if your looking
to learn this would be a good one to start on.
Oh, the buttons are vintage!

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know I love the fair. In fact, it's the fair that got me back into blogging after my long hiatus when Conner was born. We go every year with my parents in celebration of Hunter's birthday and it's just such a golden time.

baby cows!

Cute!

Because we never know for sure when my parents will be visiting we just go to the closest fair that is going while they're here. This year that was the Allegan County Fair. We've never been to this one and while it wasn't as clean as the Centerville Fair it was really nice and had some interesting features.  What it didn't have was a spot for classic tractors. That was really disappointing as I like to get a yearly picture of my dad and the boys in front of an Alice Chalmers.  Why have a fair with out old tractors?

Any way, they did have a section of the fair devoted to old buildings that are permanent structures there. It was like a mini Green Field Village and it was fabulous. Of course I loved it, seeing those buildings all decorated. There were two homes (one was a log cabin) a doctors office, a one room school, an old church and even an old merry-go-round the kids could play on.

The church was cool. I don't want to hear any one complaining about being uncomfortable in a modern church! This building was all about function. SuperH got up in front and we sat in the very wooden, hard pews and listened to his first sermon, which consisted of the hymn "pop goes the weasel" a prayer for an "old lady whose house burned down. Let's pray for her and give her money" and then the blessing and dismal to go eat "ice cream for a snack".  It was very moving.

This could have been our life 100 years ago.

 


This year my sister Heather also went with us and it was just so fun. And it was the first year the boys went on rides. Conster is such a serious rider! Hunter is in his element imagining something as soon as the ride goes. We ate way way too much, saw so many cute animals (Conster's favorites were the horses) fed a camel, saw great quilts and spent much needed quality time together. That's what the fair is really about; community and family.

Indeed they are loony.

Strike a pose.

This is what happens after a day at the fair (before we even got out of the parking lot).

Check back tomorrow for a chance to enter another give-a-way! 

And now, more cute animals.

He's my animal.

Gives new meaning to the species being called "hare".

"Help, my ears are so big it's trailing in the water!"

Why is this guy sitting in his water dish? So the other's can't use it?

I love donkeys so much!

This guy is definitely a rock-n-roll chicken with a british accent.

The County Fair

enjoying his first corn dog

yummy!!!

this thing is made out of legos! how crazy cool is that!

Don't giant pumpkins just make you smile?

smartest animal on the farm.

Ok, I am on a roll. I have all these great things to talk about because they have been building inside of me for a few months now so here is another before it becomes to late to make sense.

I am a country girl my husband is a city boy (this is beginning to sound like a Jon Bonjovi song) and we don't always "get" each other. One prime example is the county fair. I love it!! He thinks it is the weirdest thing in the world. The first time I took him to the fair he walked around with this look of bewilderment on his face the entire time. So anyway the whole summer I kept saying we have to take Hunter to the fair he will love it. But as time usually does it sped by and we missed our fair (or maybe my hubby failed to mention it to me). So when my parents came up for Hunter's birthday they were saying they missed a good 4-H fair (apparently they don't have any out where they live) so we looked online found one pretty close to where we live and decided to go.

I can't remember the name of it (and I mean no offense to every one else by what I'm about to say because I know that the fair can be a source of great pride to the community) but it was truly the nicest fair I have ever been too. It was so clean even the poultry barn didn't smell. The bathrooms while rustic where clean and the paths were great no problems with the strollers at all. We went on band day so there was the distant sound of local marching bands in the air; it was just awesome. The food was so good. It was a perfect day. I'm hoping that mom dad the boys and I can make it a tradition, part of Hunter's birthday celebration. And next year we are making Brian come.

I was right Hunter did love it. All the animals and the food. He was so excited to eat an elephant's ear (yes he really thinks they're elephant's ears, but we told him they grow back) And his favorite thing was the rows and rows of classic tractors. He went running from one to the other "look at this one, look at this one" and then he pointed to a sea do and said "a space ship" like that was the most normal thing in the world.

Ok so here is my theory about fair food. You can not get everything at one vendor. If you do will certainly get one thing that is good and one that is bad. You can't go to the corn dog place and get your french fries. You have to divide and conquer one person goes to the corn dog and sausage stand, the other goes to the fresh cut fries stand, and someone else gets lemon aid at the fresh squeezed stand, this is how you experience truly great fair food. Let your food settle walk around a little more and get your elephant ear (they don't have those where mom and dad live, can you imagine never experiencing an elephant ear?) then as you leave pick up a bag of cotton candy.