The fair

I was feeling a bit forlorn about Reuel leaving for a business trip last night, and missing his Columbus Day holiday, and no preschool for Owen to boot.  Since we've been a bit housebound lately trying to make progress on bathroom remodel, I decided late last night to throw tiredness to the wind, forget I am exceedingly pregnant, and take the kids to the last day of the Topsfield fair this morning.  WOW.  Haven't been to a fair in so long, I really forgot the vibe.  The junk food!  The questionable characters running the rides!  The crowds on a relatively sweltering 80 degree, sunny holiday!  The extreme overpricing!  The wide-eyed temptation to beg for everything in sight when you're 2 or 4 years old!  Well, we had a very good time, but I was SO exhausted on the ride home.  Asher does not like the stroller, and I have not done a good job of teaching him that it is not optional, so he did a lot of walking, and I did a lot of running back and forth like a spastic chipmunk and chasing so that he would disappear in the crowds.  I was also being indulgent with him because he was so devastated to not join Owen on rides...it turns out that he was too short for all but one ride, and all but one carnie would not be convinced to let a pregnant woman accompany him (tell me the last time a woman was sent into early labor as the result of a carousel ride, PLEASE).  I spent a fortune.  I kind of knew that would happen so didn't worry about it since it was our special event while Daddy is away (though we *really* would have rather shared the excitement with Dad!!).

Let's see, we saw...
*milking demonstration
*cows, ducks, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, roosters, bunnies, llamas, an elephant, a camel, ponies, and we narrowly missed the bengal tiger show.
*New England's largest pumpkin of 2011 (Yup, it was large.)
*Cart horse competitions...kids enjoyed the HUGE draft horses.
*Police K-9 dog demo

And we spent...
$10 parking
$12 admission
$18 eight ride tickets
$3 cotton candy
$13 two corn dogs and french fries
$4 lemonade
$5 two bottles of water
$3 ice cream cone
gas money, 45 mins drive each way.

Insane!  Looking at that list I feel awfully indulgent, but let me tell you, that was after telling the kids no to about 4 out of 5 things they asked for!!  I guess the fair still got a pretty good milking from us :O