County Fair

My kids love the fair so much, that we always go at least twice. This year it was pouring rain when we arrived, but we spent a while in their favorite two tents, and after that it let up and was very pleasant. Luckily, the rain kept others away. There was no line for the pony ride, for example, so they went a couple of times. When we went the next day with John it was hot and very crowded. After the second day, Eli was begging to go again, but we told him it would be way too hot. He told me later that he had asked in his personal prayer if it could be cold on Sat. so that we would let him go again.

This was Jonah's favorite thing. Big kids usually monopolized it, but he would squeeze in when he could.

Jonah is just trying to look tough here - not grumpy.

Maggie has just learned to point and had plenty of chances to use it.

Eli held the other "creatures," but was nervous about holding the tarantula the first day. On the way home he asked if he could just tell his dad that he'd held it. Then he said that he really just waited so that John could be there when he held it. On the second day, I kept telling him that he didn't need to hold it, but he obviously wanted to - he just couldn't quite do it. He said, "I'm going to say a quick prayer." He turned away from the table, folded his arms and said his silent prayer, and then turned back and did it. (The scared face was just him being funny.) They put a spider stamp on your hand if you hold the tarantula and he was so proud of that. Tori held everything without any hesitation; she did last year as well.
John fanned Maggie for a minute, and then she got the fan and started doing it herself. She got a huge kick out of it for some reason.

Here's another bonus picture. Tori loves to help me cook, so she used some of her birthday money to get this little chef set.