"FAIR IS IN THE AIR"

...That's the words straight from a hand painted, wooden sign on County Line Rd. going to our house (I would've stopped to take a picture, if I didn't think I'd be risking my children's safety...surprisingly, I do have limits). Luckily, even though we live in a city, to get to our house, we drive by farms and horses and tractors. I like that. But even with that in mind, we're not authentic farm/country folk; we just like to pretend that we are when the fair rolls into town.

Going to the fair is a tradition that BT started when Mimi was one, and it's continued every year since. 

This year, it felt like I was just fitting it in. All the times before I was a mom of one, at home, friendless, twiddling my thumbs and waiting for my father-in-law to call me and ask us to go to the fair (serious). And last year, as a mom of TWO, the fair came at the perfect time! Right after Bode was born, so with dad on paternity leave, we could stroll over around 5 with a newborn who would sleep anywhere and take it all in a leisurely fashion. Times have changed! This past week was the week of Doodlebug camp and dinners with friends and family. So we "fit' the fair in. 

Because let's face it, I HAD to get these pictures:

And these ones..

and..well, you get the idea.

Plus, in true "sort of small town" fashion Mimi and I had been watching them set the fair up every time we went to Target (across the street. We were actually in the car with her little pal Mikaela and Mimi said, "you know where it is Mikaela. You leave our house, go to Target and it's right there!" Apparently we go to Target a lot). So with all the build up and talk of past fair fun, we couldn't miss out. We actually did the fair in two installments: the first was a quick stop in to make "stick horses" and the second was Sunday after church. 

Here's us making "stick horses"
(the video of Mimi prancing around, "riding" it is coming soon...

 Mimi on the fair Royalty:

 Ms. Mimi informed me before we went to the fair that she was not in fact going to say hi the fair queen like last year because she'd be nervous. 

But when the queen was the one handing out horses, we didn't have a choice. As we walked away from the sweet girl in a cowboy hat Mimi said, "Actually mom, I wasn't nervous!" Silly girl. 

And the whole time that Mimi was working on her stick horse, I was wondering if the fair royalty would be interesting in babysitting my two kids while I got a massage over there...

But I thought I'd better not ask.

Mimi working away...

And RIDING away in the circle in front of everyone.
(adorable video coming soon)

Daddy actually met us mid-day to take the kids while I went to Doodlebugs...
Seeing him walk up into our frenzy of stick horses was the best.
Who knew my knight in shinning armor would wear blue?! ;)

*****

After leaving the fair prematurely, only having made stick horses, it didn't feel like we did the fair justice. And really, ALL Mimi had been talking about in the anticipation leading up to the fair was taking her first ride on the ferris wheel, she had spotted from the Target parking lot.

So of course, we had to go back.
(and I wanted my fill of fair food! I couldn't wait to ask the vendors if they had "gluten free" funnel cakes. Just kidding. Of course :)

So we decided to go to the fair after church on Sunday. It was a hot day, but fun to be altogether, with nothing calling us to rush off for anytime soon.

Look at that handsome hubby. He ran into all kinds of people he does business with at work...what a pillar of the community! (One person even offered him lunch on the house...and he didn't even take them up on it! That's very un-Turrill like behavior. ;)

If it looks like Bode is dazed in every picture, it's because he fell asleep in the car after crying in the church nursery, was transferred to a hot stroller and woke up to his mom strolling him around face to face with barn animals. 

This was my "fair" attire..I've never felt more out of place...white jeans and sparkly gladiators are a SURE sign that we're just posers. Sorry to give us away family. (but it was right after church!)

We waited for the ferris wheel for a bit, but then realized that Mimi may still be too short (tall enough to not be free at Water World, and too short for the fair ferris wheel...boo). I really even doubt that they were checking, but we did watch a few of the fair employees looking at a suspicious part of the ferris wheel like it was broken, so we figured we'd get Mimi's face painted instead.

Where she promptly fell asleep. ;)

Until next year, fair!