Since I am a teacher at heart, I couldn't help but incorporate a little lesson into the day's activities. After clearing it with their mom ahead of time, I started the day by telling both kids (ages two and four) that they would have ten dollars to spend, however they wanted, but when it was gone, it was gone. They agreed, and seemed pretty happy about the prospect.
The first thing we went and saw was the animals. Elaynea, the four year old, was very impressive as any time I referred to an animal as a "baby ____" she would correct me with the appropriate term. Me- "Look at the baby goats" Elaynea- "Those are kids" Me- "Do you see the baby cow?" Elaynea- "That's a calf" and so on for most of the animals in the area. Her mom Erin informed me that many of their books that they read (over and over again) have animals with their babies and all of the appropriate names. So it was even more interesting to me that when we got to the chickens, she didn't know the term chicks, though Erin said it was because this particular fact was in only one of their books.
After seeing all these animals, and not being able to touch most of them, Elaynea decided rather emphatically that she wanted to go to the petting zoo. So, we looked on a map, and headed towards the petting zoo, which was on the opposite side of the fair. On the way there, we had our first possible money spending encounter as the two year old, Jeremiah, saw the spider man inflatable, and he said that he wanted it. So I asked how much it cost (and how much some of the other items cost that Elaynea was interested in) and learned that it would cost ten dollars. Now, we wanted the kids to learn about spending money, but we didn't want them to spend it all on one item at the very beginning and regret it later.
So, instead of just letting them spend it all now, we told them that we were going to keep walking around for now, and if they still wanted it in a couple of hours after doing other fair things, that they could come back and buy it. The kids were pretty agreeable to this. We finally make it to the petting zoo (it takes a lot longer for a four year old to walk somewhere than to just walk at adult speed) and there was another opportunity to spend money to buy feed for the animals.
So, we talked to the kids, and explained that they could buy the two dollar cup of food, but then they couldn't get those inflatables, and after some consideration, both kids decided that was a good choice (and we adults agreed with this logic). They got quite a bit of enjoyment out of those cups of food, and they tried to share it evenly with the different types of animals, with the exception of the calves, which were a bit too big for Elaynea's taste, and she was too afraid of their big heads to be willing to feed those. The big hit of the petting zoo was the piglets, and both kids gave a lot of feed to those little snouts.
Elaynea finished feeding first, and was done, and we were waiting for Jeremiah to finish his cup, but he got over it, so we just gave it to a random kid in the area to enjoy feeding animals with.Right by the exit to the petting zoo was the ark where they tell Bible stories. Elaynea saw the boat first, and asked if she could go there. Free Bible story? Of course she can go! And where she goes, her brother follows. Erin took this opportunity as a golden chance to get to use the restroom without little ones underfoot, and I waited outside the ark. At one point, Elaynea raised her hand and said, "Excuse me, but I want to say something." I didn't hear what she wanted to say, but I thought it was pretty funny that this four year old didn't have any trouble speaking her mind. When the story was done, they both got a little beaded bracelet that was supposed to be their reminder of the story. So, Erin and I asked Elaynea what the beads meant, and while she remembered the first few, she couldn't remember the rest, so little Elaynea said, "I'll go back and ask her," and proceeded to go right back into the ark and ask the teacher. So cute!
We adults had decided it was lunchtime, so we started heading back toward the food area, but we were stopped briefly at the next booth where they were giving out free new testaments. These two little ones thought it was amazing that they got their own books, and spent the majority of the rest of the day holding on to them, or asking us to read them.My highlight of lunchtime was that Elaynea wanted to write her name in her Bible. So, I got out a pen, and let her try to write her name. She got through the first few letters, and then couldn't remember how to write the rest even with prompting, and then she decided to start over. She didn't get much farther on her second try than her first, and instead of going for a third attempt, she handed me the pen, and told me to write her name. Of course, Jeremiah wanted his name written in it as well, so that was my next mission. Our next stop was the pig races, and then the kids decided their next purchase would be to have their faces painted.
Jeremiah got balloons, but I didn't manage to get a picture of that because right when I was about to take the picture, he got upset, and started crying.You see, the kids were in the big sand box area, playing with the communal sand toys placed there for the kids to play with, buckets and shovels and such. Elaynea and Jeremiah have been trained really well to respect other peoples' things, and so if they wanted an item, even one that looked like it wasn't being used, they would politely ask first (Elaynea even got a positive comment from the mom of the child she asked).
Not so with the other kids there, who would just walk over and take an item if these two did not currently have their hand on it. One of these moments was when I was about to take his face paint picture, and we just narrowly avoided it happening a second time when Erin told the child that was about to take another tool that he was still using it. Sigh, it really worries me about the future of the nation the lack of manners these kids have.
Anyways, after enjoying many of the activities in this area, including some paper crafts and other play areas, we were ready to head over to the rides and games. In addition to admission, our clothing donations (Wednesday fair promotion) got us a free carnival ride per ticket. Erin was smart enough to realize that while her kiddos didn't need tickets for admission, if she brought enough clothes for them as well, we would have four free rides instead of two! So smart! We, loving those kids so much, were willing to give them our rides. So, they got to choose two rides to go on. Jeremiah is at that age where he isn't big enough for every ride, and even the rides he is big enough for, he has to go with someone taller than the line (so even four year old Elaynea counts for that someone, which I think is funny). The first one they chose was very much like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland.
After walking around and looking at the various rides, Elaynea, and thus Jeremiah, decided they wanted to go on one of these:
(not my picture, but hopefully you can picture this kind of thing).After various obstacles and climbing and suspension bridges, they go on a slide back to the bottom. Yet again, Elaynea was tall enough to not only go, but count as Jeremiah's chaperone. I had my doubts, but figured it was Erin's call, and she was willing to try it. Things were going well until the rope climb part. Poor Jeremiah got his little legs stuck in the squares between the rope, and though Elaynea was trying to encourage him, there wasn't much else she could do to help. I was growing more and more worried and frustrated as older kids just kept passing this little one struggling without helping get him unstuck. After a minute or two of this, one of the ride operators noticed and helped him get his legs out, and he was able to finish climbing up (though I did note that she stayed there in case he got stuck again). At the point of the suspension bridge it was Elaynea who got scared and needed our encouragement. She was brave, and pushed past her fear and made it to the slide, and ended the ride on a high note. The kids really wanted to do it again, and they still had some of their ten dollars left, so technically they could, but we (again) intervened and reminded them that they wanted to play a carnival game (which they had mentioned previously in the day).
So we used another portion of their money to give them a chance to play the balloon popping game. The best part of the game that we encouraged them to play is that it advertised that kids under twelve automatically win. Good deal. Turns out the game set up was easy enough that they didn't even need a consolation prize, and they both popped balloons with their throw (almost impossible to miss, with each balloon in a square). Elaynea quickly and happily chose a purple whale. Jeremiah was more picky. First he chose a green fish, then since Elaynea got a whale, he changed to a black whale. Then for whatever reason, he didn't want the black whale either, and switched to a blue whale. We were cracking up at his lack of decision. We left this area pretty quick after choosing the blue whale so he couldn't switch again.
By this time, it was time for dinner, and Blake had joined us. My meal caused quite a stir as I walked around with it, and I actually was stopped multiple times by people asking where I got it from. It was half a pineapple, carved out, and filled with rice, chicken and pineapple served with sauce on the side. It was really good, and much lighter than your typical fair food. I guess to counteract that, the adults at the table also shared a blooming onion.
We offered a piece to Elaynea, who asked if she could try it and were first puzzled when she said, "I had that before, the circle ones." After a bit of thinking, we figured out she was talking about onion rings!
Blake wanted to see the garden, so we headed over to that area. When we were in the bee area, the kids saw that they could make their own candles for a dollar, which happened to be what they had left after the game. Another great use for the money. They also enjoyed some honey sticks. We looked at the area where people could enter their largest or best produce, and they had a great section for little ones like these two where they could pick up and touch a bunch of different fruits and vegetables. I really enjoyed watching Elaynea with it especially as she would try to guess what each thing was, and was very often right. A few times, when she wasn't sure, we would encourage her to smell it, and many times she would then be able to figure it out (especially citrus fruits).
Our next stop was the carnival of products, which is really just like a mini swapmeet, but fun to see all the items that they are selling. At one stand, I happened to be holding Elaynea, and then after giving her a sample, the woman asked if her mom would want one. I quickly corrected her, but apparently Elaynea's face was a look of puzzlement, like she couldn't figure out why in the world the lady would think such a strange thing (even though I was holding her, and have some similar physical attributes as her).
It was getting later, so the kids' patience was starting to wane, and so before entering the carnival of products, Erin told both kids that if they were really good during that time, that they could have ice cream afterwards. Jeremiah fell asleep during the walk through, so he missed out, but Elaynea had earned it, and we went to go get dessert. When we met back up after going to different dessert places, we got to hear about the generosity of strangers, as one of them had heard Erin decide that she didn't think she should spend the money on a banana split for herself in addition to her daughter's cone, and the person behind her decided to buy it for her! Isn't it great to hear that things like that still happen?
Our last stop for the day was the craft area, and Blake stayed back with Jeremiah sleeping in the stroller and gave us girls a chance to look around at all of the handmade crafts for the year.
It was a great fair day, and I am thankful for the chance to share days like that with my friend and her kids.
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