All's Fair in Livestock and Literature

The County Fair. As an older kid and young teenager, I thought it was The Coolest Thing and definitely The Place To Be...
but now...
I can take it or leave it.
Usually leave it. (Although you can get a pretty good hamburger or order of tamales...if it's worth all the rigamorole of getting out there).

But, just when you get to the point of being able to stay home and not wonder what you're missing, you have kids. And you start teaching them what a wonderful and fun thing stuff like that is. Lol.

It all starts with the parade on Wednesday. Having always had my main interest & participation in the band for one reason or another, I never knew much about the how the floats got organized. Turns out they all meet and line up at our church parking lot, of all places! I got Dale out there in plenty of time to join up with his classmates. Mom and Dad were out there also for the Library Junior Board - their first year to have a float in the fair parade. Once Dale was where he needed to be I went back up the road and settled in to watch. Just like he had promised, he threw a handful of Tootsie Rolls in my direction. Notice the arm pulled back, ready to release cheap chocolatey goodness:
Never mind that I would have had to run out and get IN the parade myself to be able to pick up the tootsie rolls. Never said he was going to be a ball player or anything. ;)

And as soon as they had passed by where I was, he stood up, in the middle of a moving trailer, to wave at me.

And as soon as he stood up, an anonymous mom-hand grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him down.
I thanked her later. If not for saving his life or limbs, at least saving his dignity and years worth of bad memories and parade-float fear.

The next day his class took a field trip to see the fair. Of course, Alan and I went along. We made our way through the exhibit buildings, and then on to what all of the kids wanted to see: the animals.
The little girls were the first to notice (and comment on) the smell as we entered the barns. First stop were the rabbits. Amazingly, no one got bit, in spite of a hundred little fingers being poked into the cages of a couple-dozen fluffy bunnies. :)

Ducks & chickens were next. Both Dale and Alan seemed to enjoy a rooster that had a perfect "a-doodle-doo" and wasn't afraid to use it.

Sheep were next. Disappointingly, the cows were all out being showed...but at least we didn't run the risk of anybody getting kicked or stepped on.

Last of the animals was the pig barn. Alan and I didn't wind our way through this one...just stayed at the entrance. But Alan got to see a giant pink pig up close and personal.

And then: The Coolest Thing.

I looked up, and directly over Giant Pink Pig's pen was a great, big, spider web. And since I am easily amused&entertained I thought that was just the neatest thing I'd seen all week.
I tried taking pics but the light wasn't right. Granted, it wasn't sporting any nifty adjectives about Giant Pink Pig below. Ok, it didn't have any messages or words at all...and it was kind of torn up by bugs...but still....

It made me wish I had read Charlotte's Web to Dale already so he could enjoy it too. It will be one of the first ones when we start longer chapter read-alouds.

The big field trip ended with a picnic 'lunch' (at 9:30am, lol).
Here's Dale & Friends, inventing games after lunch:

And that my friends, is my report on Our Day at the Fair.