The NC State Fair!

Today we were off to the State Fair!  This year we went on Brandon’s birthday, like we went on my birthday last year.  As we usually do, we met up with the Orazi family early, and went to get biscuits for breakfast.  The fair is usually not so crowded early in the morning, but this year, we could tell it was going to be a record-breaker–it was pretty crowded to start with!  We had our favorite treats, visited our favorite displays, and many of our favorite activities.  The PBS Kids tent was a hit, as well as the playhouses on display.  But this year, the most special thing of all was that Brian’s collage artwork was selected to be on display!  We made sure to visit his artwork and pose for lots of photos with it.  Brian made this tissue paper collage of a flower during his after-school art enrichment class, when they were studying Georgia O’Keefe.  (Yes, there’s also a letter “f” for flower in there!)  Since Brian is a big seven-year-old this year, we also let him learn about disappointment–I mean, try out some Midway games. 😉  He chose a water gun game, which we knew would end in tears and frustration.  (We were right).  Then, we found the hit-balloons-with-darts game, which was pretty much tailor-made for parents with small kids (basically, you give the guy $20, your kid gets as many darts as it takes to pop a balloon and is guaranteed a good-size fluffy prize).  So, being the suckers we are, we let Brian have a go, and he got this plushie raccoon which he calls Rooty after his school mascot, of course!  It is his school colors, too, which makes it a pretty neat find for him.  Brian then decided he needed to win Kendall a prize, so, we grumbled a little but shelled out another $20 so Kendall could get the fluffy pink and white unicorn from Despicable Me (video clip included below for reference).  She was delighted!  The kids had more stamina than we expected, and we actually stayed into the afternoon, and even went to see the forest service’s helicopter, which we’d never made it to before.