One of the last fairs of the season was the past weekend. And it happened to fit into our schedule for Sunday morning.
The Grange Fair is a combo of 4H type exhibits, produce and animal competitions and of course, rides, games and food. We started out by checking out the animals. Matthew insisted that we go immediately to the rides and games, but we convinced him to take a quick spin around the exhibit tents first.
Quite an interesting array of exhibits this year - including pastel chickens. First I've ever seen.
Whenever any of the animals dared make any noise, Matthew was quick to tell them to "Calm down now, just calm down" (I guess I say this to him too often!).
Of course his insistence comes with the appropriate hand gesture. These geese were not impressed.
So we went along, waving to the animals as we went by.
Checked out some pretty neat produce contests.
And even took in a bit of history.
Then it was game time. Matthew is probably the only 3-year-old who knows what Plinko is - and he insisted this be his first game of the day. As it was sponsored by a local dentist, Matthew was unimpressed with his t-shirt and toothbrush prize.
But we soldiered on. Stopping for a quick photo op.
Oh, Noah was there too, of course.
Our first ride of the day was a tractor hayride. Ish's first ever.
Noah's too.
Then we met up with cousin Mare Mare.
The two of them were pros at the pick-a-duck game.
And they had fun together on the carousel.
While Matt and Matthew were on the Dunbo ride, I tried my luck at a water game.
And I let Matthew pick out a prize when I won. He opted for a big Eeyore.
Break time.
Dance time.
Mare Mare was not a fan of this ride. Matthew insisted on going on 3x.
We stopped for a quick lunch.
Eeyore was in charge of keeping Matthew's hat safe.
Matt has his hands full.
After lunch it was back to the mania of games.
And more rides.
And when we left (even though Matthew didn't want to), we took the long way home after we looked back and saw this in the back seat.
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Matthew's idea of help was squeezing the icing tubes. Fun, but not very productive.
Noah supervised.
Matthew was good at icing the cupcakes. I let him eat his work even though it was 8 o'clock in the morning (because if you can't eat cupcakes on your party day, when can you??!!).
Before the guests arrived I gave Matthew his very own car tattoo. Then I told him to show me his hand. Which I guess, technically, he did.
Once the guests started to arrive, the insanity began. The swingset got quite a workout on Saturday.
There was lots to eat - including the kid-friendly mac&cheese and chicken nuggets.
We had a built-in babysitter for Noah for the day.
We also had a built-in pinata holder. The tallest person at the party is always my brother. Therefore he is always the pinata holder.
And as usual, there was madness when the right string was finally pulled.
Matthew's birthday present got quite a workout too.
We had cupcakes for dessert.
And of course, CAKE!!!
Matthew used to hate the birthday song when he was younger, but now gets that the song = cake. So all is good.
We were happy to see a lot of our family and friends.
And the kids were happy to run around like maniacs for a few hours.
After the guests left Matthew opened up his present from grandma and grandpa.
His very own boom box - with a load of CDs to go with it.
And at the end of the day, we were all exhausted. And we all pretty much did this:
And tomorrow, when we wake up, Matthew will OFFICIALLY be 3.
