Let me tell you what it's about, and then maybe you can help me. That's what we do around our office when we need a headline and we're stumped.
This entry is about taking Anna Marie to the fair on Saturday.
Alone!
I did not want to go. I'll admit it. I was happy that it wasn't over 100 degrees like it was last year, but it was raining. And I was tired. And I had other things to get accomplished on Saturday, and if I wasn't taking pictures for the paper, I probably wouldn't have even gone.
But I did. We did. Anna Marie and I.
(Where was Jason? Snoozing away, of course.)
Admission was only $2 each, and I bought Anna Marie a "fun pass" that entitled her to play on 7 or 8 blow-up thingies (moon bounces, etc.) as much as she wanted for another $3.
So that's what we did. Mom gave her $5 to buy a snack (as a bribe for her to eat breakfast?) but more on that later.
Anna Marie spent most of her time on those inflatable things, which were under one end of the arena where the fair was held, while I took pictures.
(Yes, I left my nearly seven-year-old child alone for a few minutes at a time while I walked around and took pictures. All of the inflatables were in one spot, and she understood she was to go NO WHERE away from those without me. Not even if someone told her they were taking her to me - no one. And to talk to no one that I hadn't OK'd first, be they an adult or a teenager. And, that there were several adults we knew manning those inflatables, and if she needed anything, she was to find one of them and have them call me.)
(Also - I checked back on her every few minutes. And if we had been anywhere else other than here, I wouldn't have ever dared to do it. That's the end of my mommy-justification for the day.)
One of the things she did while I was around - boxed some random kid.
I can hear her now, getting all up in his grill.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Punk.
There was a film crew from Sweden there, doing a documentary about Southern food. I knew they were European because no one down here wears shoes this cool.
And what would a county fair be without livestock? This cow was headed for a milking contest. The poor girls looked like they hadn't been milked in several days.
Ok, so that part about all the inflatables being in one place, inside? Not completely true - there were several waterslides outside, and I promised we could do those last.
Yeah, that water was as nasty as it looks onscreen.
So, about the snack - we settled on some nachos and a shaved ice. Which took up not only the fiver mom gave her, but a dollar of mine as well! But the worst part was that as we were sitting inside the arena, so she could eat on the bleachers, I knocked over the shaved ice! None of it got on her, but she cried real tears about it.
I felt badly, too, because I didn't have enough cash left to get her another.
Luckily, the cow milking contest started, and she was distracted for a while.
Nothing like observing a little hard farm labor to fascinate a little red-haired city girl.
5 comments:
I agree that those shoes are WAY too cool to be from these parts!
those are the COOLEST shoes EVAH!
reminds me of Bay City Rollers, but again, i'm showing my age.
so you want a title, huh? how 'bout 'mother of the year nominee!' - for all the naysayers that would cluck their tongues about your blatent disregard for your child's welfare.
and i end this with a big fat raspberry for all who say that! :o)
My title submission:
Not Faire
Cuz it's not fair that we have to take our kids places while our hubbies nap. And it's not fair that Europeans have so much cooler shoes than us (... well .. than you. We have cool shoes like that out here. I'm totally serious. We are all about the shoes.) And it certainly wasn't fair that those poor Momma cows went without milking for two days so they'd win the contest at the fair! Poor babies! (All nursing mothers understand their pain.)
And heck. Anna Marie was safe. You could glance back and see her, right?
I didn't see any rain in the picture by the way. Did it stop?
Water slide water: eww.
And I could SO relate to not having enough money to replace the snow cone. Years from now, when we are reveling in abundance, we will look back and remember when we didn't have money for a replacement snow cone, but God blessed us with enough money to go to the fair, ride all the rides, hang out with our kid, see all the animals ... and even had some nachos.
Cuz God is fair. More than fair. And He sees to the details.
New title submission:
More than Faire
btw: I don't wear cool shoes. They are just AVAILABLE here.
My son wears them. When he can get his dad to buy them.
It did stop raining, shortly after we got to the fair. That did not, however, immediately dry up the muddy field I was forced to park in (and nearly got my car stuck in.)
This whole being nearly-cashless thing has its good points and its bad points. While it helps me not to have to make some unnecessary purchases that Little AM wants, it also keeps me from the necessary ones - like the replacement sno cone.
And lest you think I let the inflatables babysit her all day, she did get to see the biggest hog I've ever laid eyes on, and some alpacas, and a goat, and watch the Swedish lady get thrown from the mechanical bull.
Which I had to convince her that she was too small to ride, and when she asked me just how big one had to be to ride it, I finally said, "Look, that thing is dangerous, and YOU aren't EVER going to be big enough."
Just so you know!
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