My Life as a Carny

Me, possibly the summer
I was a Carny...

This week was homecoming at the high school, and as usual there was a theme with "dress up" days.  This year's theme was "Under the Big Top" and the daily dress ups were "Stripes and Suspenders", "Tasty Tuesday" (wear bright and festive candy colors),"Mirror, Mirror (Twins)", "Carny Day" (dress like someone who you would see at a carnival), Blue and Green Spirit Day (our colors are blue and green).  As always, some of the kids' (and staff's) outfits were interesting.  My favorite day this time was Carny Day.  I wore my own clothes and was able to say (with an almost straight face)..."Well, when I was a Carny,  I just wore my own clothes".  Priceless reactions...

See, the story as I remember it, is that for some reason when I was in high school the "carnival" came to town (for the 4-H Fair, of course) and was short-handed.  No, I have no idea how that happens.  I suppose the other possibility is that the town and the carnival had some kind of agreement about hiring a certain number of local people?  Or some local club or organization volunteered? Who knows... the end result is that for a couple nights I sold tickets to the rides inside a cute little booth.  He, he...allowing me to use "I was a Carny" as a truth when we play "Two truths and a lie" at the beginning of the school year.

"Would you like to buy some carnival tickets?"

Birthday Parade and other fun

The Girl actually missed her birthday parade this year--she was at a friend's house for a sleepover.  IM decided to sleep in, but The Boy and I were lucky that my friend, T and her two boys wanted to come with us.  Her boys don't remember ever going to a parade, so The Boy had a good time teaching them proper (and not so proper) parade behavior (bring your own  bag for candy, look cute so the adults will let you go up front, jump up and down when people throw beach balls....)

 The very nice lady in the white shirt assured the boys that as long as she could take pictures of her daughter, the cheerleader, they could dash in front of her to collect candy and other treasures.

Here are some of the highlights of the about 1.5 hour parade....(not pictured, T and I giggling and our commentary on many things relevant and not relevant)

Our county has a tank/assault vehicle. Every year when it drives by I can't decide if I'm reassured that we have it or concerned about why on earth we feel it is necessary...

 Ummmm...boys?  You might want to duck....those lights are kind of low

 Whew...they all ducked....

I guess I didn't take many pictures this year, those might be all the good shots!

After the parade, we retrieved The Girl from her friends house and headed home so she could open presents from Grandma Lemire, The Boy, and us.

I think this picture is funny...she acts like he is going to steal her new ear rings...he, he.

 In honor of turning 13, The Girl decided to dress up, complete with heels.  Not to be outdone, The Boy found a step stool.  I think she is still taller, though!

 Dinner was at the local hybachi place (where else?)

 This time, The Girl was the guest chef...no, she is not standing on a stool, that is how tall the heels were.

 After dinner we headed home for some "Aunt A cake".  Aunt A's birthday is also in the summer and when she was a kid, Grandma didn't like to turn on the oven to bake a cake.  This cake is a nice compromise and actually turns out yummy most times!  The recipe is very simple, too, the trick is to make it the night before.

There you go--one more birthday on the books-and now we have a teenager in the house...eeek!

Carnies and free fish

One of the most interesting aspects of the county fair has to be the carnival.  When I play 3 truths and a lie with my students I like to tell them that I was briefly a carny.  It is essentially true...when the carnival came to my hometown one year they were short on ticket takers and such, so they hired a bunch of us to work in the booths selling tickets...it was interesting to say the least.

At this year's county fair The Girl talked us into buying tokens.  Interesting side note...there are no longer ticket sellers at the fair...you put your money in a changer, kind of like the ones at the laundromat for quarter, and get tokens. The folks who run the rides collect the tokens..no more paper tickets.

So after going through the fun house, she decided that games were the way to go.  After watching Despicable Me, she, of course wanted to play a game that would allow her to win something big and fluffy.  She tried basketball (no win) then both kids tried the ping pong ball toss.  Between the two kids they tossed 19 ping pong balls with no luck...then number 20?  Right in the bowl of water.  What do you win in the ping pong ball toss, you might ask?  Well, it wasn't big and fluffy...it was

 A goldfish!  (Oh, joy...or sigh...whatever)

 The Girl does seem pretty happy though :)

 Issue #1...what do you do with a goldfish?  Both Mr. Ranch and I had fish (or our siblings did, rather) as kids, but we don't have anything resembling a bowl/tank/whatever.  So...off to PetsMart we went.  According to the clerks there, we were about the 5th family that came in with a "fair fish" during their shift.  We did manage to make it out for far less than the $86 bill that the clerks claimed another family spent on the "free" fish.  Our justification is that minnows are 15 cents (My brother used to buy them for a nickel...oh, inflation!) so if the goldfish dies, we'll get a couple minnows...We have a zoo (er, ranch?) here anyway, so what's one more little fishy? (Ha!)

 We brought little Goldie the goldfish home and put her in a temporary bowl so we could prepare the tank.  I don't remember "preparing the tank" for fish as a kid, but that's what the directions on the tank say, so we followed the directions.

 Doesn't he (she?) look happy (the four circle blobs are food, the fish is in the top center).  Oh, and The Girl is happy, too!

This post was supposed to go live tonight, but in light of the untimely death of the fish...well, whatever :)  The fish is no longer with us in any case...no one ran around the house screaming "Mrs. Fish is dead" (like my brother did when his fish died and he got a puppy to replace it). This fish lasted a week...care to place bets on how long the next fish will live?  Sigh...

The Girl's birthday parade and the 4-H fair

I was a proud 4-H member for almost 10 years.  I spend many 4-H fair weeks in the hog barn with friend, working at the Rotary shake booth, the band booster's booth, at various fair events.  A couple of years ago we ended up at Lil Sis's house the week before the fair and at the fairgrounds helping clean out the barns.  At one point Lil Sis had to step away and I ended up with all 6 kids in the dinner line.  She was almost as surprised as me when she reappeared and I had all the kids sitting down at a table with plates and drinks...they are well behaved kids.

Since we've lived in our new house, the kids and I have enjoyed going to the fair once or twice during the week of the fair to see the animals and the 4-H projects.  One of The Girl's friends raises cattle, so the last couple years have included some wandering in and out of livestock barns following his trail (as described by his mom, dad, or brother) so she can say "hi".

The other thing that is great about pretending we living in a small town is the 4-H Fair Parade.  (We're not the only ones pretending, despite our population being almost 50,000 we still have lots of "small town" events--like the 4-H parade, Star-lighting, outdoor downtown skating rink, etc...).  Since the fair is always held the first full week of August and the parade is held on the Saturday of the week, there is a good chance that the parade will fall on The Girl's birthday.

 Here we are in 2011, waving to our favorite float

 And last year, waiting for our favorite float...

This year Mr. Ranch came with us, since his triathlon season is over he doesn't have Saturday morning practices any more.  We got up bright and early and headed downtown...

 Mr. Ranch's first comment of the morning was, "oh, hey, there's the undercover police car that pulled me over for speeding".

 And his second was, "we have to stop coming to the parade...every time I see that vehicle it worries me--why does the County need an armored humvee with a gun turret on top?"

 The Fair royalty weren't as impressive to the 12 year old Girl as they were to the 6 year old girl...

 But the boy did enjoy the "Army truck"...even though it was a plumbing company.  The folks walking along side it were dressed up as water heaters, toilets, air conditioners, and sinks.

 This bus always cracks us up...Figured out that 2005 was 8 years ago...so the young men riding on the roof, claiming the 2005 State Champ label, were between 1st and 4th grade when it was won. Mr. Ranch says, "Makes you feel like you're in the heart of West Texas, doesn't it?"

 Here is the local state park's float...we wondered if it was a display usually in their interpretive center?

And here's a guy with a snake, just walking along as part of the parade.  What did you do in the parade?  I walked 3 miles asking people if they'd like to pet this snake.

 Our version of the Macy's balloons

 I didn't take pictures of all the large groups of horses--there were probably 30 just riding with/for a man running for sheriff, but as you can see from the mid-parade clean up, there were quite a few horses.

 You can see on his face what the boy thinks of the mid-parade horse clean up...

 The rec center has a pick up with a bubble machine...very interesting.

 The Boy decided to rest..the chances of this early snow plow throwing candy were low.

 The Girl wasn't as excited about candy this year, but she really wanted a beach ball.  Don't ask...my answer to everything is "she's a 7th grader".  See her following the lady with the balls after successfully talking her into one?

 And The Boy got one also...his is smaller, one the ladies on horseback yelled down, "that is the smallest beach ball I've ever seen".  Um, ok.

 Mr Ranch "stole" some of the kids' candy...here he is eating a lemon warhead, or whatever those are called.

 So I think that this group needs to work a bit on their slogan . It seems not so bad in theory, but in execution was kind of weird.  They were all dressed in poor imitations of "farm clothes" and were holding signs and chanting "no farms!"...then would say something like "no food!".  We're pretty sure their point was that without farms we wouldn't have food...but it didn't really flow as ideally as one would hope.

 This is just funny.

 And so is this...a zebra horse...he, he!

 And in one of the most anticlimactic endings to a parade ever, we realized it was over when this large street sweeper came cruising by..making a big wet, horsey mess.

 After lunch we headed over to the fairgrounds...I didn't get a very good picture of it, but this shows the "Swine Barn" and a sign stating "no strollers".  After previous years of having my ankles rammed by strollers in the barns, I agree.

 These pigs are hilarious...one of them shows recent signs of a pig rumble, but here they all are, all cuddled up together in their pen...awww...or ewww...whatever.

 Typical poses...

 Project by one of The Girl's friends...she was impressed.

 The only "ride" The Girl went on...

Look at this monster...it is a "family size funnel cake" Mmmmm...