County Fair!

We had our county fair here recently, which means a fun day of animals and auctions and fair food and dust and free goods at the pavilion for this little family.  And let's not forget the rides and games!  My kids were more than happy to clean me out of every dollar I brought that day, and I confess I was more than happy to do it.  Watching them get such a thrill from riding certain rides over and over again, or play a game that they're good at so that they could "trade up" for the bigger prizes makes this mom happy.  I think it's the usual thrill of being happy to see them happy, but also that delight that we parents get from seeing our kids love something that we loved, too.  Reliving those moments through their eyes is possibly MORE fun the second time around.  I know that's the case for me, anyway.

One of the highlights of the day was running into another family that we're close to, and somehow we just ended up spending the rest of the day with them.  They were lovely about it, and it couldn't have made the kids happier -- especially once they all had ride bracelets and could just slide down the crazy slide to their hearts content.  I got to hold their new baby for a while, which I always enjoy, and I got some good girlfriend time in, too.  All this amongst the hustle and bustle of the crowds -- I love it!  I think my new plan in the future is to spend the fair day with as many other people as possible.  We all benefited and had a better time because of it.

The best part of the day, though, came at the very end.  Charlie had been a little crabby (shocking) at the start of the day, wanting to go home when the rides wouldn't start when HE was ready for them to start.  But after seeing everything (twice) and spending time with friends and getting to win a penguin for throwing darts, he looked at me and said, "I couldn't have had a better day.  This was the perfect day.  Thank you, Mom."

Before I could even really respond, because I was in awe of the kind words coming out of my grumpy little man, the next words were classic -- "Don't cry."  We both laughed, and we hugged, and we had a great evening that night.  Granted it was mostly us passing out in various places and positions due to exhaustion, but great nonetheless. 

It's days like this that make me glad to be in the life that I'm living.  I wouldn't trade a moment of it!