Spring Fair Fun

After a slight delay involving hunting down where both my older kids lost their jackets, we made it to the Puyallup Spring Fair. We had a great time. Here's some pictures of our fun and what we did.

The kids took advantage of the wait for our first show to go visit with the reptiles of Brad's Reptile Show. Then they hit the booth for a stream preservation group and made some bookmarks. While there, they also got to see the beginning of the salmon lifecycle. The booth had about 7 tubes showing different stages of salmon growth from brand new egg to tiny fish. It was pretty cool.

I read about Charlie the Noise Guy a couple of years ago but this was the first time we've been able to see him in action and what a treat it was. At the show we saw, I noticed that all of the kids were just dying with giggles and laughter. They all, boys and girls, obviously loved Charlie. I also noticed that every parent in the group was equally enjoying themselves. Charlie, you see, was a boy who got into trouble often because he loved to make noise. Then as a children's librarian, he brought fun into story time but adding sound effects to the stories. Now, he makes a living by making noises while telling stories and jokes. He'll even teach you how to make a few of them. What a fun way to make a living!

My son was especially enthralled with Charlie, so much so, that he ran over there and gave him a big hug. He wants to be the Noise Guy Jr. Charlie was very friendly and handled my son's excitement very well. If you ever have a chance to see the Noise Guy, take it.

After the Noise Guy, the kids got their faces painted for free. Mika, of course, got a horse.

Sammy opted for a dragon. In the photo, he's trying to make the biggest smile he can.

Josh, by the way, got a couple of paw prints painted on the back of his hand.

I think the highlight of Josh's day were all the bleachers available for climbing. He didn't waste time; he hopped right up on them and up he went giving mom no time time relax.

Mika wasn't aware that I snapped this photo of her studying the chicks until we looked at the photos this morning. They were pretty cute.

Josh didn't know what to make of the goats and sheep in the petting farm. He mostly stood in the middle of the pen pointing at the animals while looking at me with a look that seemed to say, "Mama, look! What is that strange thing?"

Mika asked about this pretty milking cow and was happy we found it. You see, the cow if full of water which you can "milk" out of the cow by squeezing her teats. Mika waited for and took two turns.

Sammy had to get in on the action too. I just don't see the draw of a fake cow.

Of course, Josh has to do everything his older siblings do. He was actually in there with teat in hand, shaking it, trying to get it to work.

Sammy loves just about any character he can find. He hugged a squirrel right before we found this clown. Josh, on the other hand, was NOT please that I sat him with the clown to try to get a picture of them together. Mika usually stays far away from characters, clowns, mimes, and other strange things as well.

I think the highlight of the day for Sammy were the Dragon Steps. They are a group of people who like to play with fire. They stated, several times, that they were professions and warned people to NOT try this at home. Here are two skimpily dressed girls playing with some small flames to get the show started. The one in the back was doing what looked like a belly dance sort of dance with the flames. The one in the front was putting the flames out either in her mouth, on her tongue, or along her waist. This was a rather sensual start to the performance, making me mildly uncomfortable.

This guy was cool though. He was, by far, the best part of the performance. Here he is quickly swinging two flames on chains in circles towards his chest. They appeared to be skimming along his skin as they went around.

For his grand finally, he blew his flames into a big flame in the air. Sammy asked if we could come back today to see it again.

Unfortunately, the African Acrobats cancelled the whole weekend. I was looking forward to their show. It was quite disappointing. We substituted a magic show by Steve, the Pretty Good which had Mika confused and in awe.

We were pretty tired when we finally walked in the door to our home at 9:30pm. The kids had fun, though, which was the whole point.