AAA Fair

We've been members of AAA for almost 15 years now.  The NW Ohio branch throws a party in their parking lot every year to thank its members, entice new ones, and showcase other services and affiliates that come with membership.  We like to stop by for the fun and games for the kids.  This year they had a Spider-man car that the kids thought was pretty cool.

The games were standard carnival games, but they were set up so that kids could get some kind of prize no matter how well they did.  Alex here is trying his best at a ball toss knocking over clown dolls.

Aaron did well at a skeeball-type bowling game.  They had music and food carts so we had a little picnic there and enjoyed the nice early fall day.

Fulton County Fair 2008

This year's Fulton County Fair was our favorite yet.  Aaron was tall enough that he could ride most of the rides accompanied by Alex, which meant that I didn't need to ride everything and could watch and take pictures from the sidelines.  There were some rides, like the "1001 Nachts" flying carpet ride that Alex is riding here, that were still to big for Aaron, but he was still able to ride some of the smaller kids' rides that Alex wasn't interested in anyway.

They worked together on the bumper cars to strike fear in the hearts of the other drivers, while I watched and tried not to flash forward to thoughts of them driving on real roads someday.

Alex found that this huge burlap sack slide was faster than he remembered, especially when it tossed him up (and then dropped him) on the bumps.  This was one of Aaron's favorite rides though, and he rode it 4 or 5 times.  Thank goodness we went for the unlimited ride pass.

This inflatable obstacle course costs extra, but the kids love it and so we do it every year.  This year, Aaron could tackle all the obstacles and keep up with his brother.

After our ride passes expired we ate fair food and checked out lots of animals - cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens, goats, and sheep to name a few.  The boys really loved watching a sheep get shorn right before judging.  He was unhappily bleating every few seconds which they thought was hilarious, so we moved on.  All in all, our favorite year here so far.

Kids Club Family Carnival

The Kids' Club at our gym sponsored a Family Carnival in the gym after swim lessons today.  They had games, crafts, activities, and food set up as a fun thank you to the kids and families that use their facility. Aaron tried his hand at a ring toss game - ring the pop bottle, win the bottle.

Alex clowned around a little...

..and found a spider on his arm.

Aaron made a wacky mask at the craft table.  We all ate hotdogs and popcorn.  The other half of the gym was open, so we played basketball for few minutes before heading home.  We'll look forward to this next year.

Hottest Apple Butter Fesitval EVER

We try to his the MacQueen's Apple Butter Festival every year, but this year it was blazingly hot. It topped 90 degrees by this afternoon. Thankfully we decided to pick apples first and filled our half-bushel bag with honey crisps, golden delicious, and these red delicious apples nearly the size of their heads.

Then we took them down to the play area for overpriced tickets and inflatable playground equipment. The boys got a little dizzy on the spinning dragon ride but they had a great time. Unfortunately by that time, we were burning up. We bailed and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

Even though it was a short trip, we'll be eating apples for a month. Yummy!

Fulton County Fair 2007

We made it back out the the Fulton County Fair again this year for Labor Day weekend. This car ride was a big hit again this year. I get the feeling that if they each had their own steering wheel, one would steer left and the other would steer right.

The big slide was a hoot! Alex was big enough to ride down by himself. Aaron and I rode doubles for double the fun.



Then the carousel drew us over. Alex rode bigger and scarier rides too, but these were harder to get pictures of. We had a great dinner with a dairy fresh milkshake for dessert. We usually try to see some animals, but this year was all about the rides - and a huge pumpkin bigger than Aaron.

Apple Butter Festival 2006

Once again we hauled everyone to the MacQueen's Orchard Apple Butter Festival. This year we got to pick some VERY large, juicy, and of course fresh Golden Delicious apples - our favorites. We always look for large ones that have just a hint of pink "blush" in the skins which makes them just a little sweeter. This year we lucked out.

They had these large crates in the aisles of the tree rows that they use to place the apples into for hauling. This one was tilted on its side and the boys wanted up on it. We got several pictures, but we love the natural happy smiles in this shot.

Alex has recently discovered the air guitar - or as he calls it, his "invisible guitar". This bad was called Bandera and they were pretty good. Alex, by the way, also plays a mean invisible bassoon. Seriously.

We made it back home with our haul - a half bushel of crisp apples. The challenge will be to eat them before they go bad. Becky already has plans for caramel apples and I may make a pie. My applesauce hasn't been very popular in years past, so I may take a break from it this year.

Fulton County Fair 2006

This year we went to the Fulton County Fair again, which is becoming a Labor Day weekend tradition for us. Right where we walked in, they had set up a large, red combine for display. We all saw it and yelled, "Frank!", because it looked exactly like the angry combine from Disney/Pixar's Cars movie that protected the sleeping tractors from getting "tipped". We bought ride-all-you-want-until-5pm ride tickets and we definitely got our money's worth. If you'll notice the kid on the bottom of the funhouse tube in the second picture, I am stepping OVER him, for the record :). One thing we like about this fair is that, in addition to all the standard fair food, they sell fresh farm food from local farmers. You can get milkshakes (and hamburgers) from local cows, pulled pork from local pigs, BBQ chicken from...you get the idea. It was tasty, but it did make us feel slightly sorry for the animals we saw, knowing their fate. Especially watching Alex talk to the pigs (and watching them respond to his oinks and grunts) gave me a Charlotte's Web moment. They crashed on the way home - a sure sign that much fun was had.