Oh, I’m sorry… did you think I was done talking about the Fair?  Yeah, NO.  I forgot to mention the fun stuff that we did.  My son decided to partake in the bungee trampoline fun.  It looked pretty good.  Aside from the oppressive looking harness system.  I don’t think I want to wear that if I’m a boy, but he handled it ok.

When you’ve got bungee cords holding you, you can do some serious flippage.  There was a girl who was jumping so high I was actually fearful that she would hit the ceiling.  There were a few seconds every jump where she was beyond the bungees and free-falling, and every single time she let out a squeal of delight that just made me giggle.

Both of my kids participated in the smile contest.  It was divided by age group, and after my little beauty won 2nd place in the 7-8 year old category, my handsome son pulled a 3rd in a huge field of 11-13 year olds.  Very cool.  I have to say that I have a new appreciation for the kids who smile professionally in contests and pageants.  Those kids had to stand up there and smile for a good ten to fifteen minutes straight.  Both of them were having serious face muscle pain after it was over.  Funny thing is that my daughter changed her mind while in the registration line and didn’t really want to do it.

Once it was over she was super happy that she did, and spent the whole day telling me how excited she was to win the smile contest for my birthday fair celebration. A little Illinois pride over here, they were the only winners from Illinois in the whole contest under any age group.  I think they are going to be in a Wisconsin paper, but I’m not sure which one to get myself a copy.  Shoot.

We don’t even go into the carnival area, but we always look at every animal.  We also sample as many different types of food as humanly possible.  Mostly it’s typical fair stuff, although this time we found some interesting new stuff like maple root beer (delicious and lighter than the typical root beer) and fried green beans.  Yes, I’ve had them before, but not at the fair.  We try to respect the fact that we’re in Wisconsin and so we are sure to have roasted corn, grilled cheese sandwiches, bratwurst, local honey, freshly fried potato chips with cheese sauce, and wash it all down with a Sprecher root beer.

If you’ve ever been to the Wisconsin Fair, you’ve heard about the cream puffs.  It’s an event.  It actually has a building all its own called the Cream Puff Pavilion.  I personally don’t like cream puffs, but I love watching the other people who love cream puffs.  There is no delicate way to eat them, but some do better than others.  My son, for instance, did pretty well!

Over the years I’ve seen people get it in their eyes, their hair, up their sleeves, on their date, down their shirt, in their lap, one guy had it in his ear somehow… the worst is watching people just fill their nostrils with cream and continue eating as if nothing is going on.  Maybe you don’t have to breathe while eating a cream puff, I don’t know.  It makes for interesting people watching, but sometimes it can make me squirm a bit.  In recent years they have added brownies for us non-cream puff eaters, but they aren’t quite the same sensation as the puff, they’re just big.

We saw lots of cool stuff.  There are a lot of decent bands, and we looked at some kids’ art, bmx stunt riders and skateboarding, as well as some dude who makes a show out of painting sci-fi looking art with spray paint.  I’d show you a photo, but it was a “no cameras allowed” event.  You just have to trust me that the kids thought it was awesome, and if you’re into sci-fi looking art it was phenomenal for something completed in like 15 minutes with spray paint cans and set to music to make it seem high energy.  Yawn.

I like flea market shopping, so we hit all of the vendors.  I found lots of stuff that I liked, but I’m also cheap.  I passed on the wrap skirts made of recycled sari material although they were super awesome and I wanted like ten of them.  I also didn’t buy anything from the tent with the cool organic and bamboo material t-shirts and sweaties with the “Love the life you live, live the life you love.” motto on it.  The guy selling was also very nice and friendly.  I loved their designs, all inspired by nature and right up my alley.  I did, however, spend plenty on a stack of toe rings.  As I said to my husband, I found someone who will jam rings on your toes!!!  That’s right, actual rings for the toe.  Not the squeeze ones that pinch, these are actual rings that go all the way around, and I now have three.  It didn’t hurt at all when they put them on, by the way.  They are super cute, and I would consider posting a picture if I didn’t know for a fact that I would get comments asking about my toes rather than about my toe rings.  One of my rings, just so you know, is actually a daisy chain and I am in love with it.  I want more.

Today is the day I win myself a golf cart.  I promise that it will end all talk of the fair.