In the past I haven't taken our kids to the fair (Verona Hometown Days) because I don't want to pay $7 for a ride that lasts 30 seconds and say no to the carny guys baiting my kids to play their games for $5 and then the food baiting me to eat it. This year we decided we would go and let them each ride a couple rides or play a couple games. We got there and found that there is a large area of free games and crafts put on by local organizations. The kids were so excited! So was I! The first thing they did was a coin dig put on by a local bank. They filled a small baby pool with sand and buried a bunch of pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters. Then they let 6 kids go at a time for 2 minutes and they get to keep all the coins they found. The bank had just stocked the pool before Jack and Grace were up to dig.
Jack ended up with $5.72 and Grace found just under $3!
Then Grace wanted to paint on the wall of art for a chance to win $40 (I haven't heard if she won :)).
Then we told the kids how much $$ the rides were ($7 each) they chose to play a game. So we walked past ALL the games, got heckled by all the workers to play THEIR game and they each got to do one....they wanted to use their coins to play (yippeee) and we walked away from the carnival about $2 ahead :). Our neighbors called us cheap....guess what....I really don't care! When can you leave a carnival with 2 prizes, 2 ice cream sandwiches, 3 happy, smiling kids and $2 more than when you came?
I even tried to take the kids to the fireworks the night before and sit across the street so the rides wouldn't be calling our names, but after 7 fireworks a big fire started so they stopped for about 45 minutes and we went home.
Then.....drum roll.....I actually took the kids to a parade. I am sorry to say that this is their 1st parade not at Disney World. We have never taken them to a local small town parade...I have no good reason for not doing it. We left our house about 10 minutes before the parade was going to start and found a place to park 1 block from where our friends were sitting. The kids had a little area of curb to sit on and thanks to Aunt Sally (my friend Nicole's aunt) they had a plastic bag for all the candy that was tossed. Jack said that was the BEST PARADE EVER! He got a huge bag of candy, a tshirt, a packer hat, a frisbee and did I mention candy....most of it is in the garbage :). Kate was a bit confused by the firetrucks and their sirens but just looked at them with her serious face and loved watching parts of the parade and hanging out with her friend Erica.
Waiting for the parade to start!
Grace thought this was the best!
Kate and Erica are wondering what all the noise was....firetrucks/police cars/ambulances...hope there wasn't an emergancy since they were all in the parade!
It was a great weekend and we made $2.
