LIFE at the Fair

Last week was County Fair Week. Daniel and his brother Philip built a small house leaving it a bit unfinished on purpose. Daniel's mom and I with some help from the kiddos painted 4 banners from old white sheets. Two said "Build a Culture of Life" and two said "Sow seeds of Life." I also made some posters on poster board. All this was for the Pro-Life float we made for the County Fair Parade. We got it together with the help of 4 other families. It was lots of fun and really not that much work.

The actual day was a long one since we had to be in town in place at 8:30am, wait for the parade to start at 10am, wait for our float to hit main street at about 11am, and end about 15 minutes later. After taking it apart and heading home to lunch and a nap, we then geared up to go to the actual fair where we had entered some things in the exhibition hall contests.(He has his little brother in the kid's seat on the back of which is this sign. Sweet.)

Juan Pablo entered an Easter egg he made from salt dough and then painted as well as a picture he colored and one he made with watercolor. Emmanuel entered a little man cut from salt dough, a colored picture, and a wooden butterfly he painted. Earlier in the summer, we had a craft day with two other mommies and their kids during which we made the salt dough crafts. But I let the kids paint them last week in the garage. I gave them a little too much freedom...partially because I knew that if I stood their watching them I'd try to paint it for them. Well, you can see below what my lack of supervision got me.
Daniel and I both entered photographs we had taken and I entered some chocolate chip cookie bars I made for snacks when setting up the float on Thursday and parade day on Friday. To enter you just need to put 6 of them on a paper plate and stick them in a ziplock bag. I also entered my mom's fuzzy jude plant because I think it looks really neat and she has it growing in an old tea kettle.
Besides the exhibition hall with all the county's crafts, veggies, hay, plants, art, canned and baked goods, there's the queen's contest, the livestock showbarn, ferris wheel and other rides, and food booths of cotton candy and funnel cakes.

While in Nicaragua last fall we saw a man selling cotton candy and I had told the kids that they can have cotton candy one time a year and that is at the county fair. So these kiddos were most excited about that. Once we saw what ribbons we won for our entries, we went over to the queen's contest to eat our spun sugar and listen to the somewhat interesting part when all of the contestants have to answer a question. (I went out for fair queen when I was a junior in high school but didn't make the court...no big disappointment.)(This is my pro-breast feeding pic :) )

Later in the evening we checked out the animal show barn to see the chickens, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows. Very exciting as usual...though the boys especially loved watching the process of the pigs being weighed.
Last of all we let the boys choose a ride. That took way too long. I'll attribute it to the fact that they chose one that was an obstacle course of sorts with a long slide at the end, but which required closed toed shoes (not really sure if we have closed-toed shoes that fit all the kids right now. I mean, it's summer, right?). It did look pretty fun, so I was disappointed for them...and for me because it would have been over then and we could have gone home. But instead we went in search of another ride. The one they chose was a merry-go-round of boats on real water with little bells that you could ding. It also just happened to have the slowest and most meticulous guy running it. He waited until he could get all the seats filled in each little boat and walked around to check everyone...for what I'm not sure since they didn't have to wear seatbelts. Finally they went around in circles dinging their bells and waving and smiling. And soon we were heading home. It was a long, but fun day.
And above all, we pray that we might have been a heart-changing witness to the sacredness of LIFE.

PS. Our posters on the float included:
"Babies are blessings. Choose Life."
"Worth waiting for. Abstinence until marriage."
"Modest is Hottest."
"Abortion is not healthcare. Call congress."
"Abortion stops a beating heart. Adoption saves a beating heart"
"Pregnant? Need Help? Call 1-877-WECARE2 Project Gabriel"
"Alpha Omega Life Center #xxx-xxx-xxxx" (This is the crisis pregnancy center in the next town over.)
"Smile, your mom chose life."
"I've noticed that all people for abortion have already been born."