A fairly memorable day

Silly me, I thought my birthday would be the best day to take the kids to the fair. Not that it's the best way I can think of to spend a day; it's definitely not! But I wanted them to get to go.

The student tickets the kids got this year were for a Sunday in September that was not a long weekend, so it wasn't really a good time for us to go. Sundays are busy already and we're not going to miss church or Gigi's house for that.

But I had no idea what we were getting into by deciding to go on Columbus day. I didn't think many people had the day off--turns out 22 local districts had that day for their (free) fair day. And I didn't know who the Jonas Brothers were. Now I do!

And we later learned that only 2 days in fair history had more people in attendance: the day Selena performed, and the day Garth Brooks performed (I was there for that day, too!).

We did not hurry to get ready Monday morning. I wanted to take it easy, blog a little, relax: it was my birthday, after all. David made us heart-shaped pancakes, which delighted Paloma who seemed not to remember ever having them before.

We left home at 11:15, having packed lunches.

The first attraction we were able to get to at the fair began at 2 PM.

It took us 2 hours just to drive the 24.7 miles to Fair Park--at least Paloma & I got a nap--and then we had to park and walk. We ate our lunch once inside the park, then went to the Women's Museum for a kids' science show (something different than we've done in the past).

At least inside it was cool, but outside it was blasted hot.

Next we saw a fairly lame puppet show (there is another puppet show every year that is better--now we know).

Then I got my corny dog. This year it was not worth it. I stood in the corny dog line while David went to the coupon line. It was soooo hot and soooo crowded because the Jonas Brothers concert had just ended at that point.

Next we rode the newly reopened/ rebuilt Skyway across the park,


went to the Birds of the World show (which seems to never change except for the "volunteer" who "falls" into the water) and then headed to the Ferris wheel.



Once we were 10 feet up in the Ferris wheel, we could feel a breeze and the temperature seemed to drop 20 degrees immediately. When we got up a little higher and started to take pictures, we noticed the ominous clouds headed our way.

Even though it was really dinnertime, we were nervous about how much time we had, so we decided to use our remaining tickets for snacks instead of rides so we could leave faster and maybe make it to the car before the sky opened up.

But when we got down, we were right in the middle of the kiddie rides, so I had a Pentimento moment. We quickly discovered that the coolest-looking rides had the longest lines and that the ride we soon picked would not allow Paloma on--she was too small. So David and Paloma went to get the stroller and 8 tickets worth of cotton candy while Carmen and Gabriel rode their last ride.



Before I started this post a few days ago, I asked Carmen if she wanted to write about it for the blog. She said, "No, I already wrote about it at school!" But then today, she told me she was writing about it in her new journal. So here is Carmen's account:


If you're wondering, that last line is about the "curbs" being fun--I asked her, and she said that rounding the corners was the best part.

And yes, I was the only one not in yellow. We normally dress in the same color to make it easy to find each other, but I didn't have any yellow maternity clothes and my main concern was wearing comfortable shoes!


Poor Paloma was all tuckered out. She slept all the way to the car. We had been driving less than 10 minutes when the rain started to fall. We decided to go ahead and eat dinner nearby at Daddy Jack's. (Mmmm, lobster bisque and shrimp stuffed with Ritz, butter & crabmeat stuffing.) When the kids didn't like the stuffed shrimp I gave them to try, I said, okay, how about I eat this and we'll get you a burger when we leave here? They agreed, so I had my fill of the yummy shrimp and they ate Happy Meals on the way home. (They were thrilled because we very rarely let the kids have McD's ever since we saw Supersize Me a couple of years ago.)



My mom came to visit and bring me a card when we got home. She & Amy had the idea to buy me a GC for a professional organizer--"the gift of time". (Exciting and intimidating at the same time.) They got David to have his family contribute too. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that at a later date, but it will no longer be a joke when I say I need professional help! This proves it.

In this picture, Gigi & the kids are checking out the huge spider and web on our back porch.