I {heart} the Ventura County Fair!!!

Seriously, I love our little county fair. It rocks! This year, we waited until the second to last day to go because the girls were dancing with their ballet classes. We scored a free ticket for each kid, so we only had to buy a child's ticket for Liz. I had been really tempted to go earlier this week on the dollar day, but there just wasn't room in the budget for two trips to the fair. We got everyone dressed in their ballet outfits with their little hair crowns. I put Rachel's hair in two little pigtails pulled half through and Liz wanted the same thing. Then we ended up having them wear their nightshirts we brought back from Cancun that say "Thing 1", "Thing 2" and "Thing 3". They looked pretty darn cute and with Liz and Rachel's hair styles they did look rather Dr. Seuss-ish!

Our first stop was in the hobby and collection building to see what Daddy got for his aircraft carrier and GI Joe collection. He earned second place this year. We were a bit bummed, but not too surprised because we broke some of the rules in our display and knew we would be marked down for it. He had more than 35 items displayed and also one of the placards was bigger than allowed. We thought it made for a better display though, so we did it anyway! We all had fun wandering around that building and seeing what people had brought to display.
Then we walked down to the Youth Expo building to find the girls' art. Some friends from our old ward were actually prepping to do their luau show in that building. So we said hi and promised to come back when the show started. We found Liz's book first. She not only won first place, but also first in class and got a huge blue ribbon! It was really exciting. We had a hard time finding the girls' art, but we finally found it. They were all near each other and they all earned a blue ribbon! Proud moment!

(Mimi's are pink, Rachel's is purple.)

(Liz's is red.)

After the art excitement, we went to the butterfly exhibit. They had hundreds of butterflies and you could go in and feed them and hold them on your cotton swabs. There were monarchs and painted ladies. We had so much fun holding them and watching them. They landed all over the place. Miriam was not a fan of actually holding them, but enjoying looking. Rachel kept trying to blow on them or touch them with her hand at first. It was a great exhibit. By the time we finished that, it was time for our friends' show to start. We watched the dancers until it was time for us to get the girls ready for their dance.

She thought it was really funny that they were on her shirt.

It was a little chaotic at the check-in where the girls were supposed to dance, but we finally got them all checked in and found a seat to enjoy the show. Rachel was the third little group to go on. She was crying when she got onstage. I rushed to the front to see what was wrong. When she saw us she started crying more, but the music was already going and she started doing her moves while kind of crying. It was pretty much hilarious. By the second song, she was just fine and had fun doing the dance. When I asked her later, she said that she had hurt herself and that's why she was crying. (She does this a lot at home for attention.)
The big girls were next and they both did a fabulous job. Mimi put herself right in the front ("Oh, the spotlight is here? Then I'm in the right place.") And Liz ended up in the back on the side behind the teacher's helper. ("But Teacher Pam told me to be on this side!") They both did a great job and knew all the moves for their dance. It was fun watching them on the big stage. Mimi said she really liked it.

This move is called 'Octopus Arms' and it's their favorite move!
And yes, all you smart-alecks reading this post, that IS the technical term!!!

After dancing, we stopped and got ourselves some amazing roasted sweet corn. So good!!! Then we looked at all the animals: turkeys, bunnies, guinea pigs, turtles, goats, pigs, and cows. My girls had some good county educational experiences watching animals do their business, seeing them get prepped for judging and watching them being fed. My favorite was the "tail adhesive" I watched a girl spray on her heifer's tail: hairspray for cows! After a walk through the flower and landscape departments, we were just about ready to be done.

We stopped on our way out to buy a big bag of kettle-corn to share and enough tickets for everyone to ride the big slide. I forgot to have the girls earn the free ride tickets this year, so they decided to be happy with the big slide. I love that it's right next to the exit, so we can do it and then head home. The bus for our parking area pulled up just as we got there, which was the perfect ending to a great day at the fair!