County Fairs: Old Fashioned Fun

Sunday evening we had the pleasure of heading to our county fair -- me to demonstrate knitting for THREE HOURS (!) and dh and the kids to ride rides, eat fair food, play games (and win tacky prizes). The highlight for all (ok, for me, it was the KNITTING!) was the Rodeo ... 60 minutes of rough and tumble fun for $2 (only dh had to pay, the kids all were free).

The PWC Fair, the largest in Virginia, is celebrating it's 59th year with a theme of "where the pieces all come together". It's down-home fun with the traditional animal shows, goofy exhibits, and competitions. I spent most of my time in the Home Arts building ... where amazing quilts, stained glass, woodwork, and all needlecrafts were on display. They were just finishing the Hershey's Chocolate Bake-off ... so while I sat and knitted I got to hear about the "caramel pecan chocolate chip brownies" and the "just plain good brownies" and the "chocolate surprise fluff cake" that were in competition. Tough when you haven't eaten and your family has left you to knit while they play.

The PWC Fair runs from August 8-16th this year ... and really shouldn't be missed.

We love fairs and went every year to the State Fair in Raleigh ... I can still taste those foil-wrapped sweet-potatoes and hot corn on the cob. The Raleigh fair was also the first time I'd ever entered -- my knitted items all won ribbons each year! We just haven't been to a fair in a few years and my littles thought of State Fair when we first started talking about going. They couldn't understand why we weren't staying overnight (it's only 30 minutes from here)!

We had such a grand time this year (in spite of the horrible storm that blew through about 30 minutes after our arrival). I've already volunteered to judge and demonstrate again next year ... my kids have already scoped out which competitions they're going to try (Bam-Bam wants to do the sheep riding in the rodeo while Lego Maniac wants to enter the Lego-building competition).

Have you been to the fair lately?