Fair Fun!

We decided to take advantage of free school group fair day this year at the LA county fair. I was beginning to feel a bit "out of the loop", as it were, having lived lo' this many years in S. CA and having *never* ventured to the fair ??? How could this be? We weren't entirely sure what we would encounter, except that we knew that there would be a lot of overpriced food. I invited my mom and dad along, since we would be going on my dad's birthday. Actually, I didn't realize this fact until after I had invited them.....I remember birthdays really well, can't you tell? Well, as the slide show will attest, we had a great time. And there was a lot of overpriced food which we didn't eat (yay for coolers). We just had to walk around and smell it all day. What can I say. We're all cheapskates. But it was a ton of fun! Here are some of the things we each enjoyed:

Grandma: not totally sure, but she had fun wandering around the shopping areas

Grandpa: sledding with Ben on his seventy-somethingth birthday. See?, you don't grow out of hooligan tendencies! (yes real snow, real hill, inside), and probably the horse race.

Cami: Shopping (mostly window variety), and seeing the guinea pigs, lambs, and bunnies.

Kendra: ditto the guineas, lambs, and bunnies

Mark: free parking & entrance, not spending $12 each for barbecue :o)

Ben: sledding, giant insects, being the magician's assistant in the magic show!

Me: I liked the horse race, and watching Ben have fun in the magic show

We finally broke down at the end of the day, and (against all of our extremely frugal sensibilities) gave each kid a whopping $5 to spend on either a food item, or a ride. The girls went with food, Ben went on a ride. Typical.

OK, I mentioned that Ben got to assist at the magic show, so here are some pics of him having a great time. The whole show was a recycling pitch (yawn...... it was mid afternoon, we were desperate for anywhere to sit down and relax), but the magician was actually really good. He did some good sleight of hand stuff. Made a lot of largish things disappear. Made a table float. Not too bad. Ben was soooooo thrilled to get picked to help. We all sat with fear and trepidation in the audience watching.........lets just say that Ben feels *uniquely* at home on a stage. One never knows what might transpire. In true hooligan form, he did not disappoint.

Magician: "This table is an antique....do you know what an antique is?"
Ben: "Yup!"
Magician: "It's something really old and worth a lot of money......do you know anyone that's an antique?"
Ben: "Yup --My Grandma!!"
Magician: "Is she here with you?"
Ben: "Yup, right back there!"

....and he was duly rewarded with uproarious laughter from the crowd, as we all rolled our eyes and shook our heads thinking "yeah, we knew it was coming...". Now, in Ben's defense, he understood "worth a lot of money" to mean "of genuine value", NOT "rolling in dough that I plan to inherit someday". The crowd got the real joke, Ben was gratified to get a laugh, and he thought he'd just paid his grandma a semi-teasing compliment (teasing about the age, compliment about her value). It was funny anyway.

...The Am-a-zing Ben!!...(note the lovely glasses!)

Getting ready to levitate the table....

and uuuuuuup it goes!!