The 131st Annual Deerfield Fair
Over the weekend we went to the Deerfield Fair, which was Gwen's second excursion to the fair even though she was too little to remember the first one. She had so much fun sightseeing and got to try new junk food like fried dough and french fries in a dog bowl. Of course, we brought her to see all the animals (well, all that I could stand after walking around for 6 hours pregnant with triplets, my sciatic nerve killing me the entire time) including the cows, chickens, ducks, sheep, pigs and horses. The funniest part was that after she'd pet an animal, she would turn straight around and grope for our necks with a death grip. She seemed to settle in after a while but didn't get to pet many animals since most of them were in pens with high sides and she was scared to get too close or hang over the edge (not Michael Jackson over the edge but bending at the waist).
At the end of a very long day she was ready to go home (as was Mommy) and so for being such a good girl she got to bring an Elmo ("Emma") balloon with her. It was an awesome family day, which we, sadly, do not get enough of.
Beef
We came upon our first cow while she was getting a break from the stables, drinking not-so-fresh water and getting brushed down in the sunshine. Gwen was curious so we stopped to watch and pointed out that it was a cow and asked repeatedly, "What sound does the cow make?" to no avail. We went into the stables after that and had better luck with those cows and with getting an "MMMMM" answer to the "What does the cow say?" question, even though she was still a little timid. We got to see Nature in it's full glory a few times and pointed out to Gwen how wonderful Nature is allowing the cows to poop and fertilize the Earth. The people behind us thought we were nuts. Even better!!
Poultry
Gwen loves ducks. She loves them in books, she loves them in real life, it's been the animal sound she's been able to say the longest (close anyway, instead of "Quack, quack", she says "Duck, duck" while opening and closing her hand in a beak-like fashion - it's quite adorable). So it was an obvious choice to visit the poultry exhibit, a first for me too. It was noisy and hot but Gwen was so excited if I wasn't pregnant I probably never would have noticed. While we were down on the ground to take a close look at the geese, one of the geese she was talking to jumped against the side of the crate, making her actually scared; she turned around clutching for me, crying and yelling, "Up! Up!" It was sad and funny at the same time and she quickly forgot about it as we moved on to see some of the roosters and what we assumed were pheasants.
Miscellaneous pictures from throughout the day
