Meet me at the Fair

We attended the Delta Fair last weekend, and our first stop was the Farmer's Market where we learned a little about the life of bees! A young man with many tattoos showed us this observation frame you can see behind the boys. He told us a lot of fascinating things like how the new queen chirps when she emerges from her cell, bringing on a confrontation with the old queen wherein they battle it out, and whomever loses is ushered out by the worker bees. Also, the male drones are kicked out of the hive every autumn. Pretty amazing stuff about them bees.

Here's Trace. I need to take more pictures of this cute meister. He's growing up so fast!

The boys crawling on a ATV on display next to the hall where the beauty pageant was going on. An interesting slice of Southern life.

Speaking of interesting slices of culture. We got our first exposure to the roller derby. These ladies are not so intent on being beauties. I'm pretty sure the aim is intimidation by scariness. Yes, that is underwear over the top of the red and black leopard leggings--it really completes the outfit. Clint and I were pretty fascinated by this punkette subculture. It is actually a sport. As far as we could make it out: two skaters race around the track to complete a certain number of laps. Meanwhile there is a herd of skaters that they have to skate through who block them, shove them down or run interference for them, depending upon whose team they are on. Kind of like mud wrestling on wheels. Once we figured it out it was time to leave. I was relieved to hear Cole say, "This is boring!" If he thought the girls were hot, I'd have felt really guilty for corrupting my son.

Next we checked out the helicopter rides which were only $10--unbelievable!! But of course it was broken down. Bummer. I've never ridden in a helicopter and I feel so jipped.

Next was the Jousting Tournament. "Carnies on horses," quoth Clint. We had a great seat and it was fun. But it was also really hot. Because the crowd was lethargic and didn't cheer on the good guy enough, the bad guy won. Shucks.

This was the only ride of the day. It moved so slowly I'm pretty sure it had no Gs at all, but the boys thought it was a blast. I'm just glad they are up for rides now, and glad they are not in a hurry to be too old for kiddie things. I'd rather they take their sweet time growing up.

We left before they got thrown in a real one of these. I actually took the older 3 boys back 2 days later--glutton for punishment. I saw the helicopter flying and I wanted to give it one more try. But this time there were 42 people in front of us. I figured that was at least a 2 hour wait in the hot sun with four boys. It wasn't worth it. I know a helicopter pilot. I'll just have to have him get me a ride someday. It would probably be cheaper to rent a helicopter than to pay any more admissions to a fair!