A Day at the Fair

What is summer without visiting the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) at least once in Vancouver? We spent our past Sunday afternoon at the fair with hopes of fitting in as much fun as we possibly could with D and R. One of my favourite attractions at the PNE is the Farm Country building where the petting farm and country store is located. We hit this attraction first, as we had time to kill before the start of the motocross show that D wanted to see. Here, the boys learned about cows and various other farm animals, including a llama. D took interest in some of the goats and the cute llama, but R seemed most interested in learning how to milk a cow by squeezing the teats on a teaching display! Look how serious he was about it! The other thing that R seemed most interested in was climbing the rocks throughout the petting farm area. I don't think R even noticed the animals!

The first chance I got, I beelined it to the country store to look over the fibre being offered by Shades of Narnia from Chilliwack. I exhibited some great restraint by buying only one bag of soft, sprinkle-dyed mohair to play with at home on the wheel.

The rest of Sunday afternoon included watching a highly anticipated motocross competition (a show I enjoyed more than I expected with some heartstopping moments), playing some causeway games (D won two leopards--one that he gave to R, by skillfully popping four balloons using six darts!) driving remote-controlled cars on a race track, and eating cotton candy. There was a lot to do at the PNE, but just not enough time to do it all. We didn't make it to Playland, the Superdogs show, the Hi-5 show, or to the kids CBC display. I guess it was just too much to expect from a toddler and a preschooler who needed naps and meals at different times. After a Chinese dinner in the Italian garden where R napped for awhile, we enjoyed the garden while D ran around and looked at the funny relief sculptures. R eventually woke up, ate his dinner at the garden, but then managed to work in a tantrum at the Marketplace by rolling around on the floor in the path of many other fairgoers to end our day at the PNE. We were lucky the tantrum didn't escalate into any hair pulling or face scratching, but we quickly decided that we didn't need another mop or sweeper of any kind to bring home. Oh well, the fair still runs another week. We'll see if we're brave enough to try this outing again soon...