Fair Plus

AND ALSO: As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we did more than just stand around watching Annabelle and CJ going on rides yesterday. We also visited the Puyallup Fair's educational side. The Washington State Grange displays are always a highlight.

The owl themed one above won the people's choice every day of the fair so far. The one below was another standout, IMHO. Really nice work using nothing but produce to make the three first responder emblems incorporated in this display.
We spent some time in the barns, too. We saw horses, cows, pigs, all kinds of birds. The kids got to pet ducks, sheep, goats and rabbits.

I'm not sure why I didn't take photos of any of the fair animals. Guess after being to the zoo just a week ago, and the circus the weekend before that, I just wasn't so inspired by ordinary ol' farm animals?

We also visited the arts and crafts buildings. We saw some amazing quilts and cool sculptures (which had 'no photography' signs on them, hence the lack of pictures here). We also got to watch the tail end of the pie tasting and judging, which was interesting. (You could cut the tension in the room with a knife, let me tell you!) And we happened across this, um, beauty. Annabelle thought it was fabulous.

In the hobby building, we met a couple of nice short wave radio guys who taught CJ and Annabelle a bit about Morse code and let them each tap out their own names. And we met some rock hounds. At their booth, CeeJ and Bee got to spin a wheel and win a shiny stone. POSTER PROJECT: For our daily writing exercise, we tapped into a BIG new book (2x3 feet or so) that we found at Goodwill just today. It's full of explanations and examples about different types of writing. One of the first pages featured a poster a student had made. We talked about its elements. We discussed the type of content that was important (what, when, where info), and what makes an effective poster visually. I then asked the kids to each make a poster about the Puyallup Fair.

CJ was immediately stricken because he knew that meant he was going to have to do some drawing and he'd rather not. He gets frustrated that he can't produce on paper what he sees in his head. But Annabelle and I talked him into it. I thought his pig was really cute, and told him so.
I also told him he really should have put the fair's dates on the poster, like we talked about ahead of time.
Annabelle was especially proud of the chicken in the "O" on her poster. It added nice pop. :)

BACK TO THE MAT: For the first time since mid June, the kids went to yoga class this afternoon. Their yoga teacher Nicole was back from her summer in New York (teaching and taking classes) and they were VERY happy to see her.

WILD SPECULATION: This morning CJ said to me, "Some day I could become the smartest guy on Earth. .... Or the smartest guy who ever lived. But I'll need to train a lot to make that happen."