To wrap up our week of service we decided to head to the fair on Friday night. Also because I entered this chocolate fudge mousse cake into a food competition.

Let’s just go ahead and get the cake disaster out of the way. It looked pretty stinkin’ good at this point. By the time we had arrived at the fair, it had started to slide a bit. “No big deal,” I thought. “It’ll hold up for a little longer.” By the time judging was over that cake was looking like the leaning tower of Pisa. Needless to say…no blue or any other color ribbon. By the time we got the thing home it had completely fallen over in the box. I had promised our friend Nick the cake after the fair was over; he didn’t seem to mind that it was a future indicator of what the leaning tower of Pisa will look like when it finally decides to commit to falling over.

After dropping the cake off in its designated location, we began our fair adventure. Everything seemed to be going great at first. We saw some petting zoo type animals that according to North Carolina law you can now only feed from a distance…NO TOUCHING. I know this because signs were posted every five feet around the fence. I know you are asking, “How do you feel a sheep from a distance?” They had a giant PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise that you can drop your carrots/approved animal food down. We did not participate in this part because I didn’t want to pay $1 for carrots to feed sheep from afar.

We then walked over to some of the kiddie rides when Lily decided to have her first mini crisis/breakdwon. She desperately wanted to ride the ponies. Why not? It’s fair day, right? Crisis 1 averted easily.

Five dollars later Lily was on a pony. Caleb? He was crying, squirming, screaming, and making other parents give me judgmental looks. Why? He, too, wanted to ride a pony. So five more dollars later, Caleb is having the time of his life riding his first pony. You would have thought we handed him the moon. It was precious and melted my heart a tad bit.

We then moved on to get a couple of dinosaur tattoos and some Halloween stickers from the nice people from the zoo. Seeing how it was after 6:00 and I was really hungry, I suggested that we go eat. It was on this walk to get food that Crisis 2 happened. Paul and I were casually talking when Lily starts screaming like a screech owl.

“What’s wrong, honey? What is it?,” we both asked excitedly.

“MY STICKER!!”

 Really? REALLY? Now people really were giving us the stink eye.
Paul backtracked quickly to find the sticker and find it he did because he is super dad. Crisis 2 handled.

Finally, my favorite part came, the fair food. That’s the whole reason to go to the fair, right? Anyone, anyone…surely it’s not just me….

After eating we headed off to find the 75 cent sweet tea Heather told me about that was under the ferris wheel. What do we discover? Our son has no shoes on. Since Paul raced to find the sticker it was my turn to race back through the crowd of fair diners to find his shoes. Luckily they were under the table we had sat at. Crisis number 3 handled.

We made the fatal error of entering into the Midway, which is where the rides were located. Lily, excited by lights and the excitement of all things fair, wanted to ride every single ride there. Unfortunately, we spent all our money on food and ponies. Crisis 4 begins. Crying, screaming, and pouting start and don’t stop until we tell her we are going to go see our friend Cary, who works at the fair. Cary saved the day in more ways than one.

After a little while longer, we waited with anticipation only to learn I did not win a ribbon with my leaning cake.

Then it was time to say goodnight. After all those crisis we’d handled, could you blame us? 

Goodnight Dixie Classic Fair, we’ll see ya next year, hopefully with a few less breakdown,
Maker of Leaning Cakes