Pierce County Fair & Reading Prize

Last Thursday, we took advantage of the Pierce County Fair's military discount

and went to the fair.

Kidney Bean was free, since he has a valid military ID,

it was $5 for me, $5 for parking in their lot,

and kids 5 and under are free.

So we paid $10 for our family of 5 to see the sights.

It was great!

The theme this year was "Psychedelic Summer" - one I've never seen

used before.  The theme was found all over, in decorations,

exhibits, and a whole lotta tie dye.

Out by the horses, we happened upon a groovy photo booth, so we stopped

and snapped a few pictures.

Kidney Bean wasn't interested in sticking his hole in the board, but now we all know

what the girls and I would look like as hippies...or not.

 Noodle & Olive

 Noodle & Tomato

We also allowed Tomato to go on one ride.

I thought about taking a picture of the fairway here, but didn't.

But I will say that it was the nicest one I've seen in quite some time.

The grass was well-kept, booths were very organized, and 

ALL of the Carnies were neat and tidy.

Seriously, no long hair, visible tattoos, matching white uniform shirts and black pants - 

can you really call them Carnies??

Old and young, male and female - they were all pleasant.

It was great.

 

 Tomato checking the view from her helicopter.

 While she was waiting in line, a little boy came up and asked if

she wanted to ride together.  She agreed.

I thought it was great, since Olive is too short for any of the rides.

It always helps to have a buddy for a new experience.

On the way back to the car, we found another photo stand,

this time near the Fire & Rescue booth.

 Officer Tomato & Firefighter Olive

 Officer Tomato

 Officer Olive

AND we finished our summer reading program from the library!!

In late June or early July, we signed up for the

reading program.  I was a little intimidated at first, since to complete it

required FIFTEEN HOURS of reading for 4-year-old Tomato,

with prized at 5 hours, 10 hours, and then the final one.

Olive's chart had between 20-30 lines,

and you could mark one off for every day that she read a book,

or one mark for a library visit.

When we had reached the 5 hour mark, we were really excited.

We headed off to the library to claim the first prize,

and I was pretty disappointed.

It was a temporary tattoo.

For 5 whole hours of work, that was it.

And since we don't do tattoos around here, it was even worse.

But I asked Tomato what she wanted to do with it, and she suggested taping it up

on her chart like a sticker.  So we did.

And when we reached the 10 hour mark, we tried to remember

the paper to claim the prize, but I kept forgetting it.

So we took the 10 hour sheet and the 15 hour sheet in together last week.

And the final prize makes up for the tattoo - 

she earned a sticky hand & $5 off library fines (for 10 hours),

and a zoo pass, free food at Applebee's, free pizza from Round Table Pizza!  

Woohoo! 

Talk about great rewards for

hours and hours of work!

We are excited to use the zoo pass especially, and the food will be great, too.

Thank you library!