Hemlock Fair

Nana is visiting us in New York, and we love having her here! She helps us get all the work done so we can P-L-A-Y!

We've gone swimming, kayaking, run/walked a 5K, visited a lake house with some friends, went to soccer practice (frequently followed by ice cream from Twisters, and lots of other fun activities. Today Nana took us to the Hemlock Fair.

We arrived close to opening, and the place was nearly empty! Well, it felt that way, but really it was just early, and nothing really opens until 1pm, an hour before all the rides open. So, to fill our time we walked through the 4H hall where Miranda and Zoë made pillowcases. Zoë even finished off the edges, she knows her way around a sewing machine so well now.

We then went to an amazing exotic animal exhibit. The owner accepts a few animals that have been rescued from bad situations. She had two Mccaws, three kangaroos (one still a pouch-dependent Joey), two black leopards, two American alligators, four ring-tailed lemurs, two red ruffed lemurs (noisy things!), and two monkies. The owner was so kind to talk to us about the animals histories and explain how wild they still are. 

We also watched miniature horses carriage driving, mounted patrol competition (the horses and riders had an obstacle course where they had to walk up to a police car that had sirens wailing, not freak when they shot a fire extinguisher under its belly, and even stand still while the officer lot a road flare), met the bunny who won best-of-show, and met up with some friends (the mother and brother of Ben a boy in Nica's preK class). We shared our cotton candy with them and then...

 Finally we got to go on the rides!

Nica's favorite rides were the Merry-Go-Round and the bumper cars (she was passenger). But she also loved this ride and the climbing/slide ride. She did ride one of the more wild ones wih me, but neither of us liked it at all! And we were very happy with these rides!

Miranda is my dare-devil! She went on every ride her big sister, Zoë went on, no matter how scary, and even ran onto this ride BY HERSELF! She jumped onto this ride and nobody wanted to try this free-fall motion ride. I was nervous cuz I couldn't see her, sitting in the back middle. But she danced off the platform after the ride was over, all wide eyed and smiles! She even snuck on it again later, this time snagging a front-row seat:

I will try to post the video to show how crazy this ride was.

Megan liked more mellow rides, but was game to try some of the bigger ones. She didn't drive bumper cars, but giggled her way through all the thumping and jostling, handing out tickets to me and Nica (we earned three!). Her favorite ride was the tugboat swing, which twisted 180° as it swung back and forth.

But she also loved the Merry-Go-Round, especially when she got some one-on-one time with Nana.

Twister, this spin-within-a-spin, was Zoë's favorite ride. She was brave and tried a lot of rides, but got a little sick after going twice on a whirly one. She is holding what I call "an elephant ear", but here they called them fried dough. I like my name better ;). We didn't eat it until we got home, but enjoyed every bite!

Oh, but our day wasn't over yet! The girls still had soccer practice. They all did great: Miranda blocked a couple of goals, Nica chased after the ball (instead of running from all the people chasing the ball), Megan assisted a goal, and Zoë kicked a goal. They had worked so hard all day, we definitely had to celebrate a little more, so we went for ice cream (again!) at Twisters.

They worked and played hard today! Hopefully they will sleep hard tonight.