The last time my brother and I attended the Will County Fair, we were the ones running through the livestock barns and tractor displays. Our adolescent heads spun after a ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl. And yet we still managed to gorge ourselves on Elephant ears and corn dogs.
We returned to the fair today - decades later. Our kids are now the ones who spent the afternoon with their eyes bulging at the sites and sounds of the animal barns. They sat on every tractor (see photo). And took a turn on every carnival ride that allowed passengers under 36 inches tall.
The Will County Fair celebrates 100 years this year. The fair runs through Sunday. General admission is $3, and kids under 10 years old are free. The fair is just east of Interstate 57 on Wilmington-Peotone Road in Peotone.
My brother is visiting from Seattle. Our kids are about the same age. The gloomy weather almost canceled our planned trip, but we decided to go through with it anyhow. It turned out to be a great day despite the occasional spitting rain and the unrelenting cloudy skies.
The juggling act in the family tent was a highlight of the trip. Both of our eldest sons participated in the act while my brother’s daughter and my youngest son dozed in the stroller.
We walked through the livestock barns, and The Wife told our 3-year-old son about the Grand Champion Buck she raised for her county fair in Kingsville, Texas.
We also arrived early, which meant we all rides were only $1. We purchased too many tickets and ended up giving the rest away to a family just arriving at the carnival.
We didn’t stay for the demolition derby. That’s was fine. The kids were getting tired. And back in the day, my brother and I weren’t fans of the demolition derby anyhow. We were more into the tractor pulls.
Maybe next year.
Do you ever holler at your kids for standing in front of the refrigerator for the longest time just staring at the contents and letting out all that expensive air?
Our refrigerator is old and big and we have known for quite some time that its days are numbered, so we are anxious for the new cash for non-energy efficient refrigerators program to kick in. Just hope the appliance dealers don’t raise their prices as a result.
How can we save energy until the program does start?
When the youngest first learned to read, we started putting a list on the outside of the fridge indicating what snacks were available, meats, side dishes and fruits and veggies that could be prepared in a hurry.
We called it the Big Blue Banana menu.
That was a good idea, but we have not been very consistent with it over the years.
With the start of the school year comes an increased need for fast snacks. They will be so hungry when they get off the bus that they won’t want to take the time to prepare something that requires more than a minute of heating in the microwave.
Here is a sample kids’ food strategy.
Keep the after-school snacks simple and easy to access, and prepare as much of it as possible for them ahead of time so they are not tempted to grab Dad’s bag of chips instead. If the junk food isn’t in the house, they aren’t likely to go out and buy it - especially if you live in the country.
Another idea we have tried from time to time, especially when you are talking about things that won’t be fresh in a week, is to put the things you hope for them to grab first at eye level and right there in the front.
(more…)
Say what you will about VCR technology, but it certainly was simple. Those bulky, black video tapes didn’t offer the best picture quality. The sound wasn’t very good either. And the more often you watched a tape or the older it became, the worse both the picture and sound would deteriorate.
Yet, it was easy to watch a VHS tape. Just slide the plastic rectangle into the machine and hit the “play” button. From there, your only options were “pause,” “fast forward” and “rewind.”
I received my first DVD player in 2001 at my wedding shower. I was so excited to have the new machine that offered “digital” picture and sound. The quality was unmatched by comparison to the suddenly antiquated VHS. The flashy plastic discs almost immediately took over the market.
But there was a major flaw in the conversion to DVD. For years, folks had been recording birthday parties, picnics and babies’ first steps with VHS tapes. These recorders were bulky. Some began using smaller tapes that could then be inserted into a larger VHS conversion tape. Others managed to take these small tapes and record them onto larger VHS tapes with the help of their VCR and lots of fancy cables from Radio Shack.
Now that VCRs have gone the way of the dinosaur, home movie mavens are required to new find ways to get the contents of their hand-held video recorders onto shiny DVDs. This requires a bit of technology savvy. Usually, you have to download the contents of your camera onto a computer and then use the computer’s DVD burner to create a disc. Along the way, there’s the potential for all sorts of problems. For example, what’s the difference between DVD-R and DVD-RW anyway?
How can kids explore more green technology if the cost is so high?
The boy, age 11, loves technology and when he saw a little red toy sports car that runs on solar energy recently, he was even more excited. Until we saw the price of $16.
It gets worse. (Or shall we say better?) How about a tiny model home you can put together and watch operate off of natural resources complete with solar panels and a wind generator? This not only caught the boy’s eye, but his parents’ attention as being an awesome learning experience.
The price tag? $150.
It is made of Styrofoam (of all things) and that alone may have to be the inspiration for the little guy to take some of the Styrofoam panels we have at home and do his own thing. Goodness knows we have enough unused stuff around the place that can be torn apart and recycled. He’ll come up with something for the techie part. Maybe we’re talking a Radio Shack gift certificate for Christmas.
The self-sufficiency of imagining you are living in this little house where you rely only on the power you generate made me think of the movie “Nim’s Island” (DVD, 2008, $15).
The same goes for the real houses: $500,000 for a house that is environmentally friendly, built of mostly recycled stuff and has energy-efficient heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing and the fixed items that go with the plumbing - that doesn’t include the land and furnishings. Wow.
“How do people get over the expense so this stuff catches on?” the daughter questions as she fiddles with one of her bracelets she made of recycled pop tabs. She is planning to make a purse to go with it, your child could too.
(more…)
I’m the oldest of four boys. The Wife is the oldest sibling too. She has a younger brother. When Bubba came along, he instantly became the oldest of our children - then came Peter.
Peter Vincent Ludwig arrived 17 months after his brother. He’s the only person in our house who is not a firstborn.
Neither The Wife or I have any firsthand experience as second children. Of course I’ve heard all the birth order stereotypes. There’s the worshiped/put upon firstborns, forgotten middle children and spoiled youngest child. I’m starting to think these characteristics are true.
Peter received his first haircut today. He’s 20-months old and was just starting to get a bit of a curl along his shirt collar. It was cute. It was also time to get a trim.
Bubba was nine months old when he received his first haircut. While Bubba has hair like a Beatle, Peter’s hair is thin and blond. I describe his hairstyle as baby Ernest Borgnine.
Bubba’s first haircut came with much fanfare. I videotaped the event, saved a clipping of hair and wrote a column about the experience.
Peter’s haircut was less momentous. I remembered the camcorder as I was walking out the door, left the clipping of hair at the salon and am dedicating this blog post to the experience rather than a more lengthy column.
It’s not that I favor Bubba over Peter. It’s just that I find it impossible not to take a been-there-done-that attitude towards many of these sort of events. I think it’s just human nature to make a big deal about firsts. I guess the lesson to be learned is that these events are still firsts for Peter, even if they aren’t firsts for our family.
There is something about small-town festivals that brings out all sorts of friends and family and it suddenly becomes a reunion.
I did not go to school in the town where we presently live, but my husband did and our children do.
He and I have been married for 17 years, but dated four years prior to that, so I had met a lot of his friends years ago. We have attended the weddings of many of them, but one thing you can nearly always count on is seeing them at the Glad Fest - even if they have moved several states away.
Heck, we even came back to his hometown for many years for “The Festival” when we were living two states away. Timing is everything because if we had come at another time of the year, it would have been hard to see so many friends.
It is exciting to see how friends (most of them) have started families and some even have children around the same age as ours.
We exchange Christmas cards, but that just isn’t the same.
(more…)
It took a while, but summer swim weather has finally arrived. I’ve taken advantage the best I can. The only pool we have is inflatable and holds about 18 inches of water (see photo). That’s plenty for my 3-year-old and 20-month-old sons.
We’ve also cashed in invitations from friends who have in-ground and above-ground pools. Usually, we take our time visiting these valuable friends throughout the summer. This year, we are scrambling to see as many of them as we can in August.
July didn’t provide many opportunities for swimming. In fact, the National Weather Service says 2009 has seen the coldest July since the official recording station was moved away from the lakefront in 1942. The average temperature this month in Chicago has been a mere 68.9 degrees.
Regardless, it’s swimming season now, and I’ve realized a hidden benefit to taking the boys swimming - The Swim Nap.
I tend to schedule swim outings in the late morning, usually around 10 a.m. We wrap up our water activities around noon. That’s followed by a quick lunch. Then, it’s off to bed.
I’ve always known swimming was good exercise, but nothing quite illustrates that better than The Swim Nap. These summer siestas can last upwards of 4 hours!
As a parent, that sort of midday respite is invaluable. I’ve used the time to catch up on some writing, clean the house and even create some rather lavish dinners.
If the weather stays hot, who knows what I might accomplish. Maybe I’ll install a pool.
Thanks must first go out to our soldiers and second to those who took time out of their busy schedules Sunday to honor them. Both along the route and in the escort group.
Wasn’t that a memorable experience for adults and kids alike?
The kids I have spoken with (all four of them) regarding the Illinois National Guard, Charlie Company homecoming Sunday said it will be a day they will never forget.
Well, we hope not.
These young people are our future soldiers.
As we were gathered near the grill later Sunday discussing the events of the day, a friend and I began talking about what else we could do until ALL the soldiers come home.
The kids mentioned getting things together for care packages like they have done dozens of times through school, church and various youth organizations.
They said it in a way that made me think - oh, we haven’t done that in a while, but I don’t know why.
Linda Fawver, the county’s official Army Mom, hasn’t stopped, although she has been suffering from breast cancer for more than a year.
Our daughter, age 13, asked me how old she was when she first learned about Fawver’s project, Operation CARE. She was 6 years old when we first did this as a community service project through the Momence Brownie Girl Scouts Troop.
Since 2001, Fawver has sent nearly 3,000 packages to soldiers.
Remember the enthusiasm surrounding rallying around our troops on the homefront when the war began? The kids don’t because they were really young, but us parents have to wonder what happened to that level of support and enthusiasm? We saw a lot of it Sunday, but overall it has decreased for many, but not for the Army Mom.
(more…)
