"Hello!  Hello!  Good morning to you all!"  

a quote from one of my all time favorite movies, Babe.

We were channeling Babe a week ago when it was the Northwest Arkansas District fair in Harrison.  Amelia has been waiting MONTHS to go to the 'county fair' as she calls it and the time finally came.  Here's the photo highlights of our fair week!

We started the week by stopping at the animal barns during the dairy cow show on Monday evening...  

The feller on the left is the judge.  He has a microphone and talks about how nice the cow's udders are and things of that nature.  

The 4H kids put a lot of work into their animals and it shows.  But, sometimes, the cows just don't want to moove for them in the show ring.  C'monnnn buddy!

There are different age and breed classes for the dairy cows, here's a youngin':

Amelia-bomb.

We looked at the pigs that evening too, but I guess I didn't take any photos of them.  I do remember one in particular though and how friendly it was...and how sweet it's eyes were.  Most all of his cohorts were laying on their sides snoozing away, but not that one!

We also made our way through the poultry and rabbit barn.  Amelia now wants a rabbit, or 10.  

Now, you probably know that we are chicken people.  Or, people with chickens, that is.  But, it's always fun seeing all the different breeds that are out there.  AND, it's even more fun seeing a chicken get a bath.

A sweet 4H gal was using baby wipes along with a bowl of water and toothbrush to wash one of her bantam hens.  

After the toothbrush bath, she put petroleum jelly on its comb and face, and it was ready to go for the poultry show the next morning.

It was a great kick off to our family's week visiting the fair.

Next up on our agenda, the parade on Thursday afternoon.

All the local bands were great and I loved the uniqueness each one brought.  

Now, this wasn't any ordinary parade (as you might guess)...there was a camel.

And the One Armed Bandit, riding atop a trailer on his trusty mule, cracking a bullwhip.  'The local police were powerless to stop the bandit!'

What amazing talent!  Hiya there, cowboy.

And after all the candy had been thrown and horns honked, the horsemen came through town.  Here comes Pistol, leading the Norton family brigade!

Hey ya'll.  Get good gas mileage?

Parade was done, we went on back to see what was happening at the animal barns.

There were cows with fans blowing on them...kids trimming, washing and drying their goats...more rabbits (some getting their nails done)...a fun little petting zoo put on by the local 4h...all the barns were hopping with activity.  I took some close up photos of the 4H kids with their animals, but don't want to go posting their faces to the internet without having gotten permission...so here's the cows with fans.  

...and this fun shirt.

We return on Saturday for the coveted...Carnival.  Here's a colorful evening photo.

The always delish fair food...

Amelia's first funnel cake.

And her first fair rides (with the confidence of BFF Elliot by her side).

All the spinning rides had horns the kids could beep. The motorcycles...beep beeeeeep.

...the cars...BEEEEEP.

...the tractors...beeeeeeep beeeeeeeeep.

What Sarah's doing in the photo below was a common sight around the kiddy rides.

I took a little photo walk to give my ears a break and visited the educational building where the artwork, photography, baked goods, wood crafts, etc were judged.  Lots of photos were entered in the fair!

Then, I returned to the outside world of chaos to find that the death defying acts had started!

This Argentinian performer was flying around in this metal ring doing crazy things.

And then there was the globe of death....where 2 motorcycles rode inside at the same time. 

A few more rides and we were about spent.

But, we couldn't just leave empty handed.  We had to leave with a fish!  What better to end the night with, than dad winning Amelia her first goldfish!

What a fun and eventful evening at the crazy carnival!

Parking for that night's rodeo had already started.  Here were the traffic directors:

I'd say the fair was more than fair...it was purdy awesome!  My favorite part was seeing Amelia's excitement at everything...see below.  My little future 4H-er :)

Thanks for stopping by ya'll!  

-mama T