An update for those of you who wonder what’s happening at the Creek.  (Our little community is named after a creek, and so we call our homeschool “Creekside Academy.”  It’s been handy to have a “name,” since we get educator discount cards at the teacher supply stores, Barnes & Noble and Office Max.)

Saturday we submitted our entries for the county fair.  We love the county fair!  We don’t do the agriculture/livestock thing — it’s not our cup of tea.  However, we do like to go see the animals and we even peek in at the rodeo goings-on.  (A couple of years ago I was affeared that I’d unknowingly given birth to a future PETA member — we went to watch the calf roping and Jami burst into tears thinking that the cowboy was “hurting” the baby cow.  We explained to her a little of the ins-and-outs of ranch life and how ranchers take better care of their animals than one can imagine.  She’s okay with it now.  Whew!)

Now our favorite part of the fair is the exhibition hall.  We love to go and see all the wonderful things that people have crafted for display and competition.  Personally, my girl entered a photograph, a drawing, and a wooden birdhouse in the appropriate divisions.  I entered five photographs.  It’s so exciting to go to the exhibit hall and search out our entries to see if we’ve won anything.  Entries of these types were due in yesterday and I dropped them off with time to spare.  My girl will also be entering the Kitchen Pride Bake Off on October 21.  She entered last year and won a blue ribbon for the bar cookies she made.  I was very proud of her!

Our fair really has a great display of countywide talent and skill.  We will see quilts, needlework, woodcrafts, art in various media, photography, and collections (we have a seashelling club in our area and they always have  a beautiful exhibit of shells their members have collected from their travels) on display.  There’s also the commercial exhibit hall where vendors of different products come to display their wares and hopefully make a sale or two.  One year there was a gentleman doing cooking demonstrations with some very fine cookware — more than we could afford, but it was fun to watch him do his little “infomercial” in real life!

After we’ve scoped out our entries to see if we’ve won anything and then checked out the other entries on display, we’ll wonder over to the food booths where we’ll have to choose between such incredibly rich and decadent yummies like sausage on a stick, gumbo, turkey legs, apple dumplings with ice cream, funnel cakes and fried oreos (yes, you read that right — it’s an oreo dipped in funnel cake batter and deep fried, dusted with powdered sugar . . . so sweet it makes your teeth hurt, and I can hardly wait . . . !)

Then there’s the Midway — flashing bright lights streak through the sky on the Ferris Wheel, the Tilt-a-Whirl, and the Zipper!  Toss a ping-pong ball in a bowl of colored water and win a Fishy!  Pop a balloon with a dart and win a stuffed animal!  Everyone’s a winnah!  (Yeah, right!)  Cotton candy and candied apples, popcorn and soda . . . sticky hands and sticky smiles.  A tired little girl falling asleep on the drive home.  Already talking about “next year” as her little head nods with weariness.

I just love this time of year . . . 

Here are some of my photos — one of them uploaded upside down (I don’t know why and it’s late — I may come back and fix it later, but I need to finish up here for now . . . )

This is a picture of my girl that I took at my sister-in-law’s wedding back on the spring.  I love this photo!  (In fact, I think I may have posted it before, but hey, it’s my blog and I can do what I want to!  LOL)

This is my nephew and my sister at last year’s county fair.  I entitled this one:

“She ain’t goofy, she’s my mama!”

Fortunately, my sister has a good sense of humor (and I asked for permission before entering it in the fair)!

I took this one (“Across the Water”) at a rosery up the road from where we live.  The nursery specializes in antique roses, especially roses developed by Texas A&M that have been designated “Earthkind” roses.  Earthkind roses are put through strenuous testing for hardiness in the least friendly of environments.  Meaning the test roses are stuck in the ground and ignored for three years.  If they thrive, they are awarded the Earthkind label (which in my world translates to:  Idiot-proof)  I really want to get some of these roses for our yard.

This was taken a few weeks ago on our homeschool group’s field trip to see the Elissa at the Texas Seaport Museum in Galveston.  I entitled it “Sailing Back in Time.”  The kids had a great time touring the ship and learning about sea travel in the 1800’s.  My girl looks quite at home, dontcha’ think?

I’m sorry this one is upside down!  I’m not sure how to get it to flip over.  :0(  Anyway,  if you have a laptop, I suppose you could turn your screen over . . . ha!  It is one of those inflatable slide things that you see at carnivals, etc.  This happened to be at Opening Day for the Little League Ball club in my nephew’s hometown.  Like I said, I’ll try to get this to upload properly at some later time so you can truly appreciate it in all its glory!  LOL

I did not enter this one in the fair, but I do like it a lot.  I went to a women’s retreat with my church a few weeks ago.  It was held at a Baptist encampment on the bay south of here.  One of the ladies organized a 7:00 a.m. prayer walk — in theory a lovely thing, but I am not a morning person!  They left about 5 minutes before I made it to the common room . . . which was actually fine with me.  I took my Bible, my little notebook, my camera, and headed out on my own “prayer walk.”  I found a perch on the seawall where I settled in to watch the sun rise and have my own talk with God.  I wish I could do this every morning!  (The watching the sun rise over the water thing . . . )