Oregon Country Fair

So...this post has more than one photo but I figure since my "official" 365 is over, and it's my space, I can break the rules.

This morning Peter left for a three day bike ride with his Dad and sister, leaving the kids and I on our own. Instead of spending three days at home packing for our trip next week, I decided to do a little traveling with them. (Can I add a side note here that this really speaks to how big my kids are getting that I don't mind traveling for three days with them? That in fact I want to? Amazing.)

We headed down to Eugene for Country Fair with my sister and her kids today. Country fair is (or used to be) kind of a hippie festival in the woods outside of Eugene. As it is today, it's a very fun, slightly counter-culture, festival full of colors and music and food and fun people. I love taking the kids there and they love going (if it's not too hot, or there's not too much walking and as long as snacks are provided at will....). It's not a festival exclusively for kids, so I always caution other parents that if they don't want there kids being around naked people or (a few) wasted people, it's probably not for them. My kids haven't seemed to notice, in fact, Mr. T and I bought cookies from a stand where all the women working there were topless and he didn't say a word, despite being the boob obsessed little boy he is. 

Mostly we walked around, ate quesadillas and lemonade, watched the parades, listened to some music and just hung out. Here are a few pictures I took:

 My niece and nephew under the pink tent covering the children's stage.

 Part of the dragon parade. This went around the fair grounds randomly throughout the day and was accompanied by quite a few dancers and musicians.

 Several folks had these huge puppets attached to their bodies that were quiet awesome. The guy in the middle is part of the candy cane folks who all dressed like that, not sure why, and paraded about throughout the day.

 Happy people by the music stage.

 My nephew (face painted like a pirate) and Miss E (did not want her face painted but finally took her shirt off after complaining about "dying" of heat and I pointed out that this was one place where she really could go topless if she wanted to). Side story: While walking around we ended up behind a naked guy (kind of rare here) with leaves taped in front. Despite all our efforts to subtly speed up or slow down to let him pass, we all ended up walking the same speed for a bit. Miss E and my nephew were giggling to each other but were doing it with hands over their mouths and quietly. I was touched that they were being thoughtful in what was arguably, a difficult situation for a 7 year old not to giggle out loud at. Before the fair I didn't talk to them at all about how to act or what they might see, figuring I'd deal with it if it came up and I guess that worked. Plus, who wouldn't giggle a bit at a naked man with no body paint walking around a festival?

 Kids dancing during sound checks.

Mr. T and my niece. She had her face painted like a unicorn, he, like his sister, declined face painting.