A Great Day Indeed

This past weekend was a special time here in the burbs, time for our annual "Greater Andover Days" celebration. Most days are pretty doggone swell, but this day was EVEN "greater". I've got the button to prove it. I'm so glad our little town pulls this event together each year!

Saturday kicked off with a huge parade, which 3 of our kids marched in with their school float.

And there was plenty of good, simple fun to be had -- such as:
*a kids' fishing clinic
*a bus-made-into-a-playground-type-thingy
*inflatables (where I was blocked entrance because of some silly "weight limit", thankyouverymuch) ha!
*Irish folk dancers (I WANT one of those curly, bouncy wigs!)
* a cookie decorating tent (where I made off with a tub of icing when no one was looking.......)

The sight of the carnival rides made my kids' eyes bulge with desire. Can I just get four little words off my chest? THREE BUCKS A RIDE! Okay, I feel better. I guess the carnival workers are saving up for some front teeth, so it's for a worthy cause.

I had wanted to see the Miss Andover pageant, but they finished it ahead of schedule. Apparently there were only a few contestants, so it didn't take much time to flip a coin to declare the winner. With that in mind, I'm going to dust off my baton, tap shoes and evening gown, and might just give 'er a shot next year.

Evan found the carnival games enticing, and gave it his best shot at the basketball shooting booth, and came REALLY close to sinking it. Not bad for an 8-year-old. Watch out, Kobe!

Our day had several highlights, one of them being when Evan had the opportunity to try and catch a pig in a mud pit, and was subsequently hosed off by the fire department.

Then our little guy went head-to-head with his daddy and others in a pie eating contest. They were given HUGE cream pies, to be eaten with hands behind their backs. Hubby came out victorious in that challenge, as he'd been in earnest training for years.

And although I was duly proud of his success, I did think it was over-the-top a bit when he strutted and talked smack to the other 8-year-old competitors. Clearly, he's been influenced by watching too much professional wrestling.

Greg scored some Dairy Queen certificates as first prize. Of course, he won't be interested in redeeming those for quite some time ...... as he's been utterly nauseated ever since the fierce competition. He and Evan both seriously groaned for the remainder of the weekend, folks. You've seen those Pepto Bismol commercials? Well, pie eating contests were the inspiration for them.

But hey, it was quite a memory in the making! And I'm not allowed to make pie or even talk about pie while under this roof as a direct result. I'm pretty sure I can think about pie, just not verbalize those thoughts. Maybe by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.......