Fair, first day, fair

We've been in school now three weeks, so it's about time to post first day of school pictures.  

But first, we squeezed in a trip to the fair after our family reunion and just before school started.

It was actually Jason's brilliant FFN idea.

Knowing that there's always a handy ATM at this fair, we sailed straight out of the house after work, lighthearted and unconcerned, knowing that the collective $8 in our wallets was enough to get us in the park to access ATM, food, ride tickets and fun.

Except the ATM was broken.

Out-of-order.  Kaput.  Useless.  

We hiked back to the field and searched every crevice of the car.  Jeddy actually found $40 of his, and I found about 65¢ in leftover toll money.  

Family Fun Night was officially imperiled.  

Jason heroically took off in the car, backtracking toward civilization to find a gas station with a working ATM, and I took our $40.65 and four hungry children to the food shack lines.  

I managed to afford light meals for the kids--water only! No lemonade!! and watched them eat while I tried to calculate how soon Jason could possibly return with cash, and how long we could entertain ourselves for free.  

Oh and also, there was no cell service.

After we ate, I was uncertainly wondering what to do next, when we ran into Caleb's baseball buddy's mom.  Long story short, she ended up loaning us $100 cash.

"I am so glad I played baseball!!" Caleb said.

Ride tickets and lemonades for all!  And dinner for those who didn't get enough/any the first go-round.

The kids rode most of the rides and I was starting to wonder if we'd next be begging Caleb's friend for a ride home if Jason never reappeared, but he finally did, an hour and twenty minutes later, having had to drive all the way back home (every ATM along the way also out of order) and raid Jeddy's stash before coming back.  We repaid our friends and still had funds to eat enough funnel cake and candy apples to fully save FFN.

Three days later we started school.

The school mascot is much relieved, I'm sure, that school is back in session, so he can regularly run around the room all morning instead of being forgotten about.

Lizzy discovered that Buck likes being brushed.

Really likes being brushed.

Reeeeeeaally likes being brushed.

Ears did not have such a blissful first week of school.  By Thursday, I was feeling his pain and ready, if not for harikari, at least for a stiff drink.

That weekend we hit the county fair with Grandma and Grandpa.

And the highlight... the oh-so-gloriously-and-unbelievably-redneck demolition derby.

Straight out of Idiocracy.

Strangers blurred out to protect the privacy of those who may not want to admit they attended and enjoyed an incredibly redneck demolition derby.

We also visited the ever-popular ducky slide, which never fails to amuse.

Thus wrapped up our first week of school, sandwiched on either end by agricultural hedonism.