Got Milk? and butter and animals at the New York State Fair

Gracie got to see how she looks in a real milk mustache.

New York is a lot more than the Big Apple, it is a great big rural state with many, many farms. The New York State fair is full of animals.
They even had some "oreo" cows to go along with all the milk New York dairy farms produce.

The dairy princess Grace and her mooing cow Daddy.

The butter sculpture is a tradition at the fair. It took 2000 gallons of milk to make the 800 pounds of butter used to make this year sculpture.

It features a old fashioned milk truck.

Driven by a cow of course.

They call this an old fashioned milk truck, but in the neighboring town to us, Vernon, there is still a milkman who delivers milk door to door from the Vernon Dairy in good old glass bottles.

New York is also the home of the Adirondack Park. The park covers some 6.1 million acres (24,700 km²), a land area about the size of Vermont, or of the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks combined.

There are a lot of exibits at the fair featuring the hunting, fishing and the sports of this great mountainous area.

We saw beautiful horses

real big momma pigs,

llamas with fancy haircuts,

sheep wearing coats to keep their wool clean,

real tired sheep,

pink chickens(?--does anyone know how they do this?)

we watched chicks hatch as we looked on....

It is always great to hold a little chicks,

sooo fluffy!

Make sure to hug a cow, any chance you get!!

Dragon Knights Stilt Walkers at the Great New York State Fair

We were very impressed by the Dragon Knights Stilt Walkers we encountered at the New York State Fair yesterday.
They came wandering by and Mark and Grace weren't sure what to think about them.

They were pretty creepy looking, but also so unique that you had to watch the amazing puppetry they used to make the "dragons" come to life.

Gracie is getting a little closer!

What outstanding make-up on the Dragon Master. Grace was still brave here, but when she turned around one of the dragons nipped her on the neck. That was it for Grace, she moved waaaaaay back after that!

Mark pet the dragon's head, but when he turned away it followed him, nibbling him on the head!

They had a real neat performance as the Dragon Master directed the dragons moves.

Check back for move of our fun from the fair.(There is too much fun for just one post!)

We Made It: Friday Showcase--egg carton bug

A quick and easy "bug" craft for bored little children.

We used an egg carton cut into single sections, paint, chenille stems, wiggle eyes, something to poke holes for legs and antennea--we used a yarn needle.

Paint your "bug"
Decide on your bugs design. Ours were kind of like ladybugs that morphed into spider type creatures. We didn't have black paint or black pipe cleaners so that is why they didn't become true ladybugs.

I love the look on concentration on children that rarely remain still unless they are asleep.

Busy crafters

Looking at the inside of the egg carton, you can see how we put the legs and antennea on. They are threaded through the inside of the carton.

Kimberly is very pleased with her quick and easy bug.

She wants to make sure to get a good look at it.

Gracie pick some good colors.

We may make a whole little bug community!!

Check out these other crafts at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

Looking at the sky on Friday-Over the NYS Fair

From the top of the New York State Fair

Sunset near home after the New York State Fair
Check our all the great sky pics at CrazyWorking Mom.

"Our Mother's Garden of Sorrow"

Please pray for the Mitchell family, Colleen is a moderator at 4Real. Her not yet 4 month old son, Bryce, died in his sleep yesterday.

"Our Mother's Garden of Sorrows" Elizabeth Foss

We live and so we suffer.

We live as Christians and so we suffer with Christ.

What does this mean, realistically, in our daily lives?

What is it to suffer as a Christian?

On the golden days, the happy days when life sparkles sunshine and the air smells like roses, we know that God is there.

We give him a smile and a wink and we go about our merry way, conscious of our blessings.

But what about those days when it rains?

Those days when it pours buckets of unrelenting hard, driving, bullets of raindrops on a cold and stony ground?

Where are the sweet-smelling blossoms; from where will blow the warm breezes?

We cry out to God and we wonder, where is He?

Has He forsaken us?

In this damp, cold, barren garden, we wonder, perhaps, if there is a God at all.

We suffer and we agonize over the seeming silence of God.

But He’s there.

He has allowed us to fall upon our knees in agony and to call His name again and again.

He is there and He is still the good God. He tests our faith .

He allows us to scream “Why?” and to question His judgment, His authority, His compassion.

He wants us to beg Him for mercy.

Why?

Because He wants us to acknowledge that He is God and that we are entirely dependent upon Him.

That is faith.

God want us to have the kind of faith that looks at Him in suffering and says,

“I still believe.

I am nothing without you and I need you desperately.”

That is teeth-gritting faith.

Go here to read more.....

Open Ended Art--pebble mosaic

Open Ended Art is dedicated to mosaics the whole month of September. Each week is featuring a different item to be used in our mosaics. This weeks "theme" was pebbles.

I didn't want to buy a kit and I didn't want the little kids trying to glue pebbles to cardboard, so I came up with this idea. I made a batch of playdough in a "natural" color and then had the kids make their mosaics on this. It provided a great substance for the pebbles to "stick" too, and they could experiment with this technique over and over again.
Kimberly is making a face.

Luke is making an "L" with his pebbles. I needed to encourage him to make a mosaic picture--he just wanted to hide the pebbles in the clay and then search for them.

Gracie's careful work.

Here goes Luke. He did make the letter "L" and then created his own "open ended art"--or is it "search and rescue" art.

The kids worked with these for at least and hour, and then Kimberly (3) continued for another hour of play.

Gracie's work.

Luke did bury some pebbles and then continued to decorate the outside of the clay--I loved this creativity.

Mark's work.

Gracie made a snake--this is just soooo cool!!

Of course, it was playdough, so Mommy had to make a snowman--and Kimmy decorated it for me.

Kimmy is just amazed at her work.

Check out all of this weeks Open Ended Art at Teaching My Little Bookworm.

Wordless Wednesday--because Kimmy needs no words

More Wordless Wednesday here.