Chowdah and Chili!

Our small town has this big festival every year-- restaurants from all over Central Mass come to compete for the title of Best Chili or Best Chowder. That part is fun in and of itself, but there is so much for the kids to do, and it's cheap! Last year was our first time experiencing it, and it was while Grant, Melissa, and Colton were visiting. Well, technically Riley was along for the ride, too, as an embryo... haha! :) Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and the kiddos were very excited to go back again (though they wanted to know if their aunt, uncle, and cousins would be there, too... haha!).

At any rate... yesterday was busy. I spent most of the morning working on remodeling the pantry, while Gus worked on his chicken coop. Yes, chicken coop. We're getting chickens, probably tomorrow. But I'll explain about all that later! Anyway, we were both pretty busy. But after lunch, we took a break and went over to check out the festival. We headed straight to the back this time, since we knew that's where all the farm animals would be. We were not disappointed! We first hit up the tent for the agricultural council, where we saw day-old calves (SO cute!), sheep, and pigs. And both kids insisted on milking the wooden cow:

Niko had also spotted the dunk tank, and was petitioning to go there. He was convinced his throw had improved enough to hit the target. And he did get really close! The firefighters were nice and encouraged him to "test" the target by hitting it. Maya got to "test" it, too. And both kids ended up getting soaked from when the firefighter fell in, haha!

Then it was over to the baby chicks, ducks, and bunnies. Maya wanted to hold and pet EVERYTHING. Niko wanted to, too, but was a little more skittish. He squeezed a baby chick a little too tightly (it was fine), it squawked, and he was done.

Then they jumped in the bounce houses for a bit. We visited the reptile exhibit. And Maya got her face painted...

After that, we watched a martial arts demonstration, and visited with some friends who were manning the Rec Department tent. We were there for just over an hour, and then it was home and back to our projects! Still, we packed a lot of fun into a short time. Totally worth it!