Hawkesbury Show 2011

Ok I know, overload of photos so I’ll keep the words brief.

The Hawkesbury Show at Clarendon began in 1845. It is organised by the Hawkesbury District Agricultural Association and is a showcase of the districts finest in agriculture, art, craft and culinary excellence. In short it is a family day out bursting with country charm from its home made creamed honey to its tight singlet wearing muscle popping wood choppers. For our family it is the height of excitement in all things that go "Baaa".  

We couldn’t go past the NSW Fire Brigade display without stopping. Hanging around on fire engines new and old is just so much fun. After careful consideration we voted Sabrina the most sensible child and therefore worthy of the honour of driving the truck.

 

The Fire Fighters are always so nice they hand out free show bags full of information on why your house is a death trap and what to do if you are burning alive. This year they came with red plastic fire hats bonus whoot!

After collecting all our freebies including a strikingly fashionable hat for Daddy we went off in search of wild life, or to be more precise farm life.

Every year we have to have a photo with the Lamas (I know they are Alpacas but it sounds so much cooler to say ‘I want to be a Lama Farmer" it’s a bit of a family thing) I mentioned once when the kids were really young how cute I thought they were and Lani has taken it on as her job to hunt them out whenever we are around collective farm animals. When she was very small she used to call them Sheep Camels and I still haven’t quite gotten over how adorable that was. 

Sabi’s favourite animals were the goats she spent so long with them pointing and yelling "My see a Woof Woof" and tying to grab hold of their waggly tails. I am thankful that they were very patient goats.

Sabi has designed her own way of classifying animals it’s fairly simple all woolly ones are called Sheee Baaa’s and all smallish straight haired ones are Woof Woofs the large straight haired ones are all called Mooo’s this includes horses, oh and she is right and we are all wrong so there.

We sat for a while and watched the horses doing Junior Jivers (we go to a music and activity group every week called Junior Jivers at which we dance around a circle and do movement activities so whenever we saw animals paraded around to be judged or the horses dressage comp the kids called it junior Jivers for animals).

We then ran off to find lunch…

…or tried to, those Fire Fighter bags are very cumbersome for a little tot.

After lunch we tackled the very loud, crowded and appropriately named Fowl shed.

Eli has ASD (Autism spectrum disorder) So this was way to much of a sensory over load for him but I do need to mention how proud I was of his coping techniques during the day. If we look back to last year and for that matter all the years before we would have had to deal with screaming meltdowns in the chook shed including ear bashing, arm swinging, repetitive squawking and violent outburst towards others around him that or he would have just bolted. This year Glenn found a "Safe" place for him, a park bench just outside of the shed and told him if it got to much to go there. About a third of the way through the shed we noticed he was gone, I quietly panicked through the rest of the bird spotting. But when we exited the building there he was, on his safe bench playing his iPod he had managed to recognise his own feelings and remove himself with out drama. Words cannot describe how much Glenn and I were cheering inside.    

We stoped for a photo next to the cow milking display, no one wanted to stay and see it they all have before and apparently do not care for it again. I was very proud of Eli because he finds posed photos very hard to cope with but he did it because he knew Lani wanted one, if you look at his face you can see how uncomfortable he is notice his weird smile and the fact that he can’t look directly at the camera.

Then it was time to play with the baby animals. There’s a nice shot of Glenn’s sexy new hat.

Lani liked the rabbit. I tri
ed very hard to get a photo of Lilly in there but failed the girl is just never still.

Sabi discovered the benefits of a very big sister, you can make them fetch animals for you.

And Eli was happy to find another safe place to play on his ipod, small confined places full of excitable children and panicked animals are just not his thing.

We had to see the wood chopping it’s mandatory. Before we had the kids Glenn and I would arrive early to get seats so that we would have a good view of the dramatic moment. You know how it goes were they spend half an hour counting men in only to have the massive muscular monster that started on swing twenty split his log in two hard thwacks. Now we just rock up whenever we see the wood chips flying and plonk ourselves down in the most convenient gap in front of whoever is chopping at the time. 

We are hoping to instil a love for the sport in the kids so that in the future we can linger longer but for now one round of whoevers chopping right now will have to do.

county bumpkin sitting on a pumpkin.

We spent a long time admiring the creative talents of all the entrants in the art and craft section especially the egg decoration display as you do. Doctor Who and The Daleggs won so we have a new found respect for egg decoration, notice how the kid chose to keep the gold Daleks and didn’t paint them as Dalek Wiggles, good choice kid.

This photo is for my friend Jo These are all the people who won prises for shining there rocks up.

Lilly isn’t upset she’s just overwhelmed by the thought of so much sugar.

We have been studying Vincent Van Gogh so the kids we very excited to see that other kids were as well.

Then the kids chose their ride and show bag and we headed home. All in all a good day and most do on the family outing calendar for next year.