From the Ferris Wheel
Day Seven! How time flies when you are having fun. Today I thought I would bring an expert at fun to the Ex with me. I invited my four year old neighbour, Hayden, to be my eyes on the Ex for the day.
We hit the grounds right at ten. That way we had time to check out the Farm before the rides opened. Hayden was very impressed by the Yoda butter sculpture, though he did wonder why Yoda had a yogurt rather than a light sabre. I didn’t know four year olds knew who Yoda was.
We spent some time in the HorseCapades section. Hayden tried the bean bag toss and rode the large mechanical horse. We ran into a bit of a glitch at the pony carts. I thought he would enjoy pedalling the cart around the track. It turns out that Hayden didn’t know how to pedal yet. The observant attendant was a real help. She actually taught Hayden how to pedal and he was able got get around the track with very few stops. A major life lesson learned at the CNE.
We had a lot of fun going though the Junior Farmer exhibit. Hayden especially enjoyed picking the apples, and spent quite a bit of time getting the “best one.” Once he finished gathering everything he was off to market in the tractor. By the time Hayden finished pedalling the tractor around the course he was an old pro.
Eleven o’clock and it was time to hit the rides. First choice was the racing cars. Hayden actually remembered being in the cars from the year before. They must have made quite the impression. Hayden had so much fun, we got right back into line and he went again.
We hit all the rides Hayden was tall enough for, which this year was all but two of them. By now it was 12:30, so we grabbed a couple of corn dogs, hopped on the Ex-press and headed to the President’s Choice SuperDogs show. I had seen the show the day before, but I was anxious to get Hayden’s take on it. I was very pleased to discover that it was a completely different show than the one I saw yesterday. So if you have a chance to see the show more than once, it still will hold surprises for you. Hayden cheered and was genuinely thrilled when the dog on “our side” won. The bull dog called Pot Roast was his definite favourite, so we made a point of meeting Pot Roast after the show. I am not sure why he is called Pot Roast, he is a really a ham. Hayden “adopted” one of the SuperDogs stuffed animals and named it, what else, Pot Roast.
Back on the train, back to the midway, with a stop at the fire station first. Hayden really wasn’t keen on the idea of sitting on the fire truck to have his picture taken with all the firemen. More my loss than his. Hayden really preferred the antique engine to the modern one. He enjoyed it when one of the firemen let him see inside the cab of the truck.
We had a few more rides before it was time to head home. Boy, there is nothing slower than a four year old on the way out of the fair grounds. No complaints from the boy, but every step toward the gate was slower than the one before. I will have to go back to the CNE with Hayden, we still have a lot of kid stuff to see together.
