GNE

The Great Northern Exhibition.  It's really just the Collingwood Fall Fair, but apparently it's a pretty big deal to people around here and it has a fancy name!  Noel wasn't interested in going and he stayed home to work on the guest room.  So I went with my Mom and Grandma, and my Dad was there too, doing his own thing but stopping to see us every so often.
 I have to say that we did have a really good time and we spent about 5 hours there each day (Saturday and Sunday).  You have to park on the outskirts of the grounds and then the "shuttle" comes to pick you up.  The "shuttle" is really just a tractor that pulls a big covered trailer/wagon with benches on it. I think Avery enjoyed the ride.

We showed Avery the animals at the little petting zoo, but he seemed more interested in the kids that were feeding the animals! I liked the llama.                    : ) On Saturday we also looked at the vendor booths, explored the buildings - art & photo contest entries, and had yummy lunch from the Pita Pit.
We went to the Baby Contest display to vote.  You were supposed to only vote 8 times per person but there was no sign up and no one policing the display (this is Collingwood, after all).  Avery was definitely one of the cutest babies but he wasn't winning.  I guess everyone just votes for the babies they know.

My favourite part of fairs and such events is the little lemon-shaped booth that makes lemonade from scratch. It's so good! Very thirst-quenching.  I also enjoyed looking at the quilts and took some photos to show my mother-in-law, who is a master quilter!
The funny thing about the fair, and about going anywhere in Collingwood, really, is that I always see tons of people from school.  While at the fair I think I saw 7 teachers, 5 EAs, and at least 20 students!  It means I always have to be on my best behaviour.   : )   I went into the little baby changing hut to breastfeed Avery and there was a teenager from my school in there with her boyfriend, changing her baby.  So I decided just to wait a bit.  She's half my age but our babies are weeks apart.

So we went back to the fair again on Sunday.  On Saturday I had Avery in the stroller but thought it would be easier to bring him today in the wrap. He's happy when he's in there, as long as I am moving.  The first thing we did was the baby contest.  When we got there we saw a couple from our prenatal class and their little girl, who is super cute!  The little girl was wearing a headband with a bow and pink tights and I think my mom is always just a tiny bit sad that she doesn't get to dress Avery in cute outfits like that.  I told her she could do it, but just once.  And we can never tell him about it.
Anyway, back to the contest:  We had to bring the babies up on stage when their category was called. The first category was the 24-36 month old girls.  When I saw them up there on stage I immediately felt bad because those little girls kind of knew what was going on, and they might feel bad if they didn't win.  I decided right then and there not to enter Avery any more.  Noel wasn't crazy about me having a little "Toddlers & Tiaras" moment anyway.  So, we didn't win and neither did the little girl from our prenatal class.  None of the cutest babies won.  But, we got a certificate, a ribbon, and a sample of Arbonne baby products (which I actually already have from the last "sip n' shop" event I went to).  I still think Avery is the cutest baby.

Well, we got over that pretty quick and went to look at the knitting and other crafts.  My mom is convinced we can win big next year, so she's pledged to put aside half an hour a day to start working on projects.  Then we went to get lunch  (poutine with chunky fries - yum!) and watch the Dog Show.  My mom got really excited when she first heard about this, but it's just for kids so she couldn't enter Rosie and April.  We went to watch my friend Sandra's son - Hastings - and his dog - Manny.  Now, Hasting and Manny had an unfair advantage, but don't tell anyone!  Manny is Hastings' seizure response dog, so he is really well trained and is usually 100% focused on Hastings.  Needless to say, they won in 5 prizes! 
First place for curliest coat and tricks, second for floppiest ears, and third for best wiggle walk. Actually, they had so many prizes that were donated for the contest that they started just giving the gift bags away at the end, to anyone they saw at the fair with a dog.  We didn't have Shelby with us because you could take dogs to the fair, but not in the buildings.  So we left her at home with Noel.  But Sandra was quick to grab a gift bag for Shelby so she was happy to get some treats and toys when I got home.  The dog show was the best part of the second day of the fair.  It was cute to see all the dogs!  

 Then there was a brief period of time where I was waiting for my Mom (and Avery) and Grandma to come back and I thought they abandoned me but Avery and my Mom were just dancing to a country band in one of the buildings.  And that pretty much ends our adventure at the Great Northern Exhibition!