Christmas Fair

We woke up at 715 this morning and as we madly rushed around the house trying to pack for the day and get on the road by 8am I thought the Fair would certainly be the highlight of the day, maybe Santa's appearance.  But today had so many highlights!!

The first was when Kaia spotted a doodoo (bug in kiswahili) above my head in the car just as we were leaving the house.  It was one of the big grasshoppers, approximately 2 inches long.  There were actually 2 of them.  Great.  But it was when she warned me that it might pee and poop on me that things got interesting.  Theo picked up on that in an instant and for the ENTIRE half hour drive he was gasping...

'Ohhhh!!!  Doodoo poop!!  Ohhhh!!  Doodoo poop!!'

And if that wasn't funny enough after 20 minutes... the sunroof started to leak on me... and I said 'Errgh!!  This bites!!'  And from the backseat he chimes...

'Ohhhh!!!  Doodoo poop!!  Ohhhhhhhh!!  Doodoo bite!!'

 At the fair the stand looked beautiful...

 The candles.

Orange Spice, Lavender, Mint Chocolate, Chamomile, and Cafe Latte.  Approximately 180 in total that we made in just over a week.  They were SO beautiful!!

 The cards. 

About 100 of these in 10 styles.  These felt like they took forever to make.

 The ornaments. 
Beaded Kanga material framed in dyed leather.  

Stars, trees, angels, bells, and ornaments.

 The Stockings.
Beaded Kanga backed in dyed velvet.  Price was good on these and they sold out completely by mid-day.

Sadly there were some problems with our advent calendar and it wasn't ready for today.  We will have to save the idea for next year and get it ready early.

 Santa came as always.  Not exactly the same as the old man who plays Santa in Finland who was old and jolly enough to have a beard you could pull for real and it wouldn't come off.

Tradition has been that Santa arrives at the fair and all the kids gather around and he answers some questions.  The older children obviously have a ball with this and try to ask questions that will show he isn't real.  This Santa handled it pretty well but still I think they have to prep the Santas a little better for next year.  Good fun though seeing the kids try to come up with good questions :)

 Here he is with the kids gathered around.  And you can also get a general idea for the fair.  It is huge, the biggest event of the year with vendors from all over East Africa.  If you look closely you can also see Kaia and Carl sitting and listening to Santa.

 Theo found it all a bit overwhelming.  After this we plopped him in the middle of 20 kids playing at the ISM stand and he slept for an hour amidst the chaos.

Then can you believe we had a BIRTHDAY PARTY too!!

It was out at the house I blogged the directions to a few months back, the house where we ride horses.  Only we hadn't been there since the rains have come.

 Oops.  Stuck again.  I made a poor decision.  There was a VERY wet muddy area and space to drive around on either side of it.  I chose to go on the left.  I should have chosen the right.  On the left it was only the top layer of mud that was dry, underneath was 4 or 5 inches of soft slippery mud.  As we started to slide I really though I could get us through it but slowly we got more and more stuck.  Finally learned how to put on the 4 wheel drive today though, always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

Thankfully we were traveling with 2 other cars, 5 adults in total.  Also thankfully, the mud wasn't that deep so pushing the car did help.  One spot was particularly deep and we had to stuff rocks behind the wheels.  At that point we couldn't' push from the back in case the rocks flew out so we had to push from the side.  Since it was my car I pushed the longest and hardest since I REALLY wanted to get it out.  I used the front door as leverage and was directly behind the front wheel at that point....

 Ha Ha Ha!!!  

I am not wearing pants... that is ALL mud!!  A good 3 inches thick in places.

We are 4 awesome ladies and I am eternally grateful to them!!!  And an extra kudos to the driver who took the pic but really should have been in it too.  A total accident that Mt. Meru is centered behind us, a perfect shot to sum up our experience.

As we got back in our cars to drive tho the party one of the girls looked at me and asked her mom... 

'Is she really going to wear that to the party?!?'

 Mental note:

I need to keep a pair of Wellies in the car for emergencies!!

 All was forgotten once I had a nice shower, fresh clothes, and the kids let it loose on the bouncy castle.  Can you find Kaia in the pic?  And notice the beautiful landscape behind the castle.  Almost totally worth the drive out there.

After that we got to hang and drink yummy lemonade and eat awesome cake... inspiration for you Melissa... and procrastinate on going home.