It's almost here--the county fair officially begins this week. Tomorrow evening the girls will take their indoor home arts exhibits in to be judged. Wednesday morning, we'll trailer the lambs to the fair to settle in before it officially opens to the public on Thursday.

Of course this also means that today the house is in a crazed state. Digging through cupboards for cake ingredients. Painting canvases. (And repainting, thanks to some creative input from Birdy.). Framing of sketches. Printing of photograhs.

I'm pretty sure it was this same time last year that I promised myself to be more organized this year. Never again! I vowed. And here we are. Now, I'll just claim it as tradition. The pre-fair scramble.

But this year, on top of the indoor exhibits, we've also got two little 4-H lambs that will also be going to the fair. Yesterday there were show clothes to buy--khaki pants and white collared tshirts. Green ribbons around the neck. Cowgirl boots were polished.

It's not all chills and excitement at this point though. I'll be honest enough to admit that there have been tears. And not moments ago Emma sat at the kitchen table and said, "What if I don't want to do this next year?"

Sigh.

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But in my heart, I know she feels this way because she's yet to experience those chills and excitement of the fair. Of stepping into the show ring. Of setting up her own little space for her lambs. Of being on the inside when everyone from the outside walks by to see her lambs and ask her questions. To walk into the ring nervous and scared. And to walk out with a ribbon--no matter the color.

As you can imagine, I'll be ducking out of this space for the rest of the week. But I'll be posting some peeks into our week on Instagram ( I'm @MollyBalint) and on the MommyCoddle Facebook page.

So if you don't mind, cross your fingers and wish us luck. I'll report back next week! County fair, here we come!!