Every year since I was a kid, we have gone to the Goshen Fair in Goshen, CT.

It’s an agricultural fair held every Labor Day weekend, and it’s about forty-five minutes away from our house.

They have animals and tractor/horse/oxen pulls. They’ve got woodcutting and pie eating contests and horseback riding and bunnies and pigs and sheep and vegetables and food and games and a whole bunch of rides.

Back in 2010 I was pregnant with Number 7. Number 6 was just a couple months old.Number 3 was five years old, and Number 4 was four years old. They still rode on the “baby” rides.Except for the swings. Number 4 has always loved the swings or any ride they will allow her on.Number 5 was just over a year old.She saw her first cow that year at the fair.Two years later, everyone was a little bigger.

Now we needed two strollers.Number 7 was almost one.Number 6 was two, and Number 5 was three.Number 3 and 4 were six and seven, had graduated to some of the bigger kid rides, and they were fine going on the big slide alone.Number 6 was still a little nervous about the rides and wouldn’t go on any.

Number 5 was a little hesitant, but ready to ride a couple things (like Thomas and a little horse) on her own.

Two years after that, everyone was even bigger,and everyone was big enough to ride on some sort of ride.

But these three still stuck to the “baby” rides.

Then fast forward to this past weekend.

This past weekend was the first time we went to the fair where nobody rode on the baby rides.

Number 7 was finally tall enough to ride the big rides with her big sisters.

I wasn’t sure how that was going to go. She picked “Avalanche” for her first big girl ride.

It goes fast and it goes high and I was afraid she’d have a freakout about thirty seconds into it.

But she climbed on happily.

As the ride started whipping around, there was a small freakout.But it wasn’t coming from the kid I anticipated.So it’s official. Number 7 isn’t a baby anymore. At all.

Then there was Number 6. He went on a big kid ride with Number 3.

The Cliff Hanger.

He’s not really a risk taker, so I didn’t know how that was gonna go either.

Number 3 held his hand before the ride started.Then he grabbed on to the bars and the ride took off.
When they came to a stop he had a big smile on his face.I asked him if he had fun.