Yesterday the kids and I spent the afternoon and evening at the Cumberland Fair. The kids' 4-H club sponsored a geocaching booth and we introduced a few new families to the game. I had several little-helpers at the fairgrounds and I have a few new "learnings/re-learnings" to report.

Make all the kids in your group wear matching bright orange shirts to keep track of everyone (thanks for the tip - and the shirts - Meg!)

Using someone else's GPS units doesn't always work as planned, especially when the unit's settings aren't the same as yours and it interprets your waypoints differently (i.e., end up a totally wrong location).

5-year-olds get tired a lot faster than 8-year-olds so snack breaks are all-important.

Do one thing at a time. Realize that you can't manage to take photos with 4 kids walking the fairgrounds while 2 of them, in addition to you, have GPS units and are trying to find geocaches (even though it's a bummer you don't have any pics of the fun you had).

Kids love glitter pens (thanks MaineToday) and pins (thanks County Extension Office).

Plan to visit the bunny barn at least twice - and plan to deflect the multiple requests for one because daddy said no.

Kids love stickers (especially bright orange ones)

Let the kids be silly, you might think it's funny too

Kids love to dance (btw, the band never said who they were last night but my crew liked them alot).

Don't be surprised when the kids linger to chat with the vendors in the Exhibition Hall.

You never know who you'll meet at the fair (her photos from Iraq were great)

No matter what you say about what you will - or will not - buy at the fairgrounds, Grandma will always get the kids what they want anyway. Thanks Grandma!

View all our photos from the fairgrounds yesterday in Seen.

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