What a week...the fair is done for another year

Well, it has been a LONG week and yet short.
It started last Friday. Shawn & girls and Debbie, Neil, Colin all came home for the parade, then we (Pat & I) got their kids from Sunday through Tues! The prince got his projects judged before the parade (good parade by the way!). He made a wooden cupboard for above the toilet (got red - needed 3rd coat of varnish), he had 6 photos - got 4 blues and 2 reds. The reds were due to the film developement, but still counted against him. They were pictures from July 4th, Brianna with sparklers. We thought the lines on the house siding was probably a reflection from all of the kdis and they had several kinds of sparklers going that were green smoke, etc. Oh well.
On Monday afternoon, we took the kids to the fair. I made a scavenger hunt for them and we divided them into 2 teams, Shawn took T, M, C and I took N, B and A. They had to find someone with a cowboy hat, farmer hat with seed corn patch on it, bib overalls, 2-3 breeds of every animal at fair (had to change this to colors - smaller kids couldn't read!), a sewing project, a photo of a dog, a photo of a pig or cow, the prince's items, a 4H member that could recite the pledge to them (we found someone we knew/no stranger danger stuff!), a booth giving out ruler, pencil, bag, a brand of tractor for sale, etc. It kept them busy and we got to see all of the fair! Eventually we met up with Pat & Grampy. We watched the fair queen contest next. The youngest kids fell asleep at that point! We dropped Colin off to Sherry's on Tuesday afternoon, for her turn. We hosted in M. Hall on Wed evening. Then Thurs evening we watched fireworks and got rained on while chatting with Larry and Cheryl - near - guess - the rabbit barn! Hardly any rabbits this year. Several rows empty.
The princess wants to join Clover Kids next year - has projects all planned out in her mind! It has been horribly hot here all week. Today was heat index of 110. Pat & Prince worked on his bedroom, got it ready to start re-construction! I talked with Gary at the fair. We discussing the price of gas/oil/diesel going up and relating it to how much he has to pay for farming, drying and hauling his grain. He also had to pay someone else to have his crop planted & sprayed this year due to his health this spring. He was pretty distressed about it obviously. We have cut out unnecessary trips since the price of gas has gone up. In fact, we skipped our usual big summer vacation and just went to Chicago.
On a lighter note, the prince is taking drivers ed and is almost done - doing great! He drove home last night from Quad Cities and did great. It really is making me feel old though! Oh well... Plus it was interesting watching teenage girls at the fair watch him and try to get his attention!
Kay agreed to take the puppy! They are coming tomorrow to get her.
The kids need a dog and to learn responsibility.
Good night!
PS- anyone heard from Jill lately?