Royal Adelaide Show here again already!

Well it is that time of year again.  One that seems to come around so fast, but not fast enough for the kids of course lol.  Each year we go.  We take my 4 boys one year and the following year we take my step son and step daughter.  Their other parents take them on the other years.  This year was my boy's turn to go with their Dad.  He only ended up taking the youngest two as Mr14 went with his friends and Mr16 was planning on going with friends but sadly they all had to work at their various part time jobs and so decided it was just too hard to plan and now none of them are going (I actually feel a little sad for him, being the only one not to go and he had been really looking forward to going with his friends, but I guess that's life, think of the money he saved!).

We took Mr11 and Miss12 on Saturday.  A day when the forecast temperature was due to hit 27 degrees!  I don't recall ever in my life going to the Show on such a warm day.  Warm it was, sideshow alley with the crowds of people was very hot.  It was quite nice though to be able to sit at night to watch the fireworks and not be freezing to death though lol.  It was forecast to rain and it held off all day until about 7.30 when there was the first shower.  It wasn't overly heavy but it had quite a bit of wind with it, thankfully it only lasted about 5-10 minutes which was enough to see many people run for cover but we sat it out, not wanting to lose our place that we were sitting.  There was another shower about half an hour later bit it wasn't as long or heavy as the first so overall it was a lovely day.

Taking Mr11 to the show is always a challenge.  His Autism means that he has massive meltdowns if he doesn't have his music player with him.  We made sure to pack extra batteries as we were going to be at the show from about 10.30am right through to approximately 10pm (yes I know we are crazy lol, but I figure the amount you pay we are going to see everything it has to offer!!!  besides it is my tradition type thing, we have our set route through the showgrounds which has been well set out since I was a kid lol).

For Mr11 we take his wheelchair,,,,now this child can walk perfectly fine but for any lengthy walks it is just easier to contain him to a wheelchair as he hates to walk and will just drop to the ground and scream if pressured to keep walking.  He can make family outings absolute hell if he chooses to (and he chooses to, just about every time we leave the house), so to help ease the stress we have found a wheelchair to be the answer.  So often I hate putting him in the wheelchair as it find it looks like we are "faking it" when he is perfectly able to get up and down and walk over the the sideshows etc but for our sanity and harmony for the other kids, this is what we have to do.  At least in a wheelchair we don't have to have hold of him all the time as we need to if he is walking.  When walking, if we let go of him, he disappears so fast it is unbelievable and a place like the Show is just not the place to have him disappear on us.  So please if you ever see anyone that can get in and out of a wheelchair with ease and it appears that they are using it just for a sympathy vote or simply because they can't be bothered walking, always consider the fact that there may be an underlying reason why they are in that wheelchair.  Until you spend a few minutes in Mr11's company you wouldn't know he was any different than the other kids,,,,a few minutes in you realise that he cannot talk (other than grunts, garble or screaming) and he basically cannot care for himself at all, there is no self sufficiency happening with the boy unless it involves a dvd player, tv and music on a computer or MP3 player).

Here are some photos we took at the show....

This was one of the Clydesdale horses, isn't he beautiful, I have always loved these horses,,,I think his name was Jacob.  I fell in love with is eyes, they were so big and just gorgeous.

Miss 12 will just love me for putting this picture on the blog lol, she is the cow :-)

Miss12 with her light up bunny ears.  She was so determined that she had to have a light up thing, she desperately wanted the darn ears.  She wore them for a whole 5 minutes,,,,I kid you not,,,,was I impressed, nope!  I had listened to her all day long going on about the darn things, I gave in and got them for her and 5 minutes was all it took for the novelty to wear off, she is darn lucky they only cost $3.50 I tell you!!!!

Mr11 wearing Miss12's Willy Wonka Hat (yes it was another must have that got worn by her for 5 whole minutes,,,lucky Mr11 liked it and it helped keep the rain off his head after we lost his hood off his jacket lol).

Overall we had a good day, way too much money got spent but I guess that is just  part of the Show and there isn't too much you can really do to avoid that part of it.  Although I love taking the kids, Hubby and I cannot wait until we can go just once by ourselves and really get to look at the things we want to look at without having children whining about wanting to go to the rides lol.  I got dragged on 3 rides with Miss12.  Hubby can't go on most of the rides because of his back injury he had last year, so I am the one that gets dragged on.  Miss12 is a bit of a daredevil and wanted me to go on a few with her, many of which I outright refused.  I ended up on 3 that was more than enough for me lol, and believe me I had to space those ones out!!  I went on the Breakdance, the Ferris Wheel and the hmmm, can't remember the name but years ago it was called the Matterhorn.  I don't do things that are high and fast due to my fear of heights (yes I know the Ferris Wheel is about as high as they come but for some stupid reason I can deal with that).  I just have a huge fear that those stupid little bolts that connect these rides together will break and we will be launched metres into the air, I cringe just thinking about it lol.