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Dear Holly: Cake Walks are a Cake Walk

10 years, 6 months.

Dear Holly,

Despite you having a soft-spoken nature, you offset it with your surprisingly competitive spirit.

This was on full display at the recent Fall Festival at church, as you were drawn to the stage where several rounds of the Cake Walk were conducted.

After winning the first time, you realized there was no rule that you couldn’t play again. So you just kept playing. You walked away with three different dessert prizes, which our family spent the rest of the week eating after dinner each night.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Manning the Plinko Game

15 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

For the Fall Festival at church leading up to Halloween, you were voluntold (?) to be in charge of one of the game booths.

You were assigned to Plinko, where you explained how the game worked to the younger kids who chose to play, then distributed to them the proper candy prize they automatically won.

It is undeniable that you are good at being a leader to younger kids. They listen to you and pay attention to you, in a way that is clearly effortless.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Two Visits to the County Fair Last Week

10 years, 6 months.

Dear Holly,

What I learned about you this past week as you turned 10 and a half years old: You are not afraid to ride anything at the County Fair!

Mommy and I took you last Wednesday and then Aunt Dana and Andrew took you and your cousin Darla back last Friday.

You’re now tall enough to ride them all… so you pretty much did! You even went on rides that I wouldn’t go on…

I love it that you had so much fun!

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Tribute to Jack-Man

15 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

By now, all of your friends and many of your classmates have discovered the fact that two dozen episodes of our original YouTube series “Jack-Man” (from when you were 4 years old!) are out there for the world to see.

This week at school, for the day all the students were allowed to dress up for Halloween, you decided to go out into the bin in our garage and pull out your old Jack-man superhero costume.

It was a hit!

 

Love,

Daddy

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DeKalb County Fair 2026

Here’s what I learned this year after attending the DeKalb County Fair:

I am at a place in my life now where I can officially afford to go on the other days of the week… when it’s not “buy one, get one free” night for armbands, on Thursday.

Last year, we went on Thursday: It was so crowded that we ended up not even going on any rides.

Instead, I paid the lady at one of the game booths 20 bucks so that my daughter could “win” a Spongebob prize and then we left.

Ah, but this year… we actually had fun. Not just my wife and my daughter- but I specifically, a grown man… had fun at the County Fair!

For a family of four, you are only saving $60 by going on Thursday night. But here’s the part Alanis Morissette would find ironic, because it really is like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife:

What good is it to save $60 if you have to wait nearly an hour to go on each ride? You end up going on less rides for less money, but waste the majority on your time spent there.

Now that I think of… PLEASE go on Thursday! That means there will be even less people there when I am there instead.