The Fosters’ First EKKA

The Ekka..... for those of you who don’t know what it is. It’s an annual show that has been occurring in Brisbane every August since 1876! Nearly half a million people walk through those doors in the 10 days the show is open. The atmosphere is loud, chaotic, colourful, busy and expensive. It showcases different agricultural displays including cakes, woodwork, art, produce, flowers and many more. They have a little animal nursery to pet and feed animals, nightly fireworks displays, motorbike and car shows; and where all our money goes - food stands, rides and sideshow alley!! 

I remember as a child growing up we would go every year. We’d get the schedule in the paper and map out our day and what showbags we wanted to get. It’s an event - we even get a public holiday for it!! But as I got older and saw it for the ‘expensive plastic fantastic’ that it is - we stopped going for a couple years. Then came children and with the ‘Ekka winds’ in full swing we didn’t want to take Peighton into that either. So we’ve managed to avoid it for the last several years. 

But this year Ian made a last minute decision for us as a family to go and let the girls (more so Peighton) experience it. 

We didn’t even get in the gates before Peighton was in shut down mode and wanted to be carried. It took a while and for Grandmas help for her to even get on the ground and be interested in the games. She won a few stuffed toys and was happy with that. We couldn’t persuade her to jump on any rides either. But I guess that’s money saved at the end of the day. Ha! 

She had been talking about the fireworks leading up the the night and was telling me how excited she was to see fireworks on the drive there ‘but I only want to see the little ones’ she told me (the early kids show). The fireworks started and she curled up into a little ball in my husbands arms and wanted him to cover her ears. Shut down mode was in full swing again 😅 until we go in the car and it’s all she could talk about! Bloody kids!! 

Obviously Mia is too young to understand it all. The people and noise didn’t bother her in the slightest. She was in the carrier most of the night and the only time she was grumpy was when I kept trying to eat my own strawberry sundae and wasn’t sharing enough 😂😂 

I showed Peighton the way to buy showbags and she made her first purchase last night!! A bubbles bag of course - what else would a 3 year old want, right?!? Went to play with it this morning and it’s out of the packet broke! #StandardEkkaRubbish oh well, there’s enough chocolate in the fridge to last us a while now! 

I think next year will be a little more fun - and hopefully we won’t have to be carrying kids around all night!