The State Fair

John got back in town Friday evening and was super excited to do something with the kids. He was on a 13 hour time difference and just got off a 17 hour flight so I figured the fatigue would set in soon. However, I played along and said sure, we could plan something for Saturday. He wanted to go to the State Fair. It was the last weekend, but it was also the Texas v OU game and I knew traffic would be horrible, but I played along. We were going to go during the game hoping most would be in the cotton bowl so we could walk around and enjoy the fair. I even snagged free tickets from a friend of mine and we were set. When I got back to the house Saturday morning though with the tickets, John was still asleep (it was almost lunch time :-). He was exhausted and asked if we could go Sunday instead. I said yes as I didn't figure he'd really make it to the fair Saturday anyway. He slept most of the day and the kids and I enjoyed the fabulous weather outside.
On Sunday, John got up, dressed and walked into the kitchen as we were finishing breakfast and asks if I'm ready to go. What? Where? To the fair of course. So I quickly get dressed, get the diaper bag ready to go and load everyone. We were on the road by 9:15.
We got there just in time I think. Everything opened at 10 and we got a great parking spot. We quickly made our way to the kids corner and did a few things.
First up was the "Farm" experience. The kids got to help out with various things such as feeding chickens, watering trees, even planting seeds. At the end of the experience, they were paid for their work. Then they made their way to the country store to buy either crackers or juice snacks with their money. It was a lot of fun and FREE! The kids loved it, but they were on the move so I didn't get too many pictures (if hubby could handle both kids at once I could sit back with Lily and take pics :-). Also, you'll notice many of the pics are perfectly clear EXCEPT for my children! I hate it when that happens!!!


After the farm we went to watch a dog show. The kids love dogs and I thought they'd enjoy watching them do tricks too. Jake got really into it and clapped after each trick. He didn't want to sit on my lap though, he wanted to sit on the row below us like a big boy. He did great sitting there, watching the dogs and clapping. He was really enjoying it. Abby on the other hand decided she'd rather run up and down the stairs. After a while I sort-of got her calmed down to watch the dogs, but by then Jake had had enough and was ready to go. I didn't think we'd make the full show anyway so we packed everyone up and headed back out to our next adventure.

We decided to go to the petting zoo. We didn't buy food hoping our kids wouldn't notice and be happy with just petting the animals, but they quickly realized everyone else had cups of food to feed the animals and wanted some. However, my two are VERY resourceful and searched for feed on the ground or in the animals feed buckets to feed the animals. At one point though they tried to feed a camel wood chips - it was not impressed.
(I felt so bad for this little guy - he was sitting there shaking so much. Not sure if he was cold or scared. It was so sad!)
After the animals, it was time to grab some lunch. Nothing but fried foods so we grabbed a hot dog for Abby and corn dogs for the rest of us. However, the corn dogs were SO HOT! We had to break them apart and wait for what felt like 30 minutes with an unhappy little boy. He didn't understand that Abby could eat her hot dog while he just had to STARE at his corn dog. Life is so unfair!
After lunch we checked out the rides for the little ones, but opted to skip those for now. They didn't look too safe and they were so expensive. We did grab some cotton candy though. John said no fair trip was complete without cotton candy. They kids were a little confused about eating this cotton stuff but quickly decided they liked it. I kept the bag and cut them off after a few bites.
It was almost 2 and we decided it was probably time to leave. Abby was getting REALLY tired. She even turned down the cotton candy at one point and looked like she was about to fall over asleep. We headed out to the car and got everyone changed and loaded in their car seats. About 10 minutes after we hit the road the twins were out. Lily on the other hand was wide awake b/c she had slept most of the afternoon on me :-)
We had a great time at the fair and can't wait until next year when the twins will be able to enjoy it even more.