State Fair

We managed to get to the State Fair twice this year. The weather has been so perfect, not too hot!!! 

The kids always love Little Hands on the Farm. This was Rachel's last year to walk around and Laura is just now getting the idea of how fun this area is.

Getting ready to go to the land of Sheep!

A little hands on experience after spending the summer with All Creatures Great and Small.

By now the State Fair has its traditions that can't be broken, like choosing a piece of stick candy.

I love the Pioneer Village and this year the ladies were working on a vintage 30's quilt. I just learned that "30's" is a whole genre of fabric (which I happen to love).

I love the tatting, spinning, quilting, rug hooking, weaving, and other handwork that goes on here.

The coppersmith:

We even attended a cooking demonstration: banana bread hot oatmeal

Check out world's largest popcorn ball! They cheated: they used glue instead of sugar to hold it together! Popcorn was the theme of this year's fair.

I enjoyed the Bonsai exhibit. Can you just imagine how perfect this tree would be for fairies!!

Ice cream at the Dairy Barn is traditional! Thanks to our friend, Carla, who came along to make sure I didn't lose anyone!

We went back this week with Michael. The giant pumpkins were in!

And the giant watermelons. Wish I had some perspective for this picture. These melons were huge!!!

The pumpkins were huge too!

And the pumpkin carving was pretty fun!

It was $2 Tuesday and we had promised the kids rides. One ride each plus the Ferris Wheel was the deal. But, then I came up with a great idea. An extra ride for each child if ALL the library books were found (remember that we check out A LOT of library books). Imagine, the kids found ALL the books!

We ran into a neighbor and the kids had fun going on rides together. Someone in line handed us their extra tickets so the kids ended up with another extra ride!

I voted to join them on the bumper cars and Michael joined them on the swings.

Laura was thrilled to go on two rides by herself!!!

Check out her fan club making sure the occasion was recorded.

It was such a fun evening together despite the late hour of 11:30!

Too late for ice cream so we opted for cotton candy while riding the Ferris Wheel.

The fair is still going but I think we've had our fill for this year! Next year I am resolved to go to the fair without children and visit the Home and Arts building!!