Tuesday, October 27, 2009

{ fair day }

The State Fair - an iconic fall outing!

the Texas Star


This year, I tried very hard to keep it within a budget. Our tickets were free through the Texas State Fair Homeschool Ticket program - woohoo! I packed our lunches and put them in my backpack with bottled water. I never took the girls through the midway, we were so busy the whole time that they never noticed we didn't get to it.

There are so many activites, shows, and educational demonstrations at the Texas State fair that don't require extra money. We treated it like a trip to a museum (learning!) and we had a marvelous time!


Here's "Big Tex" - he truly is huge, see the tree down in the right bottom corner of the photo (that is not a bush!)

Big Tex


In the huge pavilion where they show all the fair contest entries, we saw so much talent, including paintings, quilting, woodworking, and knitting (like the American Girl sweater below, that my girls are hoping Gramma can figure out how to replicate **wink**) We were also reminded that there are still people who make and can jellies and vegetables and beans in hopes of winning a blue ribbon!

one of many fair prize winners


Also in that pavillion, the enormous annual butter sculpure... this year, it was an entire saloon scene made of butter!

butter sculpture


flower fairies


We saw a cow milking machine demonstration,
the junior competition for Brahmas,
a dog talent show,
a bee colony with honey tasting,
(my personal favorite) The Birds of the World Show,
and the ever-popular petting zoo:


petting zoo


Yes, a baby giraffe at the petting zoo!

baby giraffe at the petting zoo


After 6 hours of walking around, the girls spent some time sitting on the Footsie Wootsie foot massagers... it didn't seem to matter to them that the machines weren't on!

foot massage, anyone?


When all was seen and done, we spent $15: $10 for parking, $5 for a funnel cake we shared. Proof that you don't have to spend a lot to have a lot of fun at the state fair!

3 comments:

TheCatLord said...

i love fall fairs! brings back fond memories of when i lived back east. here in cali, the fair is in the summer. it's still fun, but i miss getting all cozy in my sweaters at the fair. glad you had a great time, your photos are great!

Audra said...

I love the baby giraffe!!! The butter thing is cool but still a little weird. What do they do with all that butter after the fair?

Joanne said...

That is a cute doll sweater, Gramma will do her best. :) Glad you had a fun day!