State Fair

It's been 5 years and we were pretty determined to get to the State Fair this year.  Last year we missed it by a few days, so we put it on the calendar early, and determined that the last Saturday in September was our most free day.  

Taking the train.

We had to get our fried food.  We went with huge corn dogs for the kids, you know, something they were familiar with. 

I don't know if you've heard, but things are slightly larger in Texas.

They had a little farm experience for kids that seemed like fun, so I took the older ones inside.

We started with silly pictures

Then we donned aprons and baskets and watered some peach trees.

Then we fed some chickens and gathered eggs.

And fed some sheep.

Planted seeds

and harvested vegetables

Drove a tractor

To feed the cows.

Then the kids milked the cows, sorted the stuff in their basket, got a large, fake dollar, and used it to buy a real snack.  All in all, it was really fun.  The kids wanted to go through again, but we had limited time, so we headed over to see some animals instead.

Longhorn steer, of course

Inside the livestock area, there was a separate area about farming and livestock that had informational displays and booth, but it also had live animals.

Piglets!

chicks!

If you look very closely you can see the new-hatched chicks.

And after everything, a coloring table.  This contented the children
for quite awhile.  

After that, we checked out the goats and horses.  I wanted to see the food, but we had lost our map at that point, so we wandered around to a building that had food booths, but not the fried kind or judged kind.  They did have free strawberry milkshake samples, so we did get something.  Then we made the choice to all go home, or to have me and Lee leave so I could go to the Women's Broadcast.  We chose the later, so Lee and I hit the train alone with a stroller, which was an adventure in itself, while the kids stayed and had real fun riding rides, getting dessert, and seeing performances and parades.  I'd say it was memorable for them.