Fun at the Fair!

When you have kids, every weekend is a busy weekend.  Seriously, just sitting at home is work because kids don't just "sit" anywhere...you're always feeding/entertaining/cleaning up after/attending to their bathroom needs/etc.

But this past weekend was an *extra* busy weekend.

My mom and I took the kids on a road trip - that included an overnight stay - and then drove back to Dallas Sunday morning in time to meet Charles at the State Fair of Texas for Big Tex's 60th Birthday Celebration.

We were there to honor Big Tex (with a milk toast, par-tay!) and then headed over to the Dairy MAX Dairy Discovery Zone with a few other bloggers for some dairy education and family fun for the kids.

Jack milks an life-size replica of a cow and fills up his backpack with some free goodies at the Dairy Discovery Zone.

Read more »

Celebrate Big Tex's Birthday (And Win Tickets to the Fair!)

Do you live around Dallas?

If you do (or anywhere around Dallas, for that matter), you know what a big deal the State Fair of Texas is in these parts.  And if you don't live in Dallas, or Texas...you might want to keep reading just to learn about a Texas icon who kind of weirds me out but is slowly growing on me.

His name?  Big Tex.

See the tall guy?  In the yellow shirt? That's Big Tex.

Read more »

A Day at the Fair

Today we took Jack to the State Fair of Texas.  I've got to say, I am a bit of a Fair Snob, growing up with the Del Mar Fair, so I don't get too excited about the State Fair of Texas.  But this time was a little different - I was excited to be taking Jack!
We met our friends Shawn and Amanda there, who had their niece Avery.  It was pretty hot and also very crowded (Saturday at the fair, after all...).

Jack immediately started pointing at everything as soon as he was out of the car.  He points at eveything now, and if he wants to know the word for something, he grunts.  He knows what cars and trucks are, and he likes them, so he was constantly pointing at them as they drove by in the parking lot. 

Here is an example of all that pointing.  Oh - sidenote - this is the first time he has ever spent any amount of time in his stroller.  We figured it was hot and we'd be walking around a lot so we took it out on the town today.  He did like it for awhile.

Anyway, the Fair is full of many wonderful things for a nine-month old to look at!  Animals, rides, the food, the people...

We started out walking through the livestock barns.  Here is where my Fair Snobbery kicks in.  At Del Mar, the barns are neat, orderly, full of educational displays and well-organized!  For example, all of the sheep are in the sheep barn, all of the cows are in the cow barn, etc.  At the Texas Fair, they are all kind of jumbled together and the barn aisles are cluttered and messy, and you can't tell if the animals are with the FFA, 4H, a private farm, etc.  Also, the llamas are mixed in with the cows, the goats are showing next to the pig barn...you get the idea.  But aside from my own issues - Jack loved looking at all of the animals!

Jack loved the piggies - he stared and stared at this one! 

Jack's highlights of the day: staring at the piggy, trying a corn dog, playing with the steering wheel of a truck in the car show, watching the chinese dragon show, staring at the waterfall, trying to pull out Mommy's eyelashes, and pointing at cars and trucks in the parking lot.