The Fair

I was asked to be an exhibitor at the State Fair this past Sunday. I needed the help of my husband so we packed up the whole family and we decided we would take turns with the kids and explore the fairgrounds. So we packed up early and headed out. We got free parking and admission since we were asked to come. I told my husband to take out $80 to buy bracelets to ride all the rides and to buy lunch at some point for the kids. The kids were so excited.

In an hour or two my husband came back to check in. "Yeah  - the money is the gone and the tickets too." Apparently the fair doesn't sell the bracelets for unlimited rides on the weekends so you have to buy ticket books. They were $25 for 22 tickets. Each ride took 2-3 tickets. So if you do the math - I have 2 kids, 1 book of tickets gets them 5 rides that last for approximately 2 minutes each. So $25 for 10 minutes worth of rides.Holy crap. I grabbed $40 and said to my husband jokingly, "We are going to play a game today called how much money does it cost to keep the kids happy at the fair for a day?"

Then it was my turn to explore with the kids. We were in the agriculture building so we looked at the prized Christmas trees and cotton plants that are grown in the state. They milked a pretend cow....

We left the building and were in a crowd of people. The fair is an interesting place. I don't think anyone has ever gone to the fair and said, "Wow, this place is really clean." People are waddling around eating deep fried sticks of butter. I was starved but did not want fried food. I found this little pizza stand that had baked ziti which was reasonable. They charged $3.00 for a bottle of water. Which is just outrageous. We sat at this table behind the stand and ate. It was kind of gross -the table, not the ziti.

Afterwards I purchased another book of tickets. The kids were so freaking adorable about it. They acted like they had won the lottery. I asked if I could go on a ride and they were like, "Mom, we want you to watch so that our tickets don't get wasted." They were trying to conserve. They went on this boat ride that spun around and they were just so happy. We played a game where they pick up a duck to win a prize and they both won stuffed fish.

We went and saw all the animals. Chickens, cows, goats, sheep. They liked that. It was a pretty exhausting day. We packed up around 5:30. The girls were clutching their little pink fish. "So, $121 to keep the kids happy at the fair for one day." My husband laughed, "It was worth it." I agreed. The kids did too - plus they were so pooped they fell asleep in an instant when we got home. Can't put a price on that.