Tina Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Does your family attend the county and/or state fair? Do you enter items in the fair? We generally attend both. I never realized there were fairs when I lived in IL, tho I'm sure they were there. We're still 'city folk', but the kids have lots of friends who enter items in the fair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 We go to several local fairs. My kids don't enter anything but lots of kids we know are showing pigs, sheep and horses at the local fairs. My son used to race dirt bikes at the fair as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 We attend every year--on the cheap ride day we do carnival rides, on free admission day we look at the animals and exhibits and watch the shows. My children enter art every year. They really enjoy seeing their pieces on display, and every year someone wins a prize. This year my 5 y.o. won $5 for a painting of a sunflower. :) Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigitte Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Does your family attend the county and/or state fair? Do you enter items in the fair? We generally attend both. I never realized there were fairs when I lived in IL, tho I'm sure they were there. We're still 'city folk', but the kids have lots of friends who enter items in the fair. We are "attending" our county fair this year in our new town. I have a booth there the whole week. I probably won't see much of it (if anything), but my family sure will. I hadn't even considered that there might be contests that the kids could enter, but I guess that's my "city folkness" coming through. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana in OR Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 The State Fair is in our city, so sometimes we go. Next Monday, we are going to see WEIRD AL in concert at the State Fair. I am very excited about that! We also have a county fair, but it is really small, partly b/c we also have the state fair. For years, my boys entered Lego creations in the County Fair, and had a lot of fun with that. From time to time, I have entered baked goods and decorated cakes into the State Fair. For the most part, though, we stay completely off the midway. I think the rides are too expensive, I'm worried about their safety, and the carnival games are no better. We also don't usually buy food at the fair with the exception of the local dairy women's ice cream booth. We enjoy the shows and like looking at the handcrafted items and animals. One of my favorite features at the State Fair is the "Oregon Authors' Table" where Oregon authors sign and sell their works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Does your family attend the county and/or state fair? Do you enter items in the fair? We generally attend both. I never realized there were fairs when I lived in IL, tho I'm sure they were there. We're still 'city folk', but the kids have lots of friends who enter items in the fair. Nope. We never missed the state fair when we lived in California. You could spend days there and not see everything. So after we moved here ten years ago, I couldn't wait for the county fair! I mean, here, smack dab in the middle of the Heartland -- this should be good, right? Of course, I didn't do my homework first -- we got there at noon and it didn't even *open* until 6:00 p.m. It was too far to drive home and come back, so we sat there in 95+ degree weather, humidity off the charts, waiting. When they did open, there was a jar of pickles, a fly covered pie, and a cow. It took us ten minutes to walk through the exhibit tent, and that's because we went back through again, thinking we had missed something. It was, basically, nothing more than the equivalent of a carnival that would be set up in a mall parking lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 We are suburbanites whose only pets are dogs, but we've gone without fail since before the DC were born. And every year I have petted every single horse in the multiple horse barns (much to DH's dismay). Now, every year my DS wants to pet every single goat in the goat barns (much to my dismay). When he was 4 we "lost" him for a moment, and found him lying on the dirty, dusty, hay-strewn floor cuddles against the cutest little Nubian goat. We go early to "do" the animals and 4-H displays before it is too hot. Eat lunch, browse a little more, and never even stay for rides. Love the fair, looking forward to going next week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 We're right down the street from our county fair, so usually go a couple of times. The parade goes right past my house, so all the kids' friends come over to watch with us. :D This year K wanted to enter a stuffed animal she's making, but it probably won't be done in time. I'm thinking about entering the banana date bars from SOTW1 AG. If that happens, it will be our first entry. No one here is in 4H or anything, so we've never been on that side of things before, just the audience. We like to go see (and pet) the animals, get cider & donuts in the morning, ride a few rides on the day they're only $1, maybe eat some fried junk food.... I did go to the state fair a couple of times when I lived closer, but not in about 10 years now. It's really not much different than the county fair here, except the concerts are free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Aubrey, I came to post the same thing! We actually live half a block away from the entrance to our big county fair and right across the street from the midway (rides). WE LOVE FAIR TIME!!! It's a big time of year for us as you can imagine. The kids all enter things in the fair (we make them, lol -- although most WANT to -- because of the price break when you have items entered); they do baked goods, photography, drawing, lego projects and scrapbooking. Even dh is "required" to make something (this year it's a friendship bracelet) and I usually bake something. We're "city folk" so we don't do 4-H sheep, goats, cows, horses, chickens and the like -- but no matter. The big thing for us is that that we sell lemonade, bottles of water and all-fruit-juice sno-cones to the hundreds of passersby, so we're outside in "fair atmosphere" for five days straight. Our fair is Thursday through Monday of Labor Day weekend and the Saturday is the big day, of course (our county fair is held in conjunction with a rodeo on the national rodeo circuit). Right after the morning parade (which is 3 blocks from our house), we rush home and set up shop. Our prices are half what people will pay inside the fair and I make sure people walking by know this, lol. We also will park 2-3 cars at a time on the lawn for $10 a pop. Overall we make $500-$600 each year which makes the fair itself a lot of fun for us. You know, with seven kids we don't spend a lot on extra things but this is one that we do go all out on, and it's a fun tradition. The kids get the rides bracelets, they can choose whatever they want for their dinner meal with no "keep it under $4" kind of limit, and then we all enjoy scones and elephant ears and what-not. Oh, and the bottled Sarsaparillas in the "saloon"! We actually would like to purchase a bigger house -- have our eye on one on the other side of campus; this is one thing I'll miss about this house: fair time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlcmom Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 My daughter enters two breeds of goats and rabbits in the county fair. She qualified to go to state, but I said NO WAY! I don't want to have to sit in the barns with animals for a week. Ugghh. She was disappointed but she'll get over it. She did really well at the county fair. She was Champion Master Showman over all the 9 large animal breeds. We didn't start going to the State fair until a couple of years ago. When my son was 2 1/2 (now 18) he got lost there and we never went back until recently. They were not helpful at all with finding him. I was very traumatized! I think the county fairs are great family fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom to Aly Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 The state fair in VA is my daughter's fave event out of the year, and we save forever to go (that and the hs convention). It is huge, wonderful and amazing. The tickets went up again this year, but it is worth it. We have never entered anything, but it is amazing just to go, walk around, see everything--the racing pigs is one of the fairs hottest events--you have not lived until you have seen HUGE pot bellied pigs racing (actually, barely walking) around a race track--you never know, until the very last second, who the winner will be. The last two years, it has changed at the last second--last year because one of them stopped to pee, for a loooonnnnngggg time right before the finish line! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 we have a very small fair here, we call it a country show. my kids enter everything they can. they enter a lot of cooked things, Last year the 5 of them entered a total of 30 cakes. each competing in each cake category!! one of them got junior aggregate for cooking. they also entered every junior flower / plant section. and a lot of craft. they love the vegetable art section, and always enter it. they also try hard at growing the biggest vegetables not many people enter much into the show, so they are mostly competing with each other. I look at it as a chance for their cooking, sewing etc. to be judged by someone other than me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 We go to the county fair and I eat funnel cake until I can't move.:D My BIL has a contract with the host town of the county fair and so we get a lot of freebies which is great because the rides and food get really expensive. I love fair time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Geeze, perhaps I've become jaded in my old age. I couldn't bring myself to go this year at all. I used to love the fair; animals, sewing and art projects, apple pies and banana bars - good, wholesome things where you could see the effort and pride over the course of the year. Now, its overpriced, rickety rides that I would never let my dc ride on, 3 darts for $5 and swindling to an unbelievable level, few arts/projects and crappy food. I offered to to take the dc just to see the animals and buy them a stuffed animal from the store if they'd just let it go. :glare: I kind of feel bad about it, but its just not like it used to be, and it makes me a little sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina Posted August 17, 2008 Author Share Posted August 17, 2008 Hey Margaret-- What's the difference between a Grand and a Reserve? It did seem like the number of entries at the county fair was way down last night. Dd-8 loves looking at all the animals, and I drag the kids through the 4-H and other display booths. Dh and the boys pretty much just go for the demolition show, tho last night it was the figure 8s. I always let dd pick out about 4 rides to go on. We do always splurge on fair food, too. I can't leave without my bag of kettle corn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyable Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 We go the the county fair for the next county over (ours is pretty lame). We don't enter anything (yet) but my dh has won the pie eating contest 3 out of the last 4 years. :D It's a speed thing, not # of pies. They just use a little tart sized pie, and my dh has a big mouth! :lol: This year my 8yo entered, and came in 2nd! :001_smile: Maybe someday we'll do something civilized, like enter needlepoint or something, but for now, we are enjoying ourselves. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makita Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 We go to the county fair every year. My oldest has had entries the past 2 years. My youngest entered one pastel drawing this year, his first time. Both enjoy it... seeing their work on display... getting inspired by others' work, etc. This year, in addition to browsing/enjoying the open class exhibits, we also enjoyed the 4H exhibits. We talked about projects we may be interested in doing in future years. We enjoy entering handcrafts, art, photography, cooking, etc. This year, my oldest had 7 entries. She won 5 blues ($25), 1 white ($3), and 1 green (for an insect collection - there was no 'entomology' category for her age level so we entered it under "nature crafts"). The little guy also won a blue. Many times, at least where we are, there are few to NO entrants in the category so there is no competition. Unfortunate, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SapphireStitch Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 We have a fairly large regional fair in our town. It draws entries from not only our county by the surrounding counties. The kids and I enter cooking, preserving, and craft projects and DH has entered photography some years. We're getting into "fair mode" right now around our house...the fair is the first week of October so we have just about 6 weeks to get our projects finished up and ready to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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