FRIDAY...Fair Day

I kept debating on whether or not to go to the NY State Fair. My head said NO WAY but the kids and my heart said...why not, it only happens once a year. The kids and my heart won out. LOL I brought Michelle, Val, K and J, Luke, Carrie, Jake, Eileen and Olivia. We got there about 3pm and planned on staying until after the fireworks show (which was after Kid Rock's concert ended).

It went really well!!! Liz was already there with a family from church. Pat went with Jess and her mom. We ran into Liz, never saw Pat. The kids were well behaved, didn't whine, and kept to a tight group nicely. Makes it easier when they cooperate. :o) The weather was perfect, sunny and in the 70s. Although walking along the midway, you became quite parched.

The smells of food cooking were driving me crazy! I think if I were to go to the fair with a hunk of money to waste, all I'd do is EAT! Unfortunately we were on a budget. We managed to find some food deals though. Shortly after we got there everyone had a hotdog and soda for $1 each. Later in the evening I had the girls go order 2 Little Ceasars pizza for $6ea. Wish I'd gone to get them myself because it was a mistake. I thought they were the size they sell in their stores for $5.55, it was a SMALL! Although everyone had some, I wouldn't have considered it a meal. I could have gotten everyone a hamburger for $2 less! We finished off the night with a few orders of fried dough. I'll have to make more of that here...everyone was wishing for more.

I tried to convince the kids that they didn't need to go on a rides before we left the house...it didn't work. So I bought a sheet of 40 tickets for $25 and told everyone they could go on one ride. While the girls were going to get the pizzas I was trying to get the little kids to pick which ride they want to go on. While looking at the tickets with 5 little ones ringing my legs, someone approached me. He wanted to know if I wanted some ride tickets. I said sure and he handed me a 40 ticket sheet with 2 missing and a prebought ticket book with one ticket still in it.!!!! My jaw hit the floor and I couldn't stop thanking him enough. I then went to go look for the girls to give them more tickets and put the pizzas on hold. While looking for them another man approached me. He explained that he'd won this huge stuffed Donkey from Shrek and wanted to give it to my girls. Olivia was all too glad to take it off his hands and carried the thing for the rest of the night. She could barely see where she was going! LOL

I let the older girls meander the midway by themselves for an hour and a half, with plans to meet at a certain spot afterwards. I took the younger ones around to spend their tickets. It worked out perfectly that everyone got to ride on 2 rides. Kid Rock was still playing when we met up at 9:30. We sat, snacked and talked for a while. As were got to the parking lot where the bus was parked, the fireworks started. We sat in the grass and watched those before we left. On the way home we dropped off K and J and crawled into the house about midnight.