Sioux Empire Fair

Following a trip to Target on Monday that went awry and declaring to Matt (and all of facebook) that I would not be bringing the children out in public for awhile, I promptly took the kids to the Sioux Empire Fair on Tuesday:) It was a spontaneous decision...the fair was just opening, and it was free to get in! We met my sister Amy there with her two kids Mayah and Micah, and ended up having a really great time.

Since we got there right about noon, the first thing we set out to do was eat. Though the fair is dramatically smaller than the Great Minnesota Get-Together, you can still find all the good eats.

This was Amy's lunch. I'm a sucker for the gyro.

We sat at some picnice tables near a free stage of music. Nathan and Ella clapped along to the music.
Mayah:

Nathan (eating Mayah's hotdog):

Ella eating the community corndog. We bought a footlong corndog for $5, and all 3 kids shared. (as noted above Mayah bought a footlong hotdog, which also became shared). We packed some fruit and water-so all 3 kids ate for $5...we like to do fair on a budget.

After eating, the kids danced a little on the bleachers.

Next we headed to an exhibit about lemurs. This lady just takes her lemurs state to state educating people.

It was fun for the kids to to get to pet a monkey, and even Addie who's afraid of kittens and puppies touched the tail of the lemur. (Nathan opted to not pet the lemur).

I think this was just suppose to be Amy's family, but Ella wanted in there too.

There's a really great barn at the fair sponsored by FFA that has every farm animal you can think of. It's a nice one-stop fair animal viewing.

Here are my little farm animals:

Addie milked a "cow".

Besides having a fully stocked barn, they also had face painting for the kids.

We headed over to the Expo building to get stickered-up and even get some candy, then we walked to the Midway. Amy and her family left, so it was just Ella and Nathan riding. They each got to choose one ride to go on...they both decided on the tea cups. As they climbed in to the giant tea cup I got a little nervous that Ella was too little. It was the same feeling I had 2 years ago when they went on a ride at the MN State fair.

This is what Addie looked like most of the time they were on the ride. (she did not think it was fair that she did not get to go on).

It's probably for the best, but it didn't seem like they were really turning the table in the middle. They didn't know any different though and thought it was great.

After this I was pretty ready to go home, but we took a quick walk through the Arts building to see some exhibits, and then sat for some more live music.

Getting them to sit on the bleachers was the only challenge...they wanted to run to the top. (which mainly is bad because baby sister likes to follow.) It was a wonderful afternoon. Following the music we walked back to the van, taking a detour through an arena where a cowboy was riding a horse and there were a few horses in pens. I told the kids I liked the gray horses the best. Nathan asked why and I said, "I don't know, they just look soulful to me." To which Nathan replied, "Mom, horses don't have souls."
-Nothing gets passed that kid.