We went to the NC State Fair tonight and had a lot of fun. I am the culprit though in dragging it out a bit longer than I should have (from the girls’ perspective) because Joseph and I both wanted to ride just “one more ride” before the night ended.
To start, I got the girls ready in their “exercise outfits” as Joseph calls this type of clothing. It’s that nylon, noisy material that repels water and is kind of shiny. Their outfit had a matching jacket with hood too. I figured this would be the best for being outside (it was expected to only be 66 degrees!)
I packed the girls into their car seats. Oops! Jacket hood was a bit big on Abby.
By the time we got to the fairgrounds (it was 5pm when we left home and 5:40 at arrival), everyone in the back was asleep! Even Joseph!
The fair is a busy place and walking around with twins creates more delays for us. The first thing we did was get food. Mmmmm….
Joseph had a hot dog, Fritos and coke. Ron and I got Chicken pitas and soda. The girls had milk. 🙂 They’ll get their chicken pitas overnight. We picked a place that had complimentary seating with it, so we got a table inside a shelter to sit and eat our food. Going from the place we bought to the table itself was interesting. Ron got stopped by a couple with an older set of twins and asked a bunch of questions.
We then made our way around Dorton arena. Joseph likes to check out the military stuff when we are there and that’s where they hide them. Of course we had to let our food sit before we could ride any rides, too!
We spent some time in Safety Zone getting stickers and other junk. 🙂 And, of course were stopped and talked with by several people about the girls. Joseph got about 6 stickers in that place alone — all different! There is a new law in NC as of January 1, 2005 which is a booster seat (or car seat) is necessary for all kids “under 8 years old or under 80 pounds”. Ron’s going to have to look up the law about that ‘or’ as that would technically mean Joseph needs one.
We saw a “miniature”, actually kids size cargo plane used by the Army National Guard. Then, Joseph and I rode a “small” roller coaster. There was only one semi-big hill and other than that, Joseph thought it was great! Ron and girls watched and come to find out, the female ride operator there was pregnant with twins (and has a 1 year old at home). Ahh!
We hit our first game of the evening here. It was shoot-the-water-at-the-target game. Joseph lost by a hair. He had the water sprayed right on the target, right from the beginning — not missing at all, but I guess the other person’s was faster or something.
As we made our way around, Joseph spotted the electric car projects that are a regular sight at the fair. The guy at the “booth” allowed him to get in and sit in the car. He had to climb over the door as they don’t actually open.
We kept going around the arena until we came upon Elephant Ears! Mmmmm…yummy! We bought one from the place that got the “Best Elephant Ears at the Dixie Classic Fair” award. Oh yeah! It was good! Of course, while we were sitting on the curb eating, many people stopped or just oohed and aahed over the girls!
We then headed to the State Fair Ark. This is where they keep some of the animals that have been part of the exhibits throughout the week. We’ve been going to the fair on Wednesdays now for a few years, so we miss out on the cows. They are always cleaning the building the cows are normally in on Wednesdays, so no cows to walk through and hear them say ‘Moo’. 🙁 Maybe next year, we’ll remember and go on a different day!
The Ark was quite busy, so we stopped for a potty break before going in. It was during that time that I snapped this pic of the girls in their stroller. They were just hanging out!
Inside the Ark, there were cows and goats and sheep, baby animals and not so baby animals. There were chicks which were labeled as “Broiler Chicks”. Think that’s your next Chick-fil-A sandwich, perhaps? 🙂
There was even a set of twin baby sheep!
We hit the midway next (well, one of three midways!). Joseph played a pop-the-balloon game, which of course he lost and got upset about. But it was a “Kid’s try and win always” contest, so he got a snake and gave it to Abby. He played again later and won, but the rule was “only 1 more game” so he only got a “small” size prize and was just as upset. This time the guy game him a flower and that went to Emily.
The only other game we played was the rolling-the-bowling-ball one. You have to get it over the hump, but not have it come back to win. We won last year, but not this year. Joseph and I both played once, with no luck. He wanted to play every other game at the fair. We kept trying to explain to him that they are nearly impossible to win and that the bigger the prize, the harder it is to win!
He, of course, wanted to play any game that had a scooter as a price. Of course, those were the hardest games and thus I refused to let him. Apparently, that makes me a bad, bad, mean, mean ole Mommy. 🙂
There is a ride at Carowinds that we did not wait for this year … called the Kaleidoscope. They had one at this fair, so Ron and Joseph rode it. Afterward, Joseph wanted to go again with me. The centrifical force is just amazing!
We kept walking around and found bumper cars too! This was great, because Joseph could ride all by himself. It took him a while to get “unstuck” from the car’s original position, but once he did, he was great!
Joseph and I rode a “scary” ride. One of those sit-down things that goes inside the building. It was worthless. It was totally dark and there was nothing in it except 1 guy who jumped out at you. And, given that guy was in the pitch dark, you didn’t even really see him until you passed him! Blah. We both agreed it was a waste of tickets.
It was time for a snack by this time, so we all shared a piece of peperroni pizza. Mmmmm… 🙂
It was getting pretty late by this time, but we still had tickets to use, so we made our way to another of the midways. Now, this is where I become a bad bad mommy to the girls. 😉
Emily had started to get fussy and it was already well after 8pm by this time. This is called melt-down time in our house. So, Joseph and I picked two more rides to call it a night. We went in a fun-house sort of thing which required climbing and sliding. Then we considered another in-the-building scary ride, but decided it wasn’t worth it. Then, we thought we’d do this “mouse” roller coaster where it was a roller coaster and the coaster seat itself could go around in a circle. But the line was too long, knowing Em and Abby’s state of being.
So, instead we hopped on a Ferris Wheel. It was nice to see the fair from up high — all the lights, the rides, the noise, the people. The guys operating the ride told Joseph it goes upside down. Of course, Joseph knew better and each time we come around at the bottom again, they’d ask him if it went upside down yet. 🙂 Joseph kept telling them ‘no. It was kind of cute. When we got down though, Emily was royally in tears. I took her from Ron and she calmed down. Guess Mommy just has that touch. 😉
We started to leave and about 1/2 way to the exit, Abby lost it, so Joseph ended up pushing an empty stroller and Ron carried Abby the rest of the way. You forget how heavy 12lbs is when you have a mile (ish) to walk! 🙂
When we got to the van, I stripped off their outer clothes and let them stretch out on the floor for a bit, then we packed up and headed home. The girls had been in their car seats for nearly 5 hours by this time, so it was no wonder they were fussy!
All in all the fair was fun and worth it. The girls were great and even with Joseph’s annoyance about the games and such, he had a lot of fun.
The only part I missed was that we didn’t go into any of the exhibits in the flea market buildings or the Jim Graham building where Joseph could have loaded (I mean loaded(!)) up with stickers. I always like walking through that stuff, but we just plain ran out of time this year.
I’m sure we’ll do it again… next year…