around town: The Ohio State Fair

back at the beginning of August we decided at the last minute to take the girls to the Ohio State Fair. they had been once before but were too young to remember it at all.  you should know....i avoid the fair like the plague. fairs just aren't my thing.  too many people....all sweating along with funky foul odors (both body and food) in one place for me.  it feels like mass chaos. but i was ready to take one for the team and suck it to go for the girls to experience it.

we really weren't there for the 'fair' per se, but i'll get to that in a bit.  i thought if we were all together, why not take a family photo. you can see that they are all jumping out of their skin thrilled about it, yes?  here's a secret: i'm not the only one overwhelmed by the fair around here.  mind you, we had just gotten back from Disney World, so they were comparitively thinking: LAME. but in all honesty, all my life, whenever i hear the word 'fair' the first thing that comes to mind is miserably HOT....and usually really humid.  this day was no different.

but there is some really, really cool stuff to be seen at the fair.  i always enjoy going into the Youth Discovery Center. some of the things they have displayed in there are quite fascinating.  my favorite is always the lego town.  they use nothing but legos to reconstruct major US landmarks into this cityscape display and it is a massive display. and if you ever miss getting your girl scout cookies ordered, never fear, they have loads and loads available for you to buy at the fair.  Youth Discovery Center is the place to get 'em.

 

whenever doug thinks of the fair, he thinks two things: corndogs and funnel cakes.  we were about 35 steps into the fair he and emma stopped to check out the corndogs.

they decided they were only mildly impressed. me?  i don't eat at the fair. EVER. fried food just isn't my idea of appetizing.

 

if you know ashlyn, you know that she will pick chocolate icecream.....excuse me, soft-serve chocolate icecream, over real food any day.  and if given the choice she'll pick the largest size offered. every time. the girl loooooooooooves her soft-serve chocolate icecream.

just because i don't eat at the fair doesn't mean my salivary glands don't excrete a little when i walk by the caramel apples. mmmmmmmmm. i LOVE caramel apples just as much as i love peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches, buuuuut i don't eat fair food.  you know, it's kinda hard to get a caramel apple if you aren't buying it at a fair. unless you make it yourself, i suppose, but that's way too much work for a single apple.  i don't think i've had one since 2007 but still consider them my favorite treat. 

 

anywho.  we were making our way over to the dairy building and got sidetracked by an enthusiastic entertainer preparing to start a magic show. emma loooooves to be entertained so we decided to stop and take in the show. just two minutes later emma was approached about being pulled from the audience to be an assistant in James Johnson's magic show and instantly melted into a puddle of giddy giggles. i'll never forget the pure joy radiating from her being during that magical 15 minutes.

 

funnel cake location found and noted for a stop later. :)

after the magic show we continued toward the dairy building and met some livestock along the way.  this dairy cow was such a sweet and mild tempered beauty.  i adore giving my girls experiences like this because when i think back to my childhood most of my memories revolve around time at my grandparents' farm or in the barn milking cattle by my grandpa's side. :)

and then we found the butter cow!  actually there were two and this was the smallest of them. there was also a three tiered cake......all sculpted from BUTTER.  amazing. the kids weren't overly impressed, but it's been an iconic thing at the fair for as long as i can remember.

but the reason we were really at the fair was to take the girls to their very first concert!  after scoring one heck of a deal on tickets we took them to see......

 

my girls are highly entertained by two shows on television right now: iCarly and Victorious.  Victoria Justice is the leading actress in the show Victorious, so they were thrilled!  tickets for this concert were $34 each face value, but we found great seats through Stubhub for $11 which also included fair admission.  typical fair admission is $10 for adults and $8 for kids, so, yeah....a deal!

 don't mind us....just killing time before the concert.  doug doesn't know how to smile for a camera....it's quite the joke around here.

 

our secret for keeping an antsy 7 year old little girl happy through a 2 hour concert?  a giant lollie purchased for $1 at Walgreens.  :)

 

 i was worried about how this one would handle a concert.  she doesn't usually do well with large crowds, dark spaces or loud noises, but getting there early and allowing her to adjust and take in everything around her before the lights went down was very helpful.  but i'm not gonna lie, i think i held my breath the entire night waiting for the sensory overload to take root.

the only thing i wasn't impressed with at this concert was her opening act, Max Schneider.  not that his singing wasn't stellar...because it was, but because he doesn't have many of his own song, so he was covering other artists. call me prude but i thought singing Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' to 20,000 girls who's ages averaged 11 years old was a bit over the top.  it really icked me out and made me second guess our decision to take the girls to the concert.  yep. prude. i own it. at 7 and 10 they don't need to hear that stuff.

 

i spent the majority of the concert mesmerized by the lighting and trying to distract myself with testing out the various settings on a new point and shoot camera.  

 

  

and checking in on spidergirl who was still happy as a lark licking away at her lollipop and taking it all in.  she sang along to almost every song.

after the concert, there was only one last thing they wanted to do........

and that was find a funnel cake. and that they did.