The Great Minnesota Get-Together (stay-cation, day 3)

The MN State Fair, according to Henry:  "see more amibals (animals)", "sit on tracors (tractors)", "cheese curds HOT", and "more ice coom (ice cream) please"!  

My favorite part of the fair was the Little Farm Hands exhibit.  The kiddos had to get their aprons & garden gloves on and get to work!

They had to haul their hay around in the back of their tractor/trailers (seriously, could this be any more perfect for Henry).....

.....plant some seeds.....

.....and milk their cows!  

There were a few other activities they had to complete - pick apples, get some wool from the sheep, feed the chickens and pick up eggs.  At the end, they were rewarded for all their hard work.  They got to choose between a can of corn, a box of Cheerios, or some beef jerky.  Cheerios it was :)

This was Henry's favorite part of the fair - MORE TRACTORS!  If I would have known this, I guess we could have just hit up Fleet Farm for the day, huh!?  

We did heed the warnings and avoided the swine barns, for fear of the swine flu.  There were signs all over the place recommending that children under the age of 5 not go near the piggies.   The Miracle of Birth Center is always a big hit.  We didn't get to see any babies that had been born that day, but this was a baby sheep that was 2 days old.

I definitely wasn't very adventurous with my fair-foods this year.  I stuck with my staples - cheese curds, Sweet Martha's cookies, and an ice cream cone from the dairy building.  

Cheese curds at 10:30am, yes please.  

As I sit here writing this, I just finished off the last of my Sweet Martha's cookies, and boy were they ever sweet!  I think Phil and Henry maybe only had 1 or 2 each, oops.

This is what you get when you go to the fair at 8am and leave by noon, a completely empty park-n-ride bus, the boy LOVED it!

Aaahhh, then it was time to get home for a nap.  We were all exhausted :)