Our first stop was at the butterfly house. The girls and I spent time catching and photographing the butterflies while Dakota took Josiah to get signed up for a couple baby contests. Ashlyn was like the butterfly whisperer. The butterflies really seemed drawn to her.
Shortly before 10am the girls and I met up with Dakota and Josiah, in time to get the little one ready for his first state fair competition. It was a decorated diaper contest! The girls helped decorate the diaper, complete with glittery stickers, bows, ribbons, and a big sunny flower right on his tush! To complete the look, I wrote on a t-shirt, "MY SISTERS DID THIS TO ME!"
"Hua," he said,"Why is everyone around me pointing and giggling?"
"Oh! Maybe it has something to do with this!"
"Maybe if I just turn my back to them they'll stop."
At competition time, Ashlyn lead the way up to the judges while Emma helped Josiah along. He had no idea what was going on, but the girls thought it was great fun! Afterward, we sat and waited for the other babies to go and the judges results.
And the judges decision was... 1st place for Josiah! He won a blue ribbon and a trophy! (The yellow ribbon was a participation ribbon all the contestants got.) The girls started to fight over who should get the trophy. After all, they reasoned, they had decorated his diaper.
But Josiah had other ideas about who should get the trophy!
Then we got him changed into regular clothes and ready for his next competition--the diaper derby! It was a crawling race for little squirts under 24 months. Josiah could have won his race, but he was too interested in seeing everything else on the stage. Once he finally saw me with his snack cup on the other side, he booked it over and took home the 2nd place ribbon.
We kidded Dakota that now everyone in the family has won a ribbon at the IA state fair except for him. He needs to get his game face on!
After the baby contests, we headed for Little Hands on the Farm. The kids had fun doing all the little farm activities and "buying" a treat in the farm store at the end. Though Josiah thought his treat was going to be a bag of corn. It was one of the things he had to collect and take to another area on the farm. But he kept bringing it to us and signing, "more please!" He wanted to eat it and was rather upset when we told him no.
All that farm work made us hungry, so next it was on to find food! Have I mentioned before how Ashlyn and Josiah can be bottomless pits?
After a long lunch, we distracted the two younger ones from begging for more food by looking for the pony rides.
And then, since it was very near by, we visited the giant chocolate moose. I've never wanted to lick a moose so bad in my life!
Our feet were tired by that point, so the three girls took a sky glider ride across the fairgrounds, while Dakota pushed a napping Josiah in the stroller.
See... napping. He was all tuckered out. (By the way, if you're wondering what's up with the umbrella, that would be our make-shift stroller shade. It seems the actual stroller shade never made it into the van that morning.)
While Josiah slept, Dakota took the girls for a ride down the giant slide.
After the slide, the boy was still asleep, so we took the girls over to the playground area and let Josiah continue sleeping in the shade.
When Josiah woke up and the kids had had their fill of playground time, we headed for the Cultural Building to let our budding artists create some masterpieces. There were several free craft projects for kids, including regular painting, marble painting and clay sculpting. The girls chose regular painting, and quickly got down to business.
When their artwork was complete we turned our attention to the midway rides. The two things the girls had their hearts set on doing were the Ferris wheel and the bungee trampoline jump. They really soared on the bungee jump, and Emma even learned how to do some flips in the air.
After that we (the kids) needed more food. So we stopped for pizza and then continued on to the baby animal building. This cute baby goat was only 2 days old!
The last stop we made before heading for the gate was back at the butterfly house. We bought a couple of caterpillars that should soon turn into butterflies. It should be neat to watch and see what happens.
It was a long day with a lot to take in, but we had a lot of fun. The kids were great troopers and begged us to stay a little longer. But we knew when enough was enough--two fell asleep in the van on the way home, and everyone slept soundly that night. Good times... good times. :)
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