Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. We are collecting all the different activities we do so we can all be inspired to have more quality family time. Please share below. (Be sure to check out Kelly's post as well to read what her family did!)
The first week in October until Columbus Day is always the Topsfield Fair. Steve usually takes a day off during the week so we can take Hazel. We do not like dealing with the crowds on the weekends. This fair is a typical country fair. It has the animals, the 4-H club, as well as rides and food. It has been going on since 1818 though it was once a cattle show. They have been holding it in its existing location since 1910. (Source) The fairgrounds are large and are rented for different events throughout the year, but many organizations have their booths at the Topsfield Fair and they are permanent. In Greater Boston, it is one of the biggest and closest fairs around.
Having grown up in Connecticut I find it strange since the Big E is also in Massachusetts, but it is over an hour away from Boston. The Big E is the country fair of New England and New York. Each state has a pavilion and there are tractor pull competition, animal competitions, etc. However on the Boston radio stations, etc. you always hear talk about the Topsfield Fair. So this is where we head each autumn.
This year the theme for the Topsfield Fair was "It's All About the Food!" And it is a traditional fair with all the fair food--fried dough, kettle corn, etc. Plus all the fall traditional food--apple cider, apple pie, etc. We did not focus too much on food though. I bought us a bag of kettle corn to snack on and we had lunch. We were a little short on time since we went on Friday and Hazel has dance class in the early afternoon, but it was the only day Steve could get off this past week and it ended up being the nicest weather day of the week (since it rained just about every other day).
We walked in at the entrance at KiddieLand. Hazel of course wanted to go on the rides. We bought five tickets (one for me to go on the carousel with her and the rest for her). However they did not charge me on the carousel since she is so young, so she got to go on five rides. We started with the carousel. Then she went on the small train. Then she tried the flying bears and loved it! So she went on the flying elephants. Then with her last ticket she went on the pink sparkly jeep/car ride. She had a blast. Then we went over to the duck races which started in ten minutes, but we just bought some food and fed the ducks and took off. Like I said we knew our time was limited so we didn't want to wait for things.
Next we went to see some of the animals. We saw some alpaca (and they had beautiful yarn they were selling, but I resisted buying it) and some sheep. The ones I took the picture of had already been used for the shearing demonstration. Then we saw the cows. Later on we cut through the poultry, but it was really crowded so we didn't look too much. The pig barn had a long line so we did not wait. And we had specific things we knew we wanted to see so we did not stop at the bees or the rabbits.
Making international news this year was the largest pumpkin. It actually broke the world record. We went to check it out. Hazel wanted to know why there was a large rock in this special glass house. It was of course the pumpkin. I have to admit if it wasn't a world record breaker, we probably would have skipped this area. While there however I picked up some literature on how to grow giant pumpkins, a fact sheet on pumpkins and some coloring pages for Hazel. You can see them all above along with the information we got with the show times, advertisements and map.
We were rushing because this year Hazel had expressed interest in pony rides and she said she wanted to ride the elephant. I rode the elephant with her and Steve did his best to take some pictures. She rode the pony on her own and told me she did not want me to hold on to her. Last year she did not want to go near these animals, so this was a huge improvement.
After riding the animals we made a pit stop at the bathrooms and then got lunch. Besides a few bees trying to get the apple cider, lunch was enjoyable. Then we headed back to the car. Overall it was a wonderful fair day!
Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.
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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!
