The County Fair

Parking -- $5

Carnival Games -- $5

Ice cream cones -- $8

Bungee Jumps -- $10

Lunch -- $22

Ride Tickets -- $10

Seeing your kids have a great time -- PRICELESS

My friend Tina & I decided that we are in fact VERY brave and headed out to the county fair with SIX kids! And a budget of $60! This isn't like my usual budgeting attempts - this was a hard limit since everything is cash only...and all my cash came from Hayden's savings. It felt very strange to pay for everything in $1 bills...

Immediately the kids spied a bungee jumping tower. They were both excited to try it. In fact, once they went once, they wanted to go again! But, after we ran the non-strollered portion of our brood through, we moved deeper into the fair...

The animal barns were great - we got there early so they weren't as ripe as expected. The kids were hilarious trying to decide if they were brave enough to touch a cow, feeling the difference between a sheered sheep and a shaggy one, petting bunnies and a horse, and seeing all the different kinds of chickens...including one with an afro!

The boys really liked the free stuff -- the juggling show, 4H exhibits (next year Bayley wants to do Legos, Hayden wants to do baking), and Demo Garden where they did a scavenger hunt and got to pick a carrot. We wanted to take them to the reptile tent and see the play Rumplestilskin (all free)...but they were focused on food and the rides.

Because of the budget, they didn't get to do as many rides as they'd wanted to...we were limited to one ride (Paratrooper) and one carnival game (Lucky Duck).

But, they were treated to fair food -- elephant ears, ice cream, curly fries, hand dipped corn dogs... Isn't that what it's all about?

Yeah...maybe we'll go back with Daddy. I think his pockets are deeper than Hayden's.