If you are following me on Instagram, you know that Team Rongner LOVES a good fair. Big or small, it doesn’t really matter to us. We’ll rock the socks off a tiny street fair as much as we would a state fair. On Saturday morning we decided to head to the Westfield Fair. The Westfield Fair is right over the mountain from us and is always a good time. This fair is a small time county fair and was just what our family needed. We brought the place down! We were there from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm!
Scenes from the Westfield Fair.
An oil drum milking cow! I don’t know who put this together, but Malone had a blast “milking” her. When you squeezed the teat, baby oil squirted out. Malone was fascinated by this and it opened the way to a conversation about how we actually get our drinking milk.
One of the great things about the Westfield Fair is that it is very child focused. Every child was offered a free raffle ticket for a chance to win a new bike. We didn’t end up winning, but I just love that they gave everyone a chance. You couldn’t purchased extra tickets and you had to be present to win.
There were several child focused events put on by the fair committee. These were all free of charge. It enabled us to stretch our budget a bit further and really soak in everything the fair had to offer. Going to a fair can be so expensive!
I don’t have a photo of it, but there was a really nice shaded area with a sand box. But instead of sand inside, there was feed corn. There was also dump trucks, diggers, and shovels. Malone is teetering on the edge of big kid, but loved playing there. We spent a great deal of time drinking lemonade and watching him play while Lola attempted to nap in the stroller.
The corn box was right next to where some of the other free children’s events took place. There was a pedal tractor pull for children as well as a candy dash. The candy dash is always a lot of fun- it’s basically an Easter Egg Hunt without the eggs. There is a rolling start, with the itty bitties getting a chance to grab some before the bigs run in.
The one event Malone WAS interested in was the pie eating contest. And by pie, I mean Cool Whip. Because I am brilliant, I made him take off his shirt. This made for a super easy clean up!
Malone got second place and a Westfield Fair ribbon which now hangs proudly in his room. He very proudly showed off his ribbon for the rest of the day.
After the pie eating contest, Malone headed to the Midway to ride the rides. I loved this fair because for $25.00 you could buy an unlimited ride wrist band. It was nice to be able to say yes, please go ride that again! Malone is has a lot of his mama in him, I loved riding carnival rides as a kid too! The rides at this carnival were geared towards the eight and under crowd. There was only one ride for the big kids, which was fine for us.
Michael and I agreed that we’d say yes to just about anything within reason that Malone wanted to do at the Westfield Fair. This meant a cotton candy and a balloon hat. And by balloon hat I mean a pile of balloons he wore for five minutes before making me carry them around the rest of the day. They were made by a magician who entertained the kids and were another freebie. Seriously, this fair has my heart.
After chowing down on whipped sugar, I took Malone and his friend Liam to get their faces painted. The last time we were at this fair, the face painting didn’t go well for us. I had to wash it off of him immediately after he got it (he was barely three at the time). This time, my five year old rocked Wolverine like a boss. It has mostly all come off now, but Malone still looks like he’s wearing blue eyeliner.
We ran into a lot of people we knew at this small fair. Malone’s friend Liam is one of our favorite tiny humans. We’ve done a lot of life together with him and his parents. The kids were getting restless waiting for the demolition derby to start. It was crowded and hot. Taking selfies seemed like the only answer. You can tell both boys were at the END of waiting patiently.
We powered through and Malone had a BLAST watching the cars beat each other up. I have fond memories of going to the fair and watching the demolition derby with my grandparents. I’m glad I get to pass this experience on to my kids.
Lola loved the demolition derby at the Westfield Fair too. She’s not quite one and we were worried she’d freak out at the noise. Nope, our little derby queen clapped and signed for more the entire time! There aren’t any photos of her to share, she spent most of the day chilling or napping in her stroller.
After the derby, we went back to the carnival for some more rides. Have I mentioned how much I loved having an unlimited ride wrist band? Malone probably went through the fun house at least one hundred times!
I’m pretty sure that going to the Westfield Fair is going to be an annual tradition for us!
What summer traditions do you have? Do you love the fair as much as I do?
I’m linking this post up today with my friends Rabia and Lisa who host a great link up called The Tuesday Ten. Today’s theme is the 10 pictures on my phone. I don’t quite have 10 here, but close enough.
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Such a great time!
Love, love, love the pie-eating contest with pictures!!
Missing shots of the baby though π
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Yes, more Lola pics next time!! LOL
Nancy recently posted..A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius
#secondkid
The baby’s birthday is coming up this week. You’ll get an eye full in a few days, promise!
Your pictures really do this excellent day of fun justice! They’re beautiful – every one of them – and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite! So glad you shared them on Tuesday Ten … and I wish you many more happy Westfield Fair days! π
Marcia @ Blogitudes recently posted..Stories Told by My Phone Now & Then
Thanks Marcia! The fair was so much fun! We might squeeze in one more trip to the fair this summer. The Westfield Fair is over, but there are some other great ones coming up!
I took all of these photos with my iPhone and ran them through Instagram.
Looks like a lot of fun! Truth be told, I do not have the patience for the fair or small amusement parks. So, I leave that to the grandparents. π We went to a harvest festival in our town last year and they also had a milking cow, made of wood and it squirted water. The kids spent a lot of time with that cow!
Nancy recently posted..A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius
We had a blast! I love going to the fair, but I only have one kid who is mobile. If I had two or more who wanted to go in different directions, I might have a different story to tell!
I can’t wait for the fall festivals to start, they are my FAVORITE!
“Cars beat up each other” – love it phrased that way. LOL! And the cool whip pies – too cute! We seem to be establishing a summer tradition to travel somewhere we haven’t been. We went to Tennessee last year and I could honestly keep doing that one though π
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We tend to take the same adventures year after year. Our calendar year has a really nice rhythm to it because it involves a lot of travel to hang out with family that is a medium sized (three to five hours) road trip away.
Our area is also rich with a lot of fun seasonal events too, like this fair!
What a day! We’ve been to our state fair, but our county fair is my favorite. We used to take the kids to see all the farm animals, ride all the rides, and eat all the food. This year only my daughter went. She got the ride bracelet and spent the evening (because teens don’t go during the day) laughing and being a kid. So glad you linked up, NJ – I’ve missed you! I’ve been a bad blogger friend this summer.
Dana recently posted..Whatβs on your phone? {#TuesdayTen Linkup}
Massachusetts doesn’t have a state fair! Instead, there is an epic two week long fair called The Big E that is a New England regional fair. There is so much fair happening there that it is overwhelming (and totally awesome).
I’ve missed you too! Summer is a hard time for a blogger because everyone is out enjoying life instead of being stuck inside staring at a screen!
Funny because *I* posted about the fair today :). We saw the Monster Trucks, and yea, our babies are awesome for not minding all the noise!!!! We also ate badly and didn’t say “no” to funnel cake for dinner. We will DEFINITELY buy a wristband for rides next year because it really is a great deal! I don’t know if I could get my hubs to spend the whole day there, but maybe half a day? I want to take our son to ride a Monster Truck, check out the kids area, and visit all the animals. And of course, ride rides and eat more fried things.
That is funny, Lisa. I’ll have to pop over and read yours!
We didn’t see Monster Trucks. We weren’t planning on it being an all day affair, it just happened that way!
We ate really well! We have a family fair rule when it comes to food. We eat the food served by community organizations and groups instead of buying from the carnies as much as possible because it puts our dollars back into our local economy. Malone had grilled cheese x 2 from the Lions Club, Mike had an open faced turkey sandwich with gravy and stuffing from the Westfield Fair Committee, and I had BBQ from a restaurant in town that had a food truck.
Thanks for linking up NJ. I saw some of your fair photos come across the wire, but it’s fun to get more of the story here! Our free band day is $20 per kid, but Ben is too short to ride very many and we decided that $60 wasn’t in the budget. They got to ride two rides each and they were quite happy with that, though.
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Malone was tall enough to ride every single ride there. There was only one that he needed an adult for, which he charmed our friend Brian into taking him on. He LOVED riding on everything!
How fun! We love going to the fair. Ours happens next year. The food excites me the most.
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We love the fair food too, but we’re pretty specific about what we head for. We’re in “fair” season here. It seems like there is one or two to go to every weekend!
Definitely close enough and so glad you likned up! Looks like you had lots of fun!
lisa @ The golden spoons recently posted..Ten Pics On My Phone {#TuesdayTen}
We had a blast!
I was in the middle of posting this when I saw that it would “fit” with Tuesday Ten! It was a double win!
I love fairs! I do have to be honest, it’s mostly for the food. I like to eat my way across the fair! It looks like everybody had a ton of fun.
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