IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR 😉
My hubby and I wanted to take the kids to the state fair, but after considering the cost, we really didn’t think it was the wisest way to spend our money, since we hadn’t budgeted for it. So instead of taking our kids to the fair, we brought the fair to them!
If you’re looking for some inexpensive family fun, here are some ideas from our Family Fair.
THE FOOD:
What’s a fair without fried food?! This year at our state fair they were serving bacon-glazed doughnuts and fried Oreos, so of course, we had to make some of those. We also had corn dogs, Italian sausage, taffy, kettle corn and something that resembled funnel cake (I’ve made funnel cake before, and it looked just like those from the fair, but these weren’t nearly as pretty. The taste was spot on, though!)
Here’s the links for some of the recipes:
funnel cake: http://feedingmyfolks.com/recipes/dessert/funnel-cake/
deep-fried Oreos: http://lovecookeat.com/fried-oreos/
yeast doughnuts: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/yeast-doughnuts-recipe/index.html
maple bacon glaze for doughnuts (just add maple flavoring and crumbled cooked bacon to this recipe):http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/doughnut-glaze-recipe/index.html
THE GAMES:
I found bags of mini rubber duckies at Walmart ($1 for a package of 8, and we bought 6 packages ).The more duckies you have, the more challenging it will be to win a prize. With a Sharpie marker, mark the bottom of a few, but leave most blank. The kids try to fish out duckies from the pond, A.K.A. the bathtub. If they pick a marked ducky, they get a prize. Have another game to determine how many duckies they get to pick. We played “Feed the Ducky”, which was a simple bean bag toss game. They had six chances to toss a bean bag through the ducky’s mouth. Each bean bag that they tossed through the mouth equated to one rubber ducky they could fish from the “pond”.
My creative 12-year old made this ping pong ball toss game. He took an empty box and cut squares into the bottom. Then we covered it with white gift wrap and used different colors of duct tape to mark the holes. Each color represented a different type of prize. Note: leave the bottom of your game open so that you can retrieve the ping pong balls that go through the holes.
Balloon Pop Game
Cut some small pieces of paper, labeling some “Prize” and some “Try Again”. Roll up your papers and drop each into a small balloon. Blow up the balloon and tie it. Tape all the balloons to a large piece of cardboard or foam board. Use masking tape to mark the floor where the kids will stand to throw darts at the balloons. Then let them see if they can pop a balloon and win a prize!
My son made these darts, and I was very impressed by his creativity! I told him that we needed darts, and these are what he came up with. He rolled an index card around a push pin and secured it with some tape. Just for fun, I added some feathers from our craft supplies.
We had lots of inexpensive prizes, including stickers, temporary tattoos, and candy. We also bought some larger prizes like water guns and matchbox cars.
And how about a little face painting? You can buy face paints in a crayon form from the craft store. The crayons can be much easier to apply than the kind you actually paint on. And no brushes to clean! Stick to simple designs like hearts, flowers, or like my son requested: candy! Check for sensitivity, though, my son had a slight reaction to the face paint. His cheeks were warm and pink for a day after. My daughter had no reaction at all to the paint, but better safe than sorry.
The whole family had a blast, and I hope you will consider having a family fair of your own! If you do, please come back and share how it went!
As always, thanks for visiting my blog!
Kelly Gene 