A Frugal Mom's Guide to the Fair!

My friend Tanya contacted me the other day and asked if we wanted to join her and her crew at the Orange County "Super" Fair. A bit hesitant because I have heard horror stories about the amount of money spent at this fair, she promised me that we would do our best to spend the least amount of money as possible. I agreed and we were off! Here's an account of how we "fared".

Our first stop was FREE parking! We found a side street across from the fair that was not permit only and found two spots! They were right next to this park so we let the kids run around while we got settled (and we contemplated just staying at the park) then we were off to find an entrance.
Kids 5 and under are FREE so we got all SEVEN kids in for FREE! Our tickets were only $5 (instead of 10) because we had a coupon and were there before 5pm!

Our two big rules for all these kids? 1) No rides and 2) No toys. Sounds harsh but believe me- it didn't matter- there were so many great FREE things to do!
For example- in the "Super Swine" tent we could look for porks in beans :) and play with the fun house mirrors.

We got to play with Mac n' Spam noodles too

Outside the Swine tent there were these huge oxen to look at followed by the horse exhibit!

We met this pretty horse named "Princess Aurora" and got to pet her and kiss her nose!

We also got to see and pet goats- lots of goats!

And brand new baby piglets!

We watched people take rides on the elephant

We got FREE balloons from the Marketplace and got front row seats for the Pig Races!

And they're off!

At the end of the races we got coupons for free bacon from Ralph's! LOL

Are you keeping track? So far I've spent the 5 bucks on my admission! That's it! woo-hoo!

The petting zoo was free (you had to pay for food- we didn't feed the animals)

Our crew!

So we finally broke down and bought some food (I brought in sandwiches for the girls so I got them french fries). The fair is famous for its Deep Fried food items- so Tanya and I tried the deep fried Reece's and Snickers bars.

It was good- but I would have been happy with a plain old snickers ($3.75 for the snickers and $3.50 for the fries). LOL

Then we hit the JACKPOT! We went to watch the dueling pianos and came across a booth that had FREE ice cream!!! Sure it was 9:30 at night- but how can you pass up free ice cream? Everyone got one and then to our delight- the kind men behind the booth gave us moms each an insulated cooler bag (along with a big wad of napkins!)

Happy, happy mommies!

Then I busted out the leftover glow sticks we've had sitting at home and everyone got two!

My girls were beyond tired at this point (Maddie asked me if the Super Fair had a hotel LOL!!) so we headed back to the vans with sugar-high, tired kids.

I'm telling ya- the good-byes are so sweet among triplets!

Love the expression between Jaden and Ashley below!

So our final score was: $12.25 out of pocket PLUS all those free goodies! The ice cream and cooler cost more I'm sure!! Very very happy mommies and very very happy tired kids that were asleep before we hit the freeway! We can't wait to go next year!

News Flash!!! Another First!

Ashley caught her first fish!!!!! We were at my dad's annual fishing club picnic yesterday and she was one of the few to get a catch!

Trying to convince her to touch it.

So proud!

I almost missed the whole thing- I was off with the other 2 girls to get their face painted- Ashley wanted to fish some more- next thing I know I'm getting called to run over for a picture!

Yeech- she was not impressed and a little startled I think!

Lucky for her it was catch and release and she was able to watch it swim away happily. Grandpa was very proud as were Rick and I! She told me this morning that she dreamt last night of PINK fish! More pictures from the picnic coming soon!!

A trip to the LA Zoo!

The same day we went to Travel Town we started off at the Los Angeles Zoo! We met 2 other sets of triplets there and proceeded to have a great time! Below are all the triplets looking at the sea lion exhibit.The zoo with out strollers is quite liberating! The girls can go as they please and look at what they want, everyone took a turn petting the guinea pig. Below is Ashley...
My girls are comfortable with Eve and I was touched by this tender moment (and then thought about running to the nearest restaurant to have a break since Eve seemed to have it under control! LOL)
The weather was warm (90+) but not as bad as I thought, the zoo is on a hill and it was hottest at the top of course (where the play area is), the kids did well despite the heat and put up with our requests for group shots.
Olga is the other mom we met- she lives in Texas with her trio and was visiting family here in LA. I'm so happy we got a chance to meet up with her. Natalie, Olivia and Jacob are a couple months older than my girls.

The Mommies (Maddie took this picture!)

I LOVE this picture too- this is what happens when you let 9 kids go at free will to the nearest exhibit. :)
We were sad to say good-bye and everyone gave a group hug. Triplets share a special bond!

Thanks to Eve and Olga for a great time at the zoo!

My Favorite Foto Follow-Up!

Ta-Dah! Did you guess where my favorite foto was taken? It was none other than Travel Town- which is right down the way from the Los Angeles Zoo! We met up with some of our triplet friends at the zoo last Wednesday (pictures to come in the next post) and I promised the girls I would take them to Travel Town afterwards since we didn't get to spend too much time there when we were there in May for their Pre-K field trip (that seems like ages ago!)
It was HOT but not unbearable (Like it can be). When we got to Travel Town our first stop was the train ride. With some wind in our face we were refreshed and loved that we got to go around two times!
There were not a lot of people there, but the other family that rode with us took our picture together.
After the train ride the girls were anxious to get to the "real" trains...Emily couldn't wait to climb aboard!
Ashley was a little more tentative...

Maddie

They look so small compared to the big engines.

They got really excited when they found a car they could go into!

It was the "Snack Car"- though there weren't any snacks LOL

This would be the location of my favorite picture! Emily LOVED looking out the windows!

Hi Mommy!

I was good and didn't freak out too much about them potentially falling out.

And when you get a shot like this, it's all worth it!

We really need to take these girls on a train ride!

Pretending we're the engineers...

Little peanuts!

It was the end to a perfect day! And we were off to the comforts of the air conditioned van for the ride home!

About that Week the other week!

In the middle of having computer issues week before last- we also had several issues going on at home. We had our carpets cleaned- simple enough task- yet for us it always manages to become a bigger issue. I've known for a few weeks we were doing it so I've spent the time slowly going through the house and using it as motivation to clean and purge. We have A LOT of toys and they tend to multiply while we sleep. Sorting toys took a weekend alone and I'm afraid in the end, many ended up in containers in the girls' bedroom since it has hardwood floors- still to be sorted.

The carpet cleaning went great the day of- we spent the day out of the house running errands with grandma (who also had her carpets cleaned) and going to the library.Our masks we made at the library! Everything was going well until... it got really humid. Ugh! The carpet didn't dry right. Within a couple days we realized that we had a problem (and thankfully I hadn't put the house back together yet). The carpet man was really nice, came back out with industrial fans and dehumidifiers and treated the carpet. Because of this we had to be out of the house for the night- can you say sleepover at grammie and grandpa's???

Off the girls and I went to stay the night there- Rick stayed home since we had the fans running all night and we didn't want to have the house empty. The girls loved the sleepover and helping out at grammies house. What a treat!The next morning however another issue arose- this time at grammie and grandpa's... the girls appear to be hanging out in the backyard at grammies~ but what are they really watching?Hmmmm....that looks like a big pile of dirt in the backyard...Oh look- it's Ray the plumber! he's digging a HUGE hole in the backyard!Yep- my parents couldn't ignore their plumbing any longer and found out that a large root got the best of their pipes. The girls loved watching all the goings on and Ashley got a front row seat to watch the TV hooked up to the camera that went through the pipes. As the project got more involved however- I decided it was best to take my 3 busy bodies out of the way- so off to the gagoon we went for a couple hours.It was overcast and chilly- but we still had a fun time!

Phew! So that was our marathon week 2 weeks ago! Now on to catch up with the goings-on of this past week and reveal the location of my Favorite Foto from Friday! :)