I LOVE the Iowa State Fair! I've been going to the fair my entire life and have recently started taking my boys with me. We spent about 4 hours at the fair today and I thought I'd share some of the boys' favorite FREE activities of the day. This is in the order we tackled the fair.
Jeep/Ram Power Wheels Test Drive--West side by the Food Building
I had to take a 4 minute survey about car products, but the boys enjoyed driving the Power Wheels around the track.
Lego Road Trip--Far west side by the Food Building
My oldest spotted the Lego Tents the second we entered the fair! Be sure to check out this FREE activity center. Our boys made their own designs which were promptly displayed in the glass case, built race cars, and played in the Duplo area too. The best part was trying out Lego race car launcher things which they get a FREE LEGO KIT to take home!
Natural Resources--West end of the fair on the Main Concourse
We looked at a Bald Eagle's nest, studied some big fish, watched a demo on the dangers of dams, and saw some swans.
Varied Industries Building
We collected various pencils, tattoos, and stickers from different vendors. We hit the UNI Booth and Iowa Booth for football schedules (UNI has cool magnetic photo frames too!) The IPTV/PBS booth was cute, but Clifford was on a break so we kept moving. The Hy-Vee booth was giving out free water pouch bottles which were worth the wait. We kept filling them up for free instead of having to buy bottled water. On the south entrance of the VI building was a neat area for kids with a Lego map of Iowa--we loved this!
Hall of Law--under the east end of the grandstand
The boys practiced crawling through a burning building and learned how to stop, drop, and roll. They also loved sitting inside a fire engine and talking to the police officers. More pencils and tattoos ended up in our bag here!
Little Hands on the Farm--North Side (Click here for Website)
They boys loved this as well as hundreds of other kids! It was very busy! They got to learn about different parts of farming--from planting the seed, to harvesting the food and selling it at the Farmer's Market. They even got to pick out a fun food item at the grocery store! Ben picked a banana and Will got peanut butter crackers. This free snack was well worth our time playing/learning on the farm!
Knapp Animal Building--next to Little Hands on the Farm
We wanted to see the baby pigs but it was just the mama pigs today. I'm sure there will be lots of babies soon! We looked at lots of baby animals and even watched a milk-chugging contest!
Butter Cow/Seed Survivor
We didn't wait in the long line to see the butter cow, but got a really good view of it walking by. We then spent a lot of time at the Seed Survivor ar
ea and they even got to plant seeds to bring home! This was a big hit.
Animal Barns
I'm a farmer's daughter so I grew up walking every aisle of every barn, every year. This year we walked through one aisle in each barn and that was plenty! The boys loved the chickens and horses the most.
Tractors
My boys loved climbing into a BIG tractor on the south end of the fair. So fun!
By the end of all of our adventures, we were tired! I'm sure we missed hundreds of great activities, but for the price of admission, we had a full day at the fair! We spent a little on food, and they even talked me into ice cream at the Food Building before we left. (I ordered one dish and had them put it into two bowls--saves money and limits sugar too!)
Final note--we parked at the Capitol and took the bus. I really liked this option--it is $2 for adults, $1 for kids over 5(?); round-trip. If you have fair tickets already, it's half price. It dropped us off right at the entrance and we didn't have to wait for the bus either time. They had plenty lined up. Bonus--the boys loved riding in a bus without seat belts and car seats!
What's your favorite part of the fair with kids?
A few weeks ago a few of my friends posted some photos of their family's ice skating in Des Moines at The Ice Ridge. It looked like they were having a blast and then I noticed they didn't have coats or mittens on! Whatever they were skating on, wasn't ice, but they were wearing real ice skates and skating around this rink. I had to find out what this was all about!
So, I took a trip over to the Southridge Mall today to check it out. What a cool place! I was greeted by Owner/Operator Burton who so nice and was excited to show me the "ice" which is really a synthetic material much like a cutting board that you skate on. There are chairs all around the rink for spectators and lots of high chairs to hold on to for learners. 
The Ice Ridge offers classes and well as public open skating times and even birthday parties and special events! Check out of the offerings and times at their website here.
