We hit the State Fair last night, Okie Tourist style, with stroller and bags and all the things it seems to take to make a family outing complete.

We tried to do it on the cheap, although we spent $21 on corndogs, lemonade and chicken-on-a-stick to feed our family of 5. Not bad. Of course, some of our people are still very small. Your family might require more than a $3 corn dog for dinner. Alternately, your family might be more vocal about their demands for a more filling meal. Ours are still pretty distractable.

We were at the fair for about five hours, and we probably didn't do a third of all we would have liked to. We're going back on Wednesday (our oldest two kids are performing at the bandshell) and so we have plans to hit a few more things then.

Here's what we did, what we didn't do, and what we're planning to do.

Follow up:

What we did:

DriveOKC.com Auto Show - Lots of new cars to look at. My 6 year old son liked sitting behind the wheel. I liked the indoor bathrooms.

City of Agtropolis - Kind of a farming for kids type of thing, but there were lots of adults there too. Some chicks were in an incubator, and there were other animals too. A nice lady gave my children little booklets and told them to go to all the tree stations and get a stamp in each one and bring them back. They did, and were a little disappointed to receive a very plan xeroxed bookmark as a prize. There's also a Farmer for a Day thing, where they can plant a seed, then pick an apple, dig a potato and gather an egg. They sell their stuff for play money, then use the play money to buy a souvenir (a State Fair coloring and activity book.) My big ones did it but were unimpressed. Maybe it would be better for 3-4 year olds. My two year old got the apple (which wasn't real), bit it, and then screeched when I took it away. Ah, memories.

The Space Needle - The Space Needle is free and there's not much of a line to speak of. We walked right up to the front while it was on its way down from the previous trip. It's a lot creakier than I remember...try not to imagine a cable of some kind snapping while you're up there. The kids really liked looking around from the height.

Trackless Tram or Train or something - Free tram that drives all around the fair. This is probably designed to give you a ride across the park, but we used it just to ride around and do people watching, and to see what we missed. We rode it in a complete cycle twice. I would have ridden it again, but it was getting late and the kids were losing patience with it. It was nice though.

Vendor Buildings - We walked through like three big vendor buildings and only spent $3, and that was on these cool pencils that are actually made of a little branch. I signed up for one drawing.

Midway games - We let the kids pop balloons with darts. It was $5 for three darts, but the carny told us that he guaranteed a prize. The prize was just a cheap little stuffed animal, but they really felt great about their wins, and that made it worth it to us.

Creative Arts Building - 4-H and Open class 4-H exhibits. This is where the good stuff is, in my humble opinion. We have to blow throw pretty fast, since the kids have no patience for needlework or tomatoes, go figure, but we got a brief look. Plus, this building is attached to the one where the booth is that gives out the free yardsticks, so there's a pretty big bonus.

These peppers won fifth place and were entered by a girl in our local 4-H club, so that was neat. Below is an attractive miss who was modeling some crocheted articles.

What we didn't do:
Disney on Ice - We won't be doing this. We saw Pocahontas on Ice before, and it was a very good show, but I can't bring myself to spend $14 a ticket, for five people, for nosebleed seats. However, if you are abundantly wealthy, or you just love figure skating or Disney too much to believe, or if there is just one or two of you, go for it! It's fun...I just can't justify $70 for mediocre seats at Disney on Ice. But that's just me.

The Okie Karaoke Contest - We drove by this several times on the free tram. One person sounded good. The rest were so-so. I can't imagine sitting and watching it for any length of time.

Barnyard Birthing Center and Animal Surgical Suite - The Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association will actually be birthing animals and spaying female dogs for your viewing pleasure at Barn 3. Being not good with blood or anything like that, I am pretty horrified by this whole idea, and will do my best to steer clear of Barn 3 on Wednesday.

City Arts Center Art and Photos - Photo and art gallery that looked neat, but not with three impatient children. Nice for you swingers, I guess.

The Ultimate Kids' Sandbox - Depicted as a place where parents can relax while children find their inner artists by sculpting in a giant sandbox, I see a place where three children will fill their pants and shoes with sand for me to clean out of the car, the house and possibly their beds. Pass.

What we're planning to do:
Jump! The Ultimate Stunt Dog Show - Stunt dogs doing jump rope, catching Frisbee and doing acrobatics. Sounds fun if we can get the baby to sit still and if we can see over the people in front of us. Show are only at 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., at the Centennial Plaza.

The Centennial Frontier Experience - We drove by this on the tram too, and we would have went to it, but we didn't see it until we were all pretty tired and it was at the opposite end from our parking lot. Fun stuff though, like a joke-riddled gunfight, Indian dancers, trick roping and activities for kids.

Sea Lion Splash - This was was over by the bandshell. As you may have guessed, it's sea lion shows. They're at 1 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Ridgeway & Johnson Grand Illusion and Escape Show - It's a magic show, and it's only from Sept. 23 to 27. We'll be there on Sept. 23. Shows are at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. If we can fit it in what we're already planning, I'd like to go.

Tractor kiddie rides - There were some kind of free kiddie pedal tractors over by the ag barns that we'd like to do next week.

Ag barns - Speaking of which, we'd like to go through the ag barns as well, just to see what's up. I plan to avoid Barn 3, however, home of the animal surgeries and birthing center.

Oklahoma Children's Acting Guild - Performing at 1:30 p.m. at the bandshell. Yes, that's the one the junior Okie Tourists are in.

Rides - We talked the kids out of rides by explaining we'd do them on Wednesday. Unfortunately, that means that now we have to do them on Wednesday. Seriously, the rides look great, but the cheap factor makes it a little hard to stomach. We'll see what we can work out.

There's lots, lots, lots more, as you will see in your little info guide they hand you when you enter the fair, but these were the ones that jumped out to me. Let me know if I missed anything good that we should check out on Wednesday!

The fair is open from Sept. 17 to Sept. 27. Gates open every day at 8 a.m. and closes at 9:30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and at 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Have a great time at the fair!