The Hellen Family: Houston Rodeo

The kids are home on Spring Break and yesterday we took the kids to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. This was the first time that any of us had been and by all accounts it was pretty neat. It is like a state fair, but with a rodeo as well. It runs for 3 weeks and they have live concerts, (pretty big names), every night as well as a rodeo. We spent our time in the children's area, which was from 11:00 until 3:00. We saw pig races, acrobatic dogs, and a baby calf only a few hours old, a petting zoo and so many other things. There was an arena that had the pigs, cows, rabbits, and a few other animals. We even spotted a breed of cow that appeared to be hairless (it looked like a LARGE pig), and Kayla loved the bunny rabbits. There was a birthing area that had animals (cows and pigs) about to give birth and ones that had recently given birth. There was an area where the kids could play like they were the farmers and had to go through this maze doing different farmer chores. In one part they were given chicken food to put in the trough for the chickens. After they "fed" the plastic chickens they picked up an egg (wooden) and moved on to the next task. They planted seeds and collected the vegetable that they planted, milked a cow and collected milk, sheared a sheep, and collected wool... I think you get the idea. Once they finished with their chores they took their harvest to the market and sold it (put it in the appropriate basket) and collected their money (toy) . They then took their money to the store where they could pick out one item to "buy". Nathan and Kayla followed the direction of 1item, however Emily made it out of there with 3 items, she is going to be trouble. It was a fun time and I am sure we will go back.

"The Farmers"