OC Fair Family Ticket Giveaway

16 Thursday Jun 2016

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The winner of our OC Fair Giveaway was Kelly G! She had a wonderful time with her family at the fair. 🙂 Thanks for entering, everyone!

Hello everyone!

Anyone who knows us, knows how much our family loves the OC Fair. It’s a family tradition for us to enjoy a vegan hot dog from Pink’s and a lovely bowl of fresh fruit from Terri’s Berries.

So when the OC Fair contacted me about hosting a giveaway, I jumped at the chance.

This week I will be giving away an OC Fair Family Packet, which includes:

4 General Admission Tickets
2 Carnival Ride Cards (3 Free Rides Per Card)

Here are some additional details:

The OC Fair will provide the prize packet directly to the winner.
Parking is $10 (cash only) and is not included with the giveaway.
Each carnival ride card is valid for three rides or games in either the Main or Kiddie Carnivals. Ride Cards are not valid for food or drinks.
Admission and/or ride cards do not have to be used on the same day. Prize must be redeemed during the 2016 OC Fair.

And Some additional OC Fair Information:

Dates: July 15-August 14, 2016
Public Hours: Wednesday-Friday Noon-Midnight, Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-Midnight, Monday-Tuesday Closed
Theme: “Get Your Fair Face On!”
Website: www.ocfair.com
Admission: General $10, Senior (6+) $7, Youth (6-12) $7, Children 5 & younger are free every day
Parking: $10
Special Days: Kids Days (Thursdays, 12 & younger are free all day). Visit www.ocfair.com/promotions for more ways to save.

To Enter:

Comment on this post with your name and favorite thing to do at the fair.
Or comment on my Facebook Post with your favorite thing to do at the fair.
The winner will be drawn by Little T on Monday June 20th
I will contact the winner directly and gather their information to email to the OC fair

And just for fun, here are some new food additions to the fair this year, for all you foodies out there (I’m looking at you, Jenny and Anthony). 😉

Chicken in a Waffle On a Stick: Chicken Charlie’s making the popular chicken-and-waffles combo portable by cooking fried chicken tenders in a waffle and serving it all on a stick, with a side of maple syrup.
French Toast Bacon Bombs: Bacon A-Fair’s new breakfast-inspired offering will make French toast desirable any time of the day as sweet dough stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon is deep-fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar.
S’moreo Texas Donut: Bigger is better when it’s a soft, Texas-sized doughnut topped with chocolate drizzle, Oreo cookie crumble, graham cracker crumbs and marshmallow cream.
Bacon Nutella Pickle: Pickle O’ Pete’s takes the popular hazelnut cocoa spread Nutella and fills a dill pickle that gets wrapped in bacon, dipped in a funnel cake batter and deep fried.
Pork Belly Bacon Dog: At Biggy’s, two feet of bacon are wrapped around a slow-smoked pork belly that is dipped into a corn dog batter and deep fried.
Deep-Fried Pizza Log: Mozzarella cheese and pepperoni are wrapped inside of thin pizza dough which is deep fried until crispy and flaky. Served with marinara sauce on the side from the Apple Fries booth.
Diabilito Sundae: Fruit Caboose is going loco and adding to their creamy ice cream the Latin-inspired flavor of tangy Tamarindo and hot chili chamoy sauce.
Kool-Aid Hot Wings: Chicken Charlie’s taking his breaded wings and tossing them up with his new, slightly-spicy Kool-Aid sauce. He will serve the orange flavor exclusively at the OC Fair.
Dole Whip: Fairgoers can cool down with this refreshing, pineapple-flavored soft serve dessert available for the first time inside the OC Fair at Crutchee’s Ice Cream.
Bacon-Wrapped Baked Potato: At Bacon A-Fair, a giant one-pound potato is wrapped in a half pound of bacon and slow cooked in a wood-fired smoker oven. Served with butter, the Bacon A-Fair signature bacon-infused sour cream, grilled veggies, blue cheese and choice of hot buffalo sauce or nacho cheese and jalapenos.
Bacon Cheddar Brat Burger: Grant’s Tasti Burger is taking burgers and brats to the next level with this massive burger that combines a bratwurst and an Angus beef patty with cheddar, chopped candied pecans, Applewood smoked bacon, Sriracha Bourbon and chipotle sauces, lettuce and tomatoes and served inside a pretzel bun.
Pink’s Hollywood-Inspired Dogs: The Daenerys Mother of Doggies pays homage to the Game of Thrones’ queen of the dragons with a spicy Polish dog topped with sour cream, sauerkraut, onions, radish sprouts and Sriracha sauce. The Lord of the Rings Dog highlights the mystical movie with an all-beef hot dog encircled by fried onion rings and topped with barbecue sauce.
Juicys: New this year, OC Fair mainstay Juicys is serving up organic meat and nitrate-free hot dogs and sausages.
More Offerings: All American Reuben Burger (Grant’s Tasti Burger), Pickle Fries and Pickled Cheese on a Stick (Pickle O’ Pete’s), Shrimp Fried Rice on a Stick (Chicken Charlie’s), Som-Mor-Bacon (Fruit Caboose), Bison Burger (Juicy’s), Lasagna Sandwich (Pignotti’s Pasta), Oreo Churro (Dutchmen’s Funnel Cake).

Best of luck to you all, and I hope to see you at the fair! 🙂

The Perfect Saturday

16 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by Momma J in life, The Family

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family, life with a four year old, Little T, soccer

You know those days that you don’t plan out to be perfect, but somehow all the stars align and everything just works together? That was Saturday.

It actually didn’t start out as anything perfect. I woke up around 4 in the morning to get work done so I could spend the day with my two T’s, and was determined to close my laptop by 8:00am, so I was in a rush to get things done at the beginning. And then Little T had a bit of a rough start. He was upset about not being able to watch a certain show, and threw the remote on the ground in perfect toddler tantrum fashion. It broke into pieces, and I think he was shocked that it broke the way it did. Even though Big T could fix the remote, we decided no t.v. for the weekend.

I never expected those decisions to be as hard as they are. It’s easy to look on the outside and think you’ll do things a certain way as a parent, but when it gets down to it, and you have to watch someone you love cry and feel upset, it is the absolute worst. 😦 But, deep down I know it’s for the best and so the softie in me sucks it up.

He was still cranky about the morning when we got to soccer, but the day got better as it went on. Little T did so good at soccer practice. He really likes his coach and is getting better at all the drills. He still would rather play basketball and asks if he can dribble the ball every once in a while, but we can’t find a basketball team for his age yet.

After soccer, we went to the Claremont Pilgrim Place Festival. The retirement community puts on the annual festival to raise funds for their retirement program, and I always love going when we can. They all dress like Pilgrims, and their retirement art clubs, wood crafting groups, and different organizations all have tables where they show off what they’ve been working on for the past year and sell the things they have made. Little T and I play a game at these things, and we try to find five cool things to show each other before the day is out. It’s always interesting for me to see what he thinks is worthy of pointing out for the game.

We parked far away and Little T and I had a great walk on the way there (Big T ran errands and met us later). Little T , as usual, looked for the biggest sticks he could find while we walked. I’m always amazed at his ability to find sticks no matter where we are. 🙂

When we got there, Little T had his face painted like a pirate. He kind of looked like a pirate Harry Potter to me! Expellirarrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhmus! :p

After the face painting, we went to our favorite area-“the Glue Station”. All the residents collect things like bottle caps for the year, and then hand the kids cups full of glue and a piece of cardboard. The kids then take the bottle caps and leaves and odds and ends to make a piece of art with the glue onto their cardboard canvas.

Little T worked hard on his art, and told me he was making the Indiana Jones ride. He’s never been on the Indiana Jones ride before, and so it’s a much talked about mystery to him. He kept adding things that he imagined would be there, like hot lava and traps. 🙂

He was doing so well after a rough morning, so we got him a snow cone, and one for big T too. 😉

Then we rode on the “Mayflower”, it’s a tour bus designed by the crafter retirees. They made the whole thing look like a boat on wheels! On the Mayflower, were given a tour of the retirement community and talked a little bit about pilgrim life. Little T sat next to a kindred spirit, who laughed with him every time we went over a speed bump and the tour guide said it was a whale bumping the boat! 🙂 Hilarious stuff, guys!!!!

After the Mayflower, we decided it was time to head back and walked to the car. Little T found the biggest stick of all, and I found the prettiest house with ivy all over it, and so everyone was happy. 🙂 The walk turned into a run when Little T announced to everyone that he had to find a potty, lol. Don’t worry though, we made it there okay! Phew!

Little T with the stick he found:

My dream house! 🙂

When we made it home, Little T wanted to put his art on display! Pretty impressive, Little T! Do you see the resemblance to Indiana Jones? I do! :p

When we got home, Little T took a much needed nap, and I finished up some work from the morning. I was kind of amused at my sleeping Harry Potter Pirate, note to self: next time remove face paint before nap-time, or there will be a Harry Potter Pirate face imprint on the pillow. :p

After Little T woke up, we all cleaned the house together. Little T prefers making messes to cleaning, but he did his best! Whenever we clean, he likes using the feather duster, and even though I always have to go back and redo everything he just did (shhhhhh), he thinks this is the best task of all.

When we had a cleaning break, we did some learning games on my iPad. We use Agnitus, a great app for working on reading and math. As a side note, the other apps/games he loves are anything from Toca Boca, especially Toca Boca “Boo”.

When we finished all of that, we got ready to go to our neighbors house for a chili party. Our neighbors work in the Ag department at Cal Poly, and have the sweetest pet pig named Penelope. Little T wanted to show them one of his favorite toys, his barn with his horses. 🙂

Our neighbors put out the cutest tent for Little T to play in. This photo was taken before the other kids arrived and they all ran around like maniacs.

Little T had a great time. It reminded me of being young and finding new friends at grown up parties, such a fun and new feeling. I remember being that age and hearing the murmurs and laughter from grown ups in the background, and wondering what they could possibly be talking about that was more interesting than running around and playing. Wondering if I’d ever enjoy just sitting around and talking like them. Seems so long ago. 🙂

Big T and I loved talking and getting to know our neighbors better and having uninterrupted grown up conversations at a non-work event, something that doesn’t happen too often for us. Our hosts made a perfect vegetarian chili too! It was so sweet that they stepped out of their comfort zone and made it for us, and wow, it was so good! We teased that we were going to stop by for more veggie food now that we know they’re so good at it! 😉

Little T was worn out when he got home, and even debated having me skip his bedtime book, but in the end he listened to me read with droopy eyes, and yawned and told me he’d had a good day, before drifting into dreamland.

So anyway, it may not seem like much, but it’s always these simple days that seem the nicest to me. The ones where you get to take your time and enjoy what’s happening right in front of you, without the distractions of a crazy busy grown up life, and I’m always so glad when they come up. And wow, two posts in a week! I’m on a roll! 🙂

San Francisco Trip

24 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by Momma J in The Family, The Travels, vegan

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

family, infant traveling, san francisco, traveling, vegan, vegan dining, vegan restaurants

I love San Francisco. I love the history, the weather, the culture, and the food. I lovveeeeeee the food. Before I start posting about the food we ate, I should clear something up. The person I was staying with asked me how on earth I eat so much without gaining a ton of weight. I wish I could say I’m one of those people who can eat whatever they want and not suffer the consequences, but that’s simply not the case! When I’m home, I follow a low-fat strict vegetarian diet with no dairy. When I go on vacation, I splurge. When we travel I try to stay in places with a kitchen so I don’t go too crazy (because I always feel gross when I verge too far from my routine), but occasionally on vacations or special dinners, I eat.

A lot.

This was one of those trips.

Okay, so back to SF. Big T told me we were going to have to take public transportation to save some taxi $$$. I panicked as I imagined hauling Little T, the car seat, the stroller, and our luggage around. After a good hour of mulling it over, I decided we could pack everything we needed in two backpacks so we’d only be carrying the car seat and the stroller. To tell you the truth, it was kind of a fun challenge!

We’d planned an evening plane ride so Little T would sleep, but he was really excited when we got to the airport and didn’t sleep until the plane was in the air. Once we were in the air, we were both happy to get snuggle time and Little T fell asleep.

He's such a little snuggle-bug.

On the airport, we utilized our electronic gadgets to get us through the short trip. Oh technology, how I do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

1. Watching an episode of “Modern Family on our iphone.

2. Reading “The Help” on my kindle.

3. Knowing exactly when our bus was coming.

4. Landing and being able to search for coffee.

The next night, Big T and I had a date at Millennium. It’s our favorite vegan restaurant because it serves unapologetic vegan food. By that I mean, there isn’t “fake meat” in sight. It’s pricey, so this was only our second visit and the third probably wont come for a while, but it’s always worth it!

We ordered a White Russian to drink.

For an appetizer we had fried oyster mushrooms with a carrot salad and a lemon dressing.

Fried Oyster Mushrooms

For my entree, I had this pastry that had a savory flavor and was filled with potatoes:

Big T had a grilled portabella mushroom with risotto, and for dessert I had chocolate lava cake and he had a berry cobbler.

The next day, I managed to convince Big T to travel out to Berkeley. The reason? I wanted Cinnamon Rolls, and I wanted them bad! We went to Cinnaholic, a vegan cinnamon roll shop. This is the way it works over there. First, you get a gourmet cinnamon rolls. Next, you pick a flavor of frosting. They have about 20 different flavors and we were feeling so overwhelmed! After you decide on the frosting, they let you pick a topping. I decided on the plain frosting with cookie dough. Big T had mint with oreos, and the helpful lady at the counter (who was so friendly, we could have stayed and talked with her for an hour), said her favorite was lemon frosting and raspberry. I’m going to have to try that next time.

Cinnamon roll from Cinnaholic Bakery

We took the BART over to Mission. Little T had a great time sitting with us and taking the BART and the bus and shouted gleefully at people entering and exiting. I think he was saying hello and goodbye in baby babble.

Little T is a subway pro.

Mission is bright and colorful, with amazing murals all over the place. Here was my favorite building:

A Building in Mission

We went to a Mexican food restaurant that has a lot of vegan options. Amazingly, we found room to eat, even after the cinnamon rolls.

Ordering lunch in Mission

On the way home, we stopped at the Stern Grove Music Festival. The concert was beautiful. We made our way to the side area so Little T could run around without being disruptive. It was a nice end to a fun day.

Stern Grove

Practicing Walking at Stern Grove

We were sad when our trip came to an end, but we were also glad to have a few weekends at home. Our yard is getting a bit overgrown and we have animals to snuggle with. I also have a few projects at home that I’m looking forward to getting started on.