It's Rodeo Time!

For those of you reading this who live in Houston, you know what March is all about. Those of you that don't live here, it's all about...Rodeo! For the first 3 weeks of March, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo takes over Reliant Stadium (where the Texans play)and everything around it. There is a huge Livestock area where you can see all the animals from rabbits and goats to cows and pigs that are being judged and auctioned. There is also an educational area where the kids can see chicks hatching, how to milk a cow, feed animals in a petting zoo, see all the babies that have been born at the rodeo, and so much more. There is also a huge carnival, plenty of shopping and of course the rodeo itself followed by a concert with artists from the Jonas Brothers to Clint Black. I personally love the rodeo and enjoy going every year and it is even more fun to see my kids enjoy it. The past couple years we only went to the carnival and livestock show, but this year we were blessed by some great friends (thanks Granny and Grandaddy!) with tickets to go to the rodeo too. With business still slow, it was truly a special gift to us!

This past Friday we picked Caleb up early from school and headed downtown. The only downside was after several days of gorgeous weather, it had gone downhill with rain and cold. Despite the weather, we truly enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't raining when we got there so we went to do a few of the outdoor kid's activities. Some friends had told me they had a new activity for the kids called "Fun on the Farm" where the kids pretend they live on a farm and do things that a farmer would, starting on the farm and going all the way to the market.

The kids were given an apron and basket and started by getting a cup of feed and taking it to the hen house to feed the (pretend) chickens. Here they are on the way to feed them.
After feeding them they picked up an egg and put it in their basket. The next step was to pick up seeds and plant them in a garden. After planting it they could pick up whatever grew and put it in their basket. They both chose carrots and planted them. Here we are bundled up and planting carrots.

Then the kids picked up their grown carrots and put them in their baskets.

Some of the other stops were picking peaches from a tree, shearing a sheep for it's wool, and milking a cow. Here is Elizabeth milking the cow.

At the end, the kids take their baskets with their fruits and vegetables, wool, and milk, and take it to the market just as though they were farmers. Then they are given money to buy what they need at the store as if they had made money selling their goods. The final stop is the store where they use the pretend money and buy a snack to enjoy like raisins, a juicebox, chips, or cereal. It was a great interactive activity for the kids to take part in and learn about going from the farm to the market.

From there we also saw some crazy animal races and enjoyed the petting zoo before it started raining. We went inside to the arena where they have what is called AGventure where the kids learn about all sorts of farm animals. We started off by going over to the birthing center where you can see all the babies that have been born during the rodeo as well as some of the mamas that are pregnant. This is a picture of a calf that had been born only a few days before.This next picture is of 13 piglets that had been born just that morning. They were a big hit and it was hard even to get through to see them. The piglets were crawling all over each other just trying to get access to their mommy's milk. They were too cute!

This mama pig below was due the day before! She looked more than ready to get those pigs out!

One of the other things you can see is chicks hatching. They have a big glass container that is heated and full of eggs and you can watch the chicks slowly hatch from their eggs. Of course only if you want to stay all day can you watch it come all the way out but several of the eggs are at different stages.

Then they have another glass container that has all the baby chicks that have already hatched. Heath's nickname for Elizabeth is chickie so she kept saying these were her chickies!

We then walked through and saw some of the cows that had been judged and would be auctioned. Next it was off to the rodeo. The kids really enjoyed watching all the different competitions and cheering for those who did well. Just before the concert we watched the calf scramble and mutton busting which were big hits. The calf scramble is where local students chase after calves and once they catch them, they have to get a harness on them and pull them into the center square. The first 14 to do this get a certificate to buy a calf to raise and bring back next year to be judged. It is a hoot to watch and those kids work hard to win. Mutton busting is new this year and it is with little kids as young as 4 up to around 8. They are put on the back of a sheep where they hold on for dear life as the sheep takes off. The winner is whoever holds on the longest. It is too cute! For those of you wondering, yes they have protective gear on! Caleb actually said he wished he could do that, which surprised me.

After all the fun of the rodeo, Clint Black came on and we stayed for about 4 songs before heading out before the crowd. By this time it was almost 10 p.m. and we had had a long, but fun day. Caleb said it was the most fun he'd had in a long time! We plan to try and go back this week since it is spring break. The weather should be nicer and we can go back and enjoy the carnival and more of the livestock.