July 17, 2010--4-H Fair

The 4-H judging was today. The kids didn't finish all of the projects they signed up for this year--just too much going on. After the play I didn't want to have to push them too hard. I wanted them just to be able to enjoy their summer and go swimming and have fun, too. Plus, with me working now and taking summer classes, too, I just didn't have as much time to work with them on their projects.

Jay got a champion on his Electricity project and it will be going to the State Fair. He made an extension cord this year. He also got a reserve champion in Foods on his dinner rolls. His other project was Photography and he got a blue on that. The judges at this fair in the Photography project are very strict--this is the only project where the judges give out white ribbons. Most judges give out blue and a few reds on the ones that are really bad. White is just embarrassingly bad. It used to be that blue was excellent, red was good, and white was fair, but nowadays blue is good, red is fair, and white is just flat out terrible.

Joy got a reserve champion in Foods on her biscuits. The judge really liked her biscuits. They were so tall and pretty. This is the second year she has won reserve champion in Foods. She also got blue ribbons in Scrap-booking (which I thought she did a fabulous job on) and her Personality project. She didn't have any projects that went to the state fair this year, but she did a very nice job anyway.

Sarah got a reserve champion on her Child Development project. She made a ring-toss game and it turned out really nice. She also got a blue ribbon in Foods with her feathery fudge cake. She doesn't have any state fair projects, either, but she went last year and was the only one in the family to get a blue there, so it's not like she has to go every year.

Abby got to be in regular 4-H this year instead of mini, and she was excited to get a champion in Personality her first year. It was a really cute poster about a family appreciation party she made for us. She had captions on all of the pictures with little speech bubbles of us saying what we appreciated about each other. She also got a blue ribbon on her peanut butter chocolate chip cookies in Foods.

Rachel was in mini-4-H and she showed her frog collection. She had several stuffed frogs, a frog salt-and-pepper shaker set (only one fell on the floor and broke) and a frog candle.

They all did really well and I'm proud of them. Erick came with us, too, for the first year. He kind of had too, though. Our van is still being repaired, and the rental company didn't have any vans available for now. So all we have is a car and a truck. We have to drive separately everywhere we go right now.

Later on we went to Burger King. We were planning on going boating this evening. There is a state park near us, and they have free boat trips in the evenings on Saturdays in the summer. Erick tried to take the kids a couple of weeks ago and they didn't get there in time (due to faulty directions from me). This time we were going to get there on time, but on the way back from Burger King, Abby threw up in the truck. So we piled most of the kids into the car and went home instead of to the park. It was starting to rain, anyway, so it probably wouldn't have worked even if she hadn't thrown up.