At The Fair

Let me start out by saying that I am just blown away by the fact that I now have 27 sweet people following me! You all made my day :)

In my previous post, I mentioned that my girls were entering projects in the fair for the very first time. Here are the finished projects.

First, they did the tie dye t-shirts. One thing I learned is that you really cannot mess up tie dye. Even if you accidentally use too much black, it will still turn out beautiful. Kind of like how God can take the ugly, sinful parts in our lives, and turn them into something good.




Here is what they entered for tin punch.





My middle daughter decided to do sand art. We found this beautiful, heart-shaped bottle at my favorite store (Goodwill) for .99 cents. I thought she did a spectacular job for her first time, but the judge, who was an older lady who spent about 30 seconds with her, gave her a B. Imagine our surprise, when we went to the fair, and saw that they had changed it to an A! I guess someone realized that she really deserved an A......well, other than her Mother.



My oldest daughter entered several things in the photography/digital imaging division. She received A's on all of her entries, and won "Honorable Mention" for her amazing picture of my middle daughter. I think it looks just like a Senior picture, and so did the judge.



After looking at the fair projects, we went and saw "Amiee," the sheep. Here she is with her....ummm....partner. His name is "Doug". Just so you know, Hubs' name is NOT Doug. The male sheep is named after another friend of ours. Awkward.



Some friends of ours were showing ducks, and I actually got to pet one! Remember when I said that I always want to reach out and pet one when we go and feed the ducks at the park? My dream came true, and they are just as soft as I imagined them to be. Apparently, you have to hold them like this so they don't claw you to death. I did not know that ducks had claws, as I have never seen one this close up before.






Whenever I go to the fair, I realize again, how much I am NOT a country girl. I have a hard time picturing the sweet animals as someones dinner. I'm sure I would have cried if I had been in the 4-H program as a child, and had to sell my animals at the end of fair.

Also, mucking out the stalls and washing animals covered in manure? Not really my thing.

We went to the Demolition Derby with our friends, as we do every year. This year, however, they had very little demolition going on. Also, they raised the price of admission by $2. So, they advertised a "Demolition Derby" but what we got was a race (sort of) for most of it, and one round of demolition at the very end. Nothing says fun like being splattered with mud, and sitting on a hard, low, back-less bench for several hours.



See? Mud. It hurts when you get splattered with it. I got hit right in the face, but there isn't a picture, because I was not sitting next to the photographer. Bummer.








It is neat to see the cars crash into each other though, and this year, they actually had lawn tractors involved in their own category. A 70 year old man took home the trophy. I was very afraid that someone was going to get their leg plowed into, as there wasn't any protection on the sides.



The kids love going, and this year, we brought my nephew along for the fun.



And..... a great time was had by all.

Tie Dye The Night Away

As I have mentioned before, we live in a small town. Our small town has an annual 4H Fair. The kids are encouraged to enter in many different areas such as showing animals, and arts and crafts. There are other areas, I just don't remember what they are, and I am too lazy to look them up.

For the very first time, my girls have decided to enter the fair. No, they will not be showing animals. Even though we do have a small zoo inside of our house, as Hubs likes to remind me from time to time. What can I say. We love animals.

They have decided to enter the arts and crafts division. Should they win, Hubs will be able to quit his day job, as the older girls will each win three whole dollars per entry. Second place is $2, and third place is $1. Any lower than that, well, too bad, so sad for you. I think you get a ribbon just for entering, but not the big bucks.

Many of our friends enter the animal division, and one of the girls is entering a sheep she named, "Amiee". Yes, I have a sheep named after me! What an honor.

I am trying not to think about "Amiee" being led off to the slaughter at the end of the fair. Hmm....wonder if the neighborhood would mind if I bought a sheep, and kept it in the backyard. Not exactly zoned for farm animals...

Anyway, the girls had to decide ahead of time from a very long list of items, what they would like to do for the fair. The girls were rather ambitious, and each picked about twenty different items. Now that the fair is getting closer, I'm thinking that since they have hardly been home this summer, and when they have, they haven't been working on fair projects, that number is dwindling.

We got together with some of our friends to try and get a few of the projects accomplished as a group. One of the projects was to tie dye something. Since you have to actually present it at fair, it needs to be something decent, like a t-shirt. Feel free to tie dye your underpants, but you can't bring those to the fair, O.K.?

First, you have to make sure to put on gloves to protect your hands. Of course, the gloves are more fun to blow up like a balloon than to wear. Even the cat thinks so. You have to throw a little attitude in there. And grab your best friend.Then, you have to concentrate on getting the colors just right.

It was a rather messy project, so we made sure to do it outside. Thankfully, we were blessed with nice weather, and tie dyed to the sounds of "Amiee" bellowing for her dinner in the background. What can I say....I was hungry.