See You At The Fair!

The countless hours of preparation over the last weeks and couple of months are complete.
The kids' first 4-H projects were finalized and today they went before the fair judges to plead their case have their interviews.

We found out literally YESTERDAY that the student is judged 50% on the project itself and 50% on their interview with the judge. My kids freaked just a little as they were a bit leery on how this one on one talking would all work out.

Reed, doing the 4-H dad thing, took off work for the afternoon so he could take the kids to our county fairgrounds.

Last minute prep was done this morning, with final touches on Lily's cake and all the double checking that everyone's project components were present.

Lily's three projects she took to the fair were: her Midnight on the Heath cake, a penguin pillow she sewed herself following a pattern (part of a community ed class earlier this summer), and a homemade card with thread and needlework. (Click the photo below to see more detail)

Jonah, being more of the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-send-your-mama-into-a-heart-attack kind of kid, played it cool by waiting until exactly last week to FINALLY get all the moving parts together to finalize projects. Phew. But, they did get done!

His three projects: a traffic safety display board, a toilet paper roll owl (craft project), and his Lego creation (Ecto-1 from the original Ghostbusters movie, which he created himself from looking at Lego set photos online). (Again, click the photo to check out the details)

They survived their judging and came home with B-I-G smiles.

And these:

BLUE RIBBONS! for each of their projects.

4-H uses the Danish Award system which awards multiple blue, red, and white ribbons. Projects are not ranked in order but are judged against a standard of achievement.

Blue ribbon: signifies a member has done outstanding work

Red ribbon: is average work; you have done a good job, but there are areas you could improve upon

White ribbon: the exhibit and interview were below expectations; several things may have gone wrong, someone else did the project for you or you broke one of the rules

With that, we'll be heading to the county fair later this week. We're looking forward to seeing all of the other projects and our kids' projects on official display there. So excited! 

For now, I am off to go work off some of those calories I consumed in the last couple weeks test tasting Lily's delicious cake. Be back soon!

Teachable Moment #247

Jonah had an item on his birthday list he just HAD to have. He'd seen numerous commercials for the Gaz Zuds bubble gun and thought that it looked and sounded like so much fun.



It boasts of its foaming action and the bubbles come pouring out of the bubble gun leading to endless entertainment.

We were skeptical, but he insisted and we bought it for his birthday. He was perhaps a little less thrilled with it as he unwrapped it, but still seemed eager to try it out. The following day we took it outside to give it a try. It seemed a bit disappointing to me and as I looked at my boy's face it indicated that he felt the same way.

His head hung low as he said 'That's not very exciting at all. It's nothing like the commercial.'

I took hold of the moment and reminded him how things aren't always as they seem, especially on t.v. Commercials are made to promote a product and make it look like we can't live without it, but the reality is never quite as the commercial makes it out to be. I quoted St. Augustine, 'our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord'. Nothing on earth will fulfill us as much as we believe it will because we are seeking God and a peace only He can give us.

He agreed that sometimes things/toys aren't as exciting as he thought or he's only happy with that toy for a short time.

In that moment we were both reminded that things are just things and they all come and go, until the next thing we think we need to make us happy and fulfilled. In the end, what we already have is certainly more than we really need.


P.S.--I'd like to also add that Colored Bubbles are not as fun as they are made out to be either. We found them messy and leave a colored mark wherever they land. Clothes must be washed immediately (and not sprayed with stain remover) and your porch, shoes, etc. for instance do not come clean until washed or rained upon. FYI.