Blue, Red, and White

It's County Fair time again! And here are our prize-winning kids. Aren't they impressive?

This year we were a bit rushed making projects to enter into the fair. (Really that just means we forgot about it until the week before.) But they still wanted to do it and each of the older kids came up with two projects. We kept our fingers crossed and here's how they did:

Nicole is the winner!  This is a tutu she made all by herself and it earned a blue ribbon for "Fabric Craft" in her age group.  Then it also won the Blue Rosette for the best project overall. Not bad for her first entry! She earned $3 for it and is mostly excited that she gets to wear the tutu from now on. (She also had me take pictures as she made the tutu - we have a blog tutorial coming up soon. I think I may be rubbing off on her.)

Zach made this Lego creation. Pretty cool! When we took it in to enter it, I could tell by the ooh's and aah's of the people around us that it was going to be a hit.  There were a bazillion Lego entries but Zach got the blue ribbon for his age group, which is 7 to 12 year-old's. (He just barely turned 7.)  Then in addition to that, he got the Red Rosette for having the second best project overall out of everything for the same age group. That's quite the pizza!  (You knew it was a pizza, right?)

Jonathan made this cool treasure chest, to go along with the theme this year - "The Treasure Chest of Cassia's Best." Or something like that.  He was in the same category as Zach, and like I said, there were SO many entries.  Jonathan got a white ribbon and was happy about it. I like how his treasure chest has a chain, lock, and key. We have a lot of fun with Legos at our house.

Last year at the fair the kids noticed the vegetable animals for the first time and wanted to make some this year.  We had a lot of fun putting them together. (Plus they were fast.)  I failed to realize that almost every other child in the county also enters this category, so the chances of winning aren't too great. But I have to admit that the winners were pretty elaborate! We were happy with our own though and the kids were excited to see theirs on display. This is Nicole's bird.

And this is Zach's bunny.  He knew exactly what he wanted, including its green bean nose. I took this picture right after he made it. He was delighted to discover that after being on display at the fair all week, the bunny's tomato feet had turned red!

Jonathan always has to think outside the box. Pretty clever huh!  I had to laugh every time someone asked us if there was a vegetable under there.  (Why on earth would we enter it if there wasn't?)

These critters came home safe and sound from the fair and had to live on our kitchen counter for a week. Two weeks. Three weeks. One day they mysteriously disappeared while the kids were at school. Hmm. I wonder where they went.  It's a shame to have all my counter space back again.

And of course I had to get in on the fun at the fair. My projects were all in Clothing this year. I guess I've been doing more sewing than crafting lately. The standards are pretty ridiculous high in the clothing categories. I always have to swallow my pride before entering. The judges write little critiques on the back of the entry tags and have been known to be brutally honest. They don't even feel obligated to give out a blue ribbon in each category if they're not up to snuff.  Seriously?  So with that disclaimer, I am extremely thrilled with how my projects did!  (I won't let you read the back of the tags though. Ha.) They were each in different categories - dress, skirt, nightgown, and ensemble - and I got a blue ribbon, two reds, and a white. It's funny that my blue ribbon skirt was the easiest to sew and not nearly the cutest. But I did create it entirely on the day of the fair and was so careful to sew perfectly straight. The patchwork dress is my favorite I've ever made but I did it in a hurry so it was probably less accurate. Anyway I'm happy with my ribbons and Nicole is happy with her dresses. And now her jealous brothers are requesting pajamas and such, so I'm not done sewing yet.

So that was the county fair.  Fun, wasn't it? We learned a few things about creating and competing, and the plan for next year is to start a little earlier. I wonder what we will decide to make...