Fair Fun

Usually, we try to make it on Saturday to see Sam and Lilli show their goats.  We were not so fast this year, and we missed it… except for the final few minutes as Sam won Grand Champion Wayne County Bred, Born, and Raised.  Their goats, Dusty and George, were pretty sweet this year.

    

Grandma Yoh joined us for Saturday afternoon to enjoy the fair and celebrate Jeremy’s birthday. 

It was a comfortable day, and we had fun looking at the artwork – Madison had two pieces this year.

    

We checked out the 4-H display.

Looked in on the produce, mostly to see if Chuck and Patty had won any ribbons – they had… a lot of them!

We looked at pigs, baby animals, some cows, rabbits (Madison’s favorite, I think), and some other things.  Then, we left. 

Sometime on Saturday, the girls ventured over to Madison’s friends house to play in the giant inflatables they had rented for a birthday party.

We returned on Sunday for the award presentation for Madison.  We grabbed supper while we were there and came home.

On Monday, Jeremy was able to snag a few hours off work since one of the computer systems was down. So, we all returned for student day to ride rides.  It went … okay.  We started with the Ferris Wheel.  I hate this thing, but I suck it up every year and go with the girls if I need to. This is the only ride that Jeremy likes.  Madison enjoyed it, while I tried not to breathe and rock the car.  Ellie did not enjoy one minute of it and was white-knuckled and crying for most of it.

    

They moved on to the hang glider rider.  A yearly favorite.  This year did not disappoint.

    

Then, they tried a new ride – the Hurricane.  Two thumbs down on this one.  It pushed Madison into Ellie relentlessly and hurt their necks.  Cross that one off our list for next year.

Then, they ventured in the Fun House which they paid for out of their own money since it is extra.  It wasn’t as fun as they imagined – and very short.  Probably won’t need to do that next year either.

Finally, they did the Shock Drop.  This was left them both shaky, but smiling.  We’ll keep this in the rotation. 

We grabbed lunch and headed home.

And that was where it all ended for us.

4-H

This year both Madison and Ellie were involved with 4-H projects.  This was Madison’s 3rd year.  She chose to do “The Writer in You,” a creative writing project.  She loves writing and will write stories just for fun in her free time.  This was a bit more challenging in that she had to write to given prompts, picture prompts, with a dialogue driven plot, in a specific scene, poetry, and more.  Our plan was to start earlier than normal and get it done before school was out.  Then, we decided to buy and sell a house and that plan fell apart.  Instead, we pushed the last few weeks of the summer, right before judging.  It made for some tears – it is hard to write creatively in a moment’s notice.  (Unless you participate in Power of the Pen…)  But she did it.  She went to judging and did a great job talking with the judge about herself and her project.  She earned an "outstanding” ribbon for it.

    

In fact, she ended up receiving a special award at the fair on Sunday evening for her project.  There were only 7 of these awards given out for various still projects, and she earned one of them.  Pretty cool!

    

Ellie transitioned from Cloverbuds, where there did group projects, to 4-H, where she chose her own project. She chose to do “All About Dogs.”  This project did not require us to own or show a dog, but rather it helped kids explore dog breeds and how to interact with dogs.  The really nice part about her project is that she met weekly with her advisor to read over each section and discuss the questions.  So, the bookwork was done before we knew it.  We took a few opportunities to attend some of the dog sessions over the summer where kids who were going to show their dogs in obedience, rally, or showmanship areas could come practice and get tips.  We wanted to see if we thought Pepper could handle this.  Not sure he could, but I guess we could always try it.  Ellie had fun observing what was required and taking tips she heard home to try out on Pepper.  At the rally event, a woman allowed Ellie to use her dog to practice what it would be like to go through the rally course.  Ellie had a blast with this. 

    

She then had to make a poster showing something she learned.  She made a poster where she displayed pictures of the three breeds of Pepper (Pekingese, miniature Poodle, and Bichon Frise) and a picture of Pepper with the characteristics of each of the breeds that he displays. She had to take the poster to the judging session.  This is a big deal because the kids go all by themselves to meet the judge and share what they learned.  While she knew she would have to do this, doing it was much harder.  She had a really hard time.  Thankfully, by the time she was getting herself pulled together to try approaching the judge again, we realized that the judge was the same lady that had loaned her a dog to use to practice for Rally.  Once she sat down with the judge, she talked for a long time and did a great job.  She walked away with an “outstanding” ribbon, too.

    

Random Pepper moment with Ellie – she was feeding him lettuce like a baby at the table. 

    

Ellie Bakes with Grandma

When a grandkid turns 9, they get to bake with Grandma.  Ellie has been so excited for this day.  And it finally arrived, right after my mom retired from Gerber Feed, and right before the kids went back to school. 

It was the best night and day.

She wanted to learn to make ribs.  So, Grandma worked with her to learn how to take off the membrane, add rub, and let them slow cook. 

    

Then, she feasted!

    

The next day, they worked hard baking cinnamon rolls, zwieback, and a giant chocolate chip cookie.  There is a lot that goes into this learning day. 

     

Ellie got to learn about yeast rising, mixing,

    

kneading dough,

    

knowing when to stop kneading,

letting it rise,

rolling it out,

    

rolling it up, and cutting it.  It is not for the faint of heart this yeast bread stuff.

    

While the dough rose, she mixed up the chocolate chip cookie – something she is really good at.

    

Then, they moved on to zwieback – a whole different skill set. You use the same dough as the cinnamon rolls, but you have to squeeze it out in two different size balls to stack on one another.  It is an art I have only attempted a few times.

        

The end result is worth it. Her zwieback and cinnamon rolls were delicious.

    

Thank you, Grandma, for the time and love you put into this day.  Thank you, Grandpa, for taking pictures for the memory books.