Day 218

My kids love the fair. Until now, that love was relegated to the rides, the animals, and the food. Now, with our involvement in 4H, a new wrinkle of the fair was introduced to us. Though we wouldn't be showing any animals this year, there were other opportunities to share our creative expression. Our two oldest kids decided to enter a few different categories in hopes of winning their first fair ribbons. 

Our younger daughter decided to enter three different items. She entered a first aid kit she had created, a tomato and flower plant she had been taking care of and a lemonade poster she had started in summer school and added to throughout summer. She had the opportunity to present these items to a judge and share them in person, which was probably just as valuable an experience as the actual product creation. Being in the youngest age group, her items weren’t judged in the same way as others and she was awarded a ribbon for each product.

Our oldest focused on products related to poultry. She entered two times. She decorated a single egg into her favorite animal, the peacock. Her second product was a decorated basket. She used a colorful array of craft buttons, superglued them to cover the basket, and added dots to make a dozen eggs appear button-like. Her items were not judged in person. Whether or not she got a blue , red, or white ribbon, she was proud of her work and we were proud of her determination and dedication to the process. She was very excited when she visited her products and saw each adorned with a blue ribbon. But she was blown away when we saw that her decorated basket had a second ribbon. It was a larger purple ribbon labeled Grand Champion. Being a first-time participant, I did not know that that even was but was impressed when I learned it was awarded to the “best” project from all of the projects given blue ribbons in each division. Even my wife had not ever been a Grand Champion before. We had a successful initiation into fair life, but hopefully, the best is yet to come.