Another County Fair in the Books

As a parent, I have tried to instill a love of the county fair in my boys.  Growing up, we attended the fair every year, showing cattle, and I would take many different 4-h projects, like sewing, cooking, photography, and child development.  I remember the excitement of rushing to the fair to see what ribbon each project got.  I remember being scared going into the ring leading a 1100 lb calf.  And most of all, I remember saving money all year to go on the rides at the midway.  The Tilt-a Whirl was my all time favorite.  This year was a slim year form my boys, since they are starting to get older and have less time for 4-H.  John entered just two photos, (after much nagging he did finally take a few steps out the back door to snap photos of some wild flowers) but did really well with them. 

 The photo above won Grand Champion Wild Flower.

 This photo won Reserve Champion in Senior Photography and will be going to the state fair.

Noah had quite a few good photos.  He did at least put a little work into his photography and took quite a few photos at Sunken Gardens in Lincoln. Unfortunately his photos did not really feature wild flowers,  However, there were two that really stood out and both will be going to the state fair

 This photo won Grand Champion Senior Photography (yes he beat his older brother).

I think the judge had a hard time deciding which photo she liked best because this photo had Grand Champion written on the corner of the entry tag and then it was crossed out.  This photo received a purple ribbon and is going to the state fair also.  

Earlier this year we got some lambs that were bottle fed.  Noah and cousin Rachael showed them.  The did not get last place.  So that was not bad for just starting out.  The lambs were very small compared to many of the lambs at the show, and are very tame, so they made good lambs for the petting zoo.

Noah was nice and let Rachel show the lamb who led better.

 Noah's lamb did very well too.

 He is all ready to do lambs again next year.  I don't blame him.  They are seriously cute!  We also need to send a huge thank you out to our neighbors the Coopers.  We could not have done this without your help and guidance.

Noah and Rachel also showed bunnies.  He got purples on his big bunnies and a litter of baby Tans all got blues (they were really too young to show).  

Finally it was time for the parade.  Noah was very concerned about attempting to play his trumpet with his new braces.  John was taking care of some State FBLA business and was not able to march in the parade, so I suggested maybe he ask if he could play a drum instead.  It was hard to find him, but he was able to play the base drum in the marching band.  I think that made his day!

Aunt Sharon was wise and had us line up all the cousins to get a photo this year.  Everyone is getting so big!

Ben had fun at the petting zoo, showing off his lambs.  

I think he might be old enough to try it next year.  

 We finished up the fun fair with some rides on the midway.  Ben had a blast.  Mom not so much.  Remember how I said I used to love the Tilt a Whirl?  Well not any more.  I went on with Noah to use up the last of our tickets, and it was horrible.  I kept pleading to the attendant with my eyes to stop the ride and I really think he kept it going longer to see if he could make the old lady throw up.  He got REALLY close.  But I held my cookies.  However, I will never go on that or most likely any ride ever again!

County and State Fairs

This year was a particularly good year for the boys in 4-H.  Both Noah and John won their divisions in the Presentation contest that was held before the fair.  At the county fair Noah won Grand Champion and best Picture in the 4-H division for his photo of a rock splahing into water.  The photo also got a purple ribbon at the state fair. 

They were looking for kids to do interviews on the radio, and Noah got picked.  He had fun and got to talk for quite a while since the was the only 4-Her in the area

  Noah also got Grand Champion on his framed stock certificate and history of the Elmwood Theatre Corporation.  This entry got a blue ribbon at the state fair. 

Since we were going to the fair on Wednesday to see the bucket calf show, I asked Noah if he wanted to enter a basket in the basket contest, since the entry time was going to be during our visit.  He ended up getting 1st place with a trophy and a ribbon.  He thought that was pretty cool.  

 Our friend Kate had two goats in one class, so Noah got to help out by showing one for her.  I would say a better description was that the goat showed him, since it mostly drug him around the ring.  But the judge was very forgiving.

 John wanted to do the cake auction this year and made a cake with Olympic rings on it.  It sold for $100. 









John also got a trophy for Reserved Champion Wild Flower photo.  It was cool seeing both boys on stage at the same time.
















Here is his reserved champion photo. 

All of their hard work payed off, because we got to spend a day at the Nebraska State Fair.













John got to do his presentation while we were there.  We were a bit late and they would not let him use our laptop, so the videos in his power point did not work.  He still got a blue ribbon which was good considering he experienced technical difficulty.

He got a special recognition for his photo of a bald eagle on our pond.  Above it is Noah's photo of the Blue Heron that also lives on the pond.  Both birds happen to be sitting on the same log (but they were taken at different times)  

His Child Development book about Ben's Farm got a purple too.  Love the expression on his face.  I don't think there was anything worse than being forced to pose for a picture, when there was the entire state fair to explore waiting right outside.  

I will leave you with this.  Only at the Nebraska state fair would you see something like this.  They were not running when we went by, but I am sure they could get a ride on one of the ones outside the house right now if they really wanted too. 

County Pride, County Wide

I signed John up to do the video contest at the Cass County Fair.  Here is a link to his entry.

 County Pride, County Wide

If you look closely, you can see Noah eating ice cream, cousin Sammy Rase holding a bunny, cousins Annie and Jeff Backemeyer on the merry go round, church friends Jim and Grace Ronhovde enjoying pie, 3 of our baby bunnies and John even has a short cameo in the end marching in the band.
We don't know who won yet, but will post the results as soon as they are up.  John was the only youngster to submit a video, the rest were adults.

UPDATE:  John got 2nd place and won $150 for his efforts in the video contest.  Yeah John!

County Fair Time

This week is our county fair.  In addition to the normal cooking and photography, the boys took their rabbits this year.  Our doe had babies about 3 weeks ago, and they are a hit in the small animal house.  They are very cute.

 This is our first year with small animals and the judging is tomorrow.  We will have to see how we do. The rabbits are very big and it is hard for little Noah to handle them.  

John also won reserve champion on his display of political pins that were collected by his great Aunts Rosemary and Helen John. 

He re-did a small side table with a tile top that got a purple ribbon and is going to the state fair.  Noah baked some yummy coffee cake that he will have to re-make to take to the state fair as well.

Since we have to make the trip to the fair grounds to enter the 4-H projects, we all also entered a few items in open class.  One of my pictures won the Reserve Champion Photo for the fair.   It is a picture of a nail in the fence around our barn.  I thought about trying to pound it in, but decided to take a picture of it instead. 

 Randy took first place in the special photography contest that had a theme of Carnival Lights and Country Nights.  Here is his photo.

More pictures to come as the week goes on.

County Fair

This week was our county fair.  We had lots of fun.  John took quite a few projects this year including photography, cooking, Youth in Motion, Heirloom Treasures, Care-n-share and entered the Presentation and Performing arts contests.  He got 10 purple ribbons and 3 blue ribbons, and one grand champion for his presention on the StepUp for Down Syndrome Walk.  He gets to go to the state fair with his white chocolate and devils food cookies, his Youth in Motion Activity bag, and his power point presentation.  Noah is in his third year of 4-h as a clover kid.  He also took photography, and a some care and share items (items donated to the needy of the county).  Here are some pictures from the county fair. 

County Fair

Last week was our county fair. We each took a few items to be judged. Randy took some photos, I took photos, crochet, and crafts. John took photos, cooking, crafts in both 4-H and open class. Noah took photos and cooking as a clover kid in 4-H, and photos in open class. We got ribbons all over the board, from white to purple. It was a lot of fun.
John's muffins were chosen to go to the state fair. They were a zucchini dill muffin. The squash bugs are threatening the zucchini plants in the garden. Hopefully I can keep the plants alive until the 27th when we have to have the new batch of muffins baked to take to the State Fair.


Here is John singing with the Cass County Creative Cats 4-H club. Noah is in the back ground. Back in my day it was called a song contest and everybody sang. Now it is called a Performing arts contest and most all the other groups danced or lip synced. We were the only ones that sang. Our group did "Kids of the Future" of by the Jonas brothers. Each kid dressed up as a profession that they might want to be in the future. We only practiced for a couple of weeks before, and they were not very polished. Plus they only had one microphone, and we had planned on two so we had to make some quick last minute adjustments, and it was hard to hear them. They still got a blue ribbon, which was excellent for the first try.


Noah took this picture to enter in the special contest for next year's fair. Pictures need to represent the title "Meet Me at the Fair"


This will most likely be my entry.


Ben got in on the fun too, and enjoyed the merry go round.


Here is a picture of John getting ready to go on the Round-up. Not a ride you would ever see me on. Noah went on it too a bit later. He was scared at first but really enjoyed it in the end. Overall we had a great time at the fair.