County Fair 2014 - Part 1

When county fair time rolls around what do you think of?...Animals...ribbons...food...All of these things and more are woven into our family's fair each year. This one was no exception. As 4-Hers Megan and Malissa spend their summer "free" time getting ready for the fair.

There are bucket calves to teach to lead and care for. (The picture of enthusiasm.)

Pictures to take. Art to cut, glue, and paint. And on and on and...

Consultation judging is the first hurdle to overcome and ours started on July 16th - 9 days before the official start to the fair: just 5 days after we came home from our vacation. Megan and Malissa both had photography and visual arts entries. In fact, for Megan these were the only projects she was in - so this is it for her. So with paint tacky and glue just dry enough to stick, the girls sat down to the most painful part of judging. The Critique.

The best part of this process? The judge gives them all sorts of great tips for improving. It takes great perseverance on my part to not say "I told you so." It's just so much better to hear these things from someone other than their mother!

I admit - I learn a lot from these too. I have zero knowledge and ability in art so of course the girls are always in it. They don't receive a lot of help from me. Just a "Good Luck!" Usually I quiz them afterwards trying to find out what tidbits they picked up. ("What do you mean you don't remember...you were taking to the judge for 20 minutes!)

After consultation judging the non-purple art projects come home. But the photography stays for the upcoming fair. I assume its a storage issue. Pictures stack. A lot of art projects just take up too much room.

With my fair baby sitter firmly lined up (Megan may be rethinking this not having regular fair exhibits thing.) Malissa bakes...and bakes...and bakes some more. We all usually put on a pound or 2 while cleaning up all the practice. We all usually put on a pound or 2 while cleaning up all the practice. And occasionally we head outside to wash or walk the bucket calf. By the way - the calf is a heifer named Lollipop.

Finally, the day before the fair, Malissa made a peach pie, peanut butter blossoms, sour cream chocolate cake, yeast bread and banana bread. Phew!

With the morning of July 25th we are loading up the calf alongside cousins that have 4-H dairy heifers. Then we pack up all our food and art, hunt down all the entry cards and head for town. Arriving at the fair building it is bedlam. I am feeling very fortunate right now that Megan stayed home to watch her younger siblings because the last thing anyone needs are my 3 youngest running around underfoot.
Malissa and I check in her and Megan's visual art projects and then I take custody of the food while Malissa heads over to settle in her calf. My job this year at the fair is to help the judges with the food so I head over to help. When Malissa returns she gets in line and waits for the foods judges. Once again consultation judging gives her some great tips for next year. A lot of the things she made this year were new to her like the yeast bread and the pie. The intermediate division has a lot of entries so its really tough!

That afternoon Malissa sits down with a judge for consultation judging with her bucket calf. This is a little different in that there aren't any tips. The job of the judge is to quiz Malissa on her knowledge of her calf, calf care and cattle in general.

And with that Day 1 is done. Part 2 will pick up the next day. More fun awaits!

Ball Season Has Begun

Last Thursday was the first game of the softball season. This will be Laura’s first year playing in Wee Pee. She is so exciting to be playing real ball this year. Malissa is playing Pee Wee ball. She is hoping that her hitting has improved. This year Megan has decided not to play. She prefers a more laid back and less serious approach to softball. So this year I have a babysitter!

Our first game is at Corning.

Little Laura might possibly be the smallest on the team. Her jersey is “0” and the smaller the number the smaller the jersey. It’s all she can do to haul that bat around.

But that didn’t stop her from getting a hit!

I love watching this age group. Everyone bats around. No scores are kept. We just learn how to hit the ball, which direction to run around the bases and where the different positions are. There is a lot of playing in the dirt. Laura did an entertaining dance in right field. She actually got hit by a ball while running the bases and shook it off like a pro (or at least like a sister used to rough and tumbling.)

Malissa is up to bat in her game following Laura’s game.

And she gets on base. The final score was a win for Baileyville at 18-4. The girls did a great job.

Good Luck girls on a fun and exciting softball season. This was a great start!

A Kindergarten Graduation

Have you ever read the poem “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum? As you read it you find yourself nodding your head in agreement with everything it says. Somehow this poem doesn’t mention the massive amount of artwork that the modern kindergartener will drag home from school.

I had no idea that the volume of artwork would cover this entire wall. What you see isn’t even all of it. A few favorite pieces had already made it to Laura’s room are were not hang-up-on-the-wall material. However, I like to think that Jesus was happy for the company.

So on May 20th Laura made the first big step in her school career with Kindergarten graduation.

Many nursery rhymes were sung with great enthusiasm by Laura and her classmates. In this picture I believe it was Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

Laura received her Diploma from Dr. Beck with her teacher Mrs. Jones announcing the exciting event.

Mrs. Jones and Laura pose together.

So how does the poem end?

When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

Congratulations Laura!

Another Year Older

Malissa has celebrated one year older today.

I would like someone to tell me how it could possibly be that she is 11 years old today. Today was even her last day of 5th grade and the first day of the softball season.

Is it even conceivable that she is now officially a 6th grader and will be in middle school next August?

We love you Malissa and wish you a very Happy Birthday!

Easter and Easter Bunny

So the balancing act continues.

On one hand we want our children to understand that the season of Lent and Holy Week culminating in the Resurrection is the most important time in the life of a Christian.

The foremost concerns of our children are a little different. What days can I have the treat that I gave up for Lent? How many times do we have to go to Church? How many days until the Easter Bunny visits? I want to wear this dress to Church! You mean we have to go to Church again today!?!

Karla and Laura at the CYO Easter Egg Hunt on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Laura planned on wearing this dress days before the actual event. Gabe participated too but he didn’t quite get it.

Somehow we made it home without any palm branches on Palm Sunday so no pictures of palm welding children. This is how it usually goes down.

Egg dyeing thus year was another non-picture event. For the first time ever I hard-boiled some eggs – handed the eggs and egg dye kit to the big girls – and said have fun. Such a liberating event. Of course mom was still on the quick-clean-it-up-before-Gabe-gets-up-from-his-nap duty!

This is as close as we were able to get to a family Easter portrait. We attended the Easter Vigil mass on Saturday night. But I always forget how long it is. When we left at just short of 2 hours later there were no more smiles. Just some very crabby kids. (And possibly some parents as well.) Kids can make it challenging but there is soooo much going on at the Vigil mass! Very worth the effort.

And now for the “real” Easter morning portrait… and yes Karla IS still wearing her dress from the previous night.

And a close up…Gabe was stuffing whole peeps in his mouth. I think he approves of this candy thing.

Hope you had a good Easter!

Tricky Words

Were you ever in the spelling bee as a kid? I was terrible at spelling. There was zero chance I would ever end up representing my school in any kind of spelling contest. Spell check was invented for people like me. However Megan has had the chance to attend the Nemaha County Spelling Bee on January 18th for the second year in a row on behalf of her B&B class.

Megan standing at the podium spelling a word. The one that tripped her up this year was “bequeathed.”

Megan with her participation certificate. We are very proud of the great job she did!

Hold on a moment!

Wait a second! Did we really just jump from Karla’s birthday to Megan’s Birthday without doing anything in the time between?

Of course we did stuff! This is just the household of a 1 year old and a 3 year old. Mixed in with a 5 year old, 10 year old and a teenager. Things don’t get done!

So a little bit of an update is overdue.

The beginning of February saw a snow storm with the corresponding day off of school. This dry cow doesn’t seem to mind the snow so much as the wind. And yes, I was outside taking snow pictures because there were five crazy kids stuck in the house together.

When not grabbing a bite to eat these dry cows sheltered in the shed and wisely refrained from having babies.

Next was the B&B Alumni Reunion weekend to celebrate the legacy of B&B schools. For those who don’t know, B&B jr/sr high school is closing this year. Many events surrounded this weekend festivities. A home basketball game on Friday Feb. 7th kicked everything off. After the game was a speech by Ed Broxterman (our local olympian) a presentation of all the different athletic awards won by the school since its inception, and some of the junior high and high school kids performing “Cups”. In the semi-circle, Megan is the second person closest to the camera in the light blue shirt. They did a great job!

The following day Megan helped model old uniforms at the alumni banquet. I don’t have a picture of that but here She is with a poem she wrote.

Megan and her locker this year.

Next up is the 4-H club days February 15th. Here Malissa is doing a reading. If I remember right it is Green Eggs and Ham.

Megan is reading Biggest Shadow in the Zoo. (Its about an elephant) Megan will get to participate in Regional 4-H Days with her reading.

Also not pictured but during the month of February, Megan participated in Junior High Scholars Bowl. Which she really enjoyed. She is also taking guitar lessons. Which she also enjoyed.

This is the closest we have to a group shot for February.

Plus Malissa.

And that is February in a nutshell. Hope you had a great one too!