The County Fair 2011

I was in 4H as a kid and I loved it. When the time came to put my kids in a 4H group, I couldn't find one that would let us in, so I started my own group! Last year was our first year doing it, and we were a little slow on the draw for full participation in the countywide activities. But his year, we have been fully invested in the activities. Family nights, Tye dye days, Robotics Club, Boot Camps...so many things! And the kids got to enter some of the projects we have worked on into the county fair. They were so excited because, as a 4H-er, each entry wins a cash prize of some sort, so they wanted to enter as many things as they could!

 Owen isn't a full 4H-er because he isn't old enough, but he is considered a Cloverbud and was able to enter things as well, just not for competition. His entries all won a Cloverbud Green ribbon and one dollar prize monies. Here he is with his entries and his $8 that he won.

Garrett had 13 entries in the fair, so he was assured at least $13 in prize monies. Two of his entries made state level and went on to the State Fair in September, one won second place, and the remaining 10 all won first place in their categories. So instead of the $13 he was expecting, he won $25.50!

The entries of his that went on to state were a poster on patriotism and a jar of peaches that he canned. His peaches also won the Ball Fresh Preserve Award - there were only 2 of those awards given out of all the entries, so he was pretty excited to win that one. For that one he also gets some free coupons for jars and pectin so he can keep canning more things - I'm excited about those!

Teagan had 14 entries into the fair, and 4 of them went on to state, 2 won second, and the other 8 won first place.

Her state qualifiers were a crocheted purse she made, a patriotic poster, a scrapbook of her Activity Days activities, and her story that she wrote for the PBS contest. She was thrilled with the $30 she won at the fair!

It was such a fun experience for them, and there were so many different types of things that they could have entered that we just didn't know about. If we do it again next year, (up in Washington), we will be better prepared and they will be able to enter more things in to the fair. Maybe we will even let them raise some chickens or pigeons to enter in as well!