Fair Week 2011 - Tuesday

Another busy day at the fair.  We headed out to the fairgrounds bright and early so that Boy Wonder could take care of his chickens before he had his interview with the photography judge.  The Munchkin and I made our way to where she would be showing her photos, but once there found out we were almost an hour early.  There were a few people starting to line up so we got in line and it was a good thing.  As it turns out there were well over 100 little ones participating in the Clover Sprouts projects!

By the way, I apologize if yesterday's blog post was a little "discombobulated" for lack of a better term.  I kept falling asleep while I typed it and occasionally awoke to find pure gibberish on my screen, like "Boy Wonder brought home 2nd Place in Poultry and sheets." Wha??? I even hit "Publish Post" in my sleep and just didn't have the energy to go back and double check it.  It isn't too bad, but now that you know you can kinda tell I was off my game.  Too funny! 

Well, I know you are on the edge of your seats for today's fair report so here goes...

• The Munchkin's photos were given high praise and each received a lovely neon green Clover Sprouts ribbon.  It's really not much of a real competition, but more of a just getting experience so that when they move on to "real" 4H they have an idea of how the whole fair/interview process works

• Boy Wonder's photographs also received high praise from his judge. He was told that his portrait (of the Munchkin) was the best the judge had seen so far.  His landscape (a lighthouse), animal (a baby chick) and collages were also given very high marks.  With such strong compliments, it was disappointing to find out that none of his photos received any trophies.  It's hard to encourage your child to accept defeat graciously when you feel they've been "robbed", but we gave it our best.  My biggest fear was that he might be discouraged from trying again in the future, but despite his disappointment, he says he'd try again.

• Boy Wonder has begun his "crash course" in Showmanship Sweepstakes preparation.  Today he work with a couple of boys who shared their knowledge of Sheep Showmanship.  It's so cool to see these kids work together and freely share information with one another.

• Tram rides--the fair has a tractor-pulled tram that takes people all over the fairgrounds.  Riding on it is one of our favorite parts of fair.  Especially after 4, when the horse-drawn trams come into operation.  There's not alot for the Little Prince to do quite yet at fair, but the horse-drawn trams definitely top his list right now.

We also had our share of fair food ... love those elephant ears... and looked at lots of animals today.  The Munchkin has a soft spot for horses so she and I took a trip through the horse barns.  Several 4H-ers let her pet their horses and she was in h-e-a-v-e-n.  She has begun her campaign to convince her daddy she must have one in earnest, but so far he isn't budging :)