Our Typical Last-Minute Dash {The Fair of 2017}

Some families put a lot of time and planning into their preparations for entering items in the fair.  Some, so I've heard, even prepare up to a year in advance; and some homeschool families combine their learning with making fair items all through the school year.  That's marvelous, isn't it?

Then, on the other extreme, there's us.

The kids and I have made such a habit out of entering something in the fair that we can't imagine NOT doing it; but yet, it always creeps up on us, and we suddenly find ourselves at the beginning of fair week, not knowing what we're entering, not having the ingredients, and certainly not having anything made.  And despite my best intentions, that's exactly what happened to us again this year.

In the end, however, decisions were made, ingredients were purchased, and items were prepared; and even though we didn't get much sleep since we stayed up late cooking, we still woke up excitedly on Monday morning, eager to take our baked goods to the fair to see how they would do in competition.  :)

But besides baked goods, Tobin and Shav entered a few other things--in Tobin's case, a colored-pencil drawing of a horse (of course), and in Shav's case, a LEGO structure and a fused bead star.  I had told the boys that this would be a learning experience for us; since we haven't been in the practice of entering in those categories, I wasn't quite sure of the details of it all.  For example, in the fused bead category, I had no idea that any materials other than beads could be used (or that more than one item made of beads could be entered as a set); but as it turned out, the winning entries in Shav's age group as well as the one above him used decorated cardboard to put the bead projects on, and that greatly enhanced how they looked (for example, one child made characters out of beads to represent each person in his or her family, then attached those to a board that said something like "My Family").  In comparison to those projects, Shav's beautiful star looked quite simple.  So we learned.  But back to baked goods...  :)

As it turned out, Moriah entered heart-shaped mint brownies (her first time ever entering something in the fair!).  :)  Shav entered cookies-n-cream fudge (seen below)...

 ...Tobin entered almond joy cookies, David entered smores fudge, Josiah entered salted caramel Oreo bark, and I entered peppermint Oreo bark (seen below).  Those last three recipes all came from an amazing website with gorgeous pictures of the food in the recipes.

 Our box of goodies to take, bright and early on Monday morning...

 ...and the cheerful crew who made the treats!  :)

We entered them with no trouble, and then...

...came...

...the...

...wait.

We were originally planning to go to the fair on Tuesday afternoon, which isn't such a long time since Monday morning; but because of a weather forecast of rain and even thunderstorms on Tuesday evening, we decided to delay our visit until Wednesday (which, to eager competitors, feels like A VERY LONG TIME since Monday morning!).  ;-)  A little birdie had told me the results for Moriah's mint brownies, but that was the only item I had heard about, and I didn't tell a soul.  :)

Finally, finally, we got to the fair on Wednesday afternoon and rushed to the exhibit hall to search through the shelves for our items.  It always takes a little bit, and the suspense is delightfully agonizing.  :)  And then we started spotting ribbons.  :)

 Tobin got first for his almond joy cookies!

 Moriah got second for her mint brownies!

 David got first for his smores fudge!

 Josiah got first for his salted caramel Oreo bark!

 The only one of the children who did not place in anything was Shav; and so, at our fair, kids who don't earn a higher ribbon in at least one of their items get a green participation ribbon.  We were a little disappointed to see this on Shav's LEGO project...

 ...(and I will admit to feeling a little extra guilt because Shav really makes some incredible LEGO structures, but because he was literally doing it at about 11:00 the night before, he ended up with something much more simple than he usually builds...besides that, the motorcycle which was supposed to be upright got knocked over, and the truck he built wasn't straight on the road like it should have been...anyway, it wasn't his best work, and I couldn't help but think that if I had been more organized and given him more time to do it, the outcome might have been different...but then today, we found out that one of his friends won the blue ribbon in this category, so we were very, very happy for him).  :)  But I will say that Shav did an incredible job of not letting his disappointment sour his attitude.  He rejoiced with those who placed in their categories, and he had a really fun time at the fair.  He's a winner in my book, let me tell ya!  :)  One other thing about his entries...the category that he entered his fudge was cooked candy, so that included a wide variety of items.  When he gets old enough to compete in the next age group, there are (I believe) three categories just for fudge!  If he had been competing in that age group, I'm sure he would have gotten a ribbon for his cookies-n-cream fudge; but that's just how it goes, and learning to deal with disappointment is an incredibly valuable lesson--even if it's not the most fun one to have to learn!

After we found all the kids' items, I scurried over to the cabinet with the adult entries and was delighted to see a blue ribbon on my item.  :)

Besides the ribbons (which are such a joy to receive!), we're also really glad we entered these items because we've been eating the leftovers of them all week--and maybe that's the best part of all!!  :)