Our first year of 4H

My girls participated in 4H this year for the first time.  I never participated in 4H, so we had no clue what to expect.

And what to expect is a post for another time.  This post is about the “highlight” of the 4H year – the local County Fair – a chance to display your hard work and compete for awards.

We headed to the fair with family for the day.

My very excited 4H’ers couldn’t wait for the building to open so they could see their work on display find out if they had won anything.

K (age 8) entered several of her craft projects.  The maraca she made in her art class co-op this year took first place!  (purple – center of the back row on the table)

Several other crafts took ribbons, leaving her quite ecstatic!

She also carried the Food and Nutrition category this year and entered four baked good categories, all took ribbons.  Two of her cookies took first place!

Her chocolate chip cookies…

Her refrigerator slice and bake cookies…

Now…a funny story about her refrigerator slice and bake cookies, as embarrassing as it is, it will surely reveal the lack of 4H material I am… 

I am NOT a cook, baker or chef.  I picked the slice and bake category for her because I thought it would be EASY.  When I got to the fair, I asked how on earth we should list the ingredients…

Should we just write the brand?  (quizzical stare in my direction)

I mean, do we just write Pillsbury and the type?  Do we write the brand?  How do we list ingredients?

AH…then the high school 4He'r understood me…

“I think,” she said politely, “that you make the refrigerated cookie dough from scratch and then you slice and bake the cookies.”

OH.  DUH.  I didn’t think that would be much of a competition.  *sigh

We needed a plan B…and thankfully our Plan B won first prize!

My little clover displayed 8 of her projects too!  She enjoyed her green clover participation ribbons!

Then we enjoyed the many other aspects of the fair together.

It was a wonderful day, and the rest of the week was just as enjoyable.  Yes, it was a FULL FAIR WEEK!  We spent 4 days there enjoying 4H competitions, duties, and family fun!