4-H and the Fair

Last week was a busy week for the kids and me. With the county fair and all the 4-H projects going on at the fair. I'm glad to say it's over until next year. Well, just until the state fair. That is actually an easy one this year because all we have to do is make bread.

 The kids and I volunteered checking in photos for photography project for a couple of hours. The time went by quickly.

Little Man is meeting with the judge for his rocket.

 He received a blue ribbon. He had issues putting on the decals. Which was a first time he had to use decals as all the previous rockets had stickers. This took him down a ribbon. He can't go to state with a blue. There is always next year. Hopefully, next year we can locate a rocket kit without decals.

 Little Man's best project is always photography. You can submit 6 photos and take only one to state with a purple ribbon. He received 5 purples and 1 blue. The judge was impressed with his eye and skill with a camera. He is going to take his photo of the squirrel.

 Little Man received a purple for his tree. Arts and crafts the judges can only choose 7 projects from the county for the state as their is a whole plethora of arts and crafts.

 Bug was over joyed to help the judge out this year while he judged the boxes. She loved seeing all the insects up close and personal.

 Then it was her time for judging. She has 300 insects, 19 orders, and 57 families labeled out of 6 orders. 

 She is maxed out in her level. We are going to stay at this level another year as she has moved up fast. (by choice as she could go up to the next level) All she will need to do next year is switch out 13 new insects to make it different and she already has those pinned and ready to go. 

 After that it gets tougher at the state level as it all in the numbers. She has always been at the top in the last three class levels. That won't be the case when she can have 3 boxes and 450 insects and needs to have 7 orders with families labeled. The good thing is that she will have another 5 years in the last level! It will be much tougher finding insects she doesn't have already. Not to mention trying to find the families for the tree and plant hoppers which is the only reason she didn't have all 7 orders with families. It will take a full year just figuring out what family they go in. It makes my eyes cross as they are tough little buggers to identify them!

 Yep, she got a purple and Dale told her to grab herself her ribbon. The only thing she has to do before state is to investigate one insects identification.

 Good job Bug!

 Then back to judging. The only bad thing about her helping out with the judging is that she was making a mental list of insects she wants for her box. She had her entomology leaders chuckling as she would get big eyed and whisper to use what she is going to find. I bet she will locate them fast as she is now officially stuck on finding a dozen or more insects. The joy of having a daughter with Autism.

 Who would of ever thought I would be chasing insects and helping my child pin insects. I'm glad we have a full 2 years to prepare for the next and final level.

 She was glad to finally add more moths and butterflies. Her big excitement this year was having the male and female Luna Moth.

 Next year she  wants to do an education box on bag worms. Which she already has the male and female bag worm. She just needs to do some research. Dale gave her some ideals to do with the female bag worms. She will grab more females off a tree in the coming months to show some interesting things with the females. She has a year to get that ready.

Bug also did photography and received 1 purple, 4 blues, and 1 red. She is taking a photo of peacock feathers to the state.

Later in the evening the kids got to go on the rides with their cousin. I had to take Bug into the 4-H building to cool off as I thought she was going to have a heat stroke. She doesn't handle the heat well. We went home after I got her cooled down. We stayed home until it was dark out and much cooler.