Last week was super busy. The kids had their annual 4-H Awards Banquet. Not to mention Thanksgiving week and Bug was in a wedding this weekend.

 Odd he is being serious and not the clown.

 My kids must of switched places.

The kids both received KAP Awards and achievement awards for their pins. Little Man for photography and Bug for her entomology she received the "Nancy Stein Entomology Award" which is the top award application in entomology.

 Little Man's photo went to the 4-H Foundation to be shown around the state.  It was a big night for both kids.

My daughter has been collecting insects for almost 5 years and we have been pretty fortunate to not have any issues of her collections get eaten by the notorious Carpet Beetle Dermatitis in the Coleoptera order .

 We make sure that we keep a pest strip in her boxes and change them out every 6 months.

 With my daughter's Autism she is pretty obsessive with her insects. I couldn't even image what it would do to her if something would happen to her insects.

 Since we moved last October to our new home surrounded by farm land we have to deal with a lot of insects inside. My Bug loves it. I am constantly fighting ants, spiders, and other pest.

One thing we never considered was her framed sealed pictures that have been given to her as gifts. She has a beautiful framed Luna Moth and a pair of Atlas Moths. A beautiful framed butterflies that was gifted to her. They are a good 15+ years and are in a gorgeous antique frame. The pictures are all tightly sealed-right. I guess I assumed they had something already in them to keep the critters away.

 Then one day I was dusting her butterfly frame and I seen that we had a problem. My heart stopped. 

I immediately looked at her Luna Moth and seen a Carpet Beetle Dermatitis on it. I took the moth out and removed the dreaded pest. No major damage! Guess what it had no pesticide in it. I put her Luna Moth and Atlas Moth in the freezer for 48 hours. I was a bit worried that the glass would cause some condensation and damage them. They are fine. Afterwards, I added some of the insect pesticide.

 Her butterfly frame is to large to put on ice. I added a pesticide stripe inside the box. Can you see the larva having a meal? Needless to say the butterflies do have a lot of damage. I will have to wait and see how it all turns out.

 We learned a lesson for sure about not overlooking any of her dead bugs being a meal for another insect. I guess another thing to add to our list with Bugs growing entomology collection.

This year the kids and I actually made it up to the State Fair to participate in the 4-H happenings. Usually, in the past we had others take the projects in for us and pick them up. This year we went up there ourselves.

 Sweet Bug standing by her boxes. She was able to help out this year. She helped count all the insects in the boxes to help prepare for judging.

She received a purple ribbon at the state this year. She loved seeing all the boxes across the state rather than just our county. She now has a bigger list of bugs she wants to collect.

 I had to help her count how many insects and orders are in each box.

 Next year we plan on going up again and getting involved more with 4-H and helping out.

Bug received a purple ribbon on her Challah Bread and a blue ribbon on her photography.

Little Man was a bit bored as we hung around entomology for the most part this year. He received a purple ribbon on his photograph.

Everyone told us that we had to go see the yearly butter sculpture. Amazing, watching the individual work on it. A lot of butter for sure. 

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.  

It's that time again last night was the start of the county fair. The kids get to show off all their hard work with the 4-H projects they have done.

Bug did foods for the first time this year. She made Challah Bread and wowed her judge with the taste of it.

She always gets excited when she gets a purple ribbon. She can make the bread and go to the State Fair with her bread.

Last year we took a break from Arts and Crafts. Little Man decided to submit his tree craft this year and he did an amazing job explaining all the work he put into this craft and received a purple ribbon also his effort.

Look we are actually sitting down and watching the parade off of main street this year. It was a miserable hot and humid day.

Love the face of surprise that I snapped a picture of him. He is always so facial.

Sweet Bug was getting hot and red face getting ready to watch the parade.

Usually, we are walking in the parade with these folks- our old 4-H group from Wichita! They just waved at us and threw lots of candy.

We enjoy living in the small town that host the county fair. No more finding parking with the crowded fair grounds. We can walk there. 

The kids and I have been volunteering for more things this year.

Lots of political candidates along the parade route.

I love the Clydesdale Horses.

MMMM, not sure who he represents in the parade but, the horse is pretty.

Another political candidate in a fancy car. Little Man wants it of course.

All the old tractors coming down Main Street. John Deere it looks like.

Okay, this is a Ford tractor.

Love the old rusty tractor.

The joys of living in a small town surrounded by farm land.

The kids filled up a whole grocery sack of candy and lots of campaign brouchures. The parade is much longer sitting on the side lines watching it go by.

Today we hit the road running. The kids are volunteering for photography and get judged on their photos. Little Man gets to meet with the judge for Rocketry. 

Friday Bug is volunteering to help out with Entomology judging and gets her box judged.