Fair Week, July 20-24

Aunt Betty said I needed to post some fair results, but I don't have pictures of everything. Maybe when the kids get up. The 4-H conference judging was Wednesday the 18th. Since it was Mallory's first year, I was allowed to sit in on that. She had taken a write up on what she had done to room and the judge was very impressed by what she had planned and coordinated. She received a blue and a "Considered for State" ribbon, even though it's only honorary for first year 4-Hers. Next year, she'll be old enough to take something to State Fair. Next she had her monkey bread. This judge was very fun. Mallory interacted with her a lot. I'm guessing a lot of it was the fact that it was so fresh in her mind. Everything else was done a while back that it was hard to remember what she had done! She received a blue ribbon on that, too. Next was her garden paver. We did that fairly recently, but it started out as a kit and judges don't like kits. It was to be a mosaic from little bits of glass, but Mallory had instead used the flat marbles she had collected from weddings. They were all very special weddings to her, but she never really made it clear that the design was hers, and not part of the kit. She did tell how she had planned to make two little hearts, but there wasn't room when she transferred the design, so she just made some lines to balance out the crosses. That did impress the judge. She got a blue ribbon on that, too. Finally, there was the kitty cat wall hanging she made me for Mother's Day. The judge was very impressed with that. The only problem was that Mother's Day was so very long ago and Mallory just couldn't remember when the tabs went in. I told her when we were writing up the commentary when the tabs would have had to have gone in, but she just didn't remember it that way. Then the judge could sense her confusion and told her when they would have had to have gone in, but she couldn't convince her either. She received a blue and a "Considered for State." It was a really amazing time.

Friday was open class. Mallory entered two plaster items she had painted and got blues on both. Morgan got a blue and a red on his, and Matthew got a blue and two reds. Matthew entered a monkey bread and Morgan a banana bread, and those both got blue. Doug and Abby were here and decided to do some baking, too. Doug made a coffee cake and Abby some cookies, and they both got blues. The boys entered their garden pavers they made at Maranatha and both of those got blue. Matthew entered the pillow he made me for Mother's Day and got purple!! My wedding cake got a purple, too, but you can find out more about that on my cake blog.

We also sneaked through Pa Rose's garden to enter some things for him because he never does, but we found out why! Nothing was quite ready. We entered some dill that got blue, carrots that got red, and green beans that got a participation. Later, Michael raided his fridge and came home with some good looking stuff. Grrr.... the fridge!! That's where the good stuff is!! Oh, well. Next year!!

On Saturday, Mallory made her cherry pie for the contest. It did not go well at first, and the helpers came over to see if they could help her figure it out. They kept looking at me even though I wasn't supposed to say anything, so I didn't. Then they tried to tell her to just add some water, which I thought was a huge mistake because we had tried something of the sort that week and it didn't work well. They were still looking at me so I just told her to start over. I thought it would be much easier and less stressful in the long run, even though it can take her three hours to bake a pie. She decided to do that, and I could just see the relief. She was much more focused and less nervous and it all went incredibly smoothly. And it only took an hour and a half!

Out of the 49 pies, I thought hers looked the best! They only tell you the first and second place winners, so we won't know how she did. We only know it was beautiful. Some of our friends bought it at the auction and said it was really good, too!

Morgan at Maranatha

We really did have a wonderful week at Maranatha... even though it was camping. I tried not to do too much fussing. I had taken my pictures to crop, thinking there would be plenty of times when everyone else was outside and I could be in the air conditioning being productive. Not so much. I did get a lot done, but one whole days' free time was spent getting a tire fixed 50 miles away, and the other one I really did pretty much spend outside. Yes, you should be proud of me. The first night there was checking in and getting acquainted with the place. Dad repeatedly tried to get me on a bike, but I thought my rear on a bike seat was something I didn't care to share with the world. Besides, after fours years at Iowa State, the Maranatha campus wasn't really THAT big!! Anyway, the second day was the Fourth of July, which is the day they open the camp up to the public. That was the day I got the most cropping done. I don't like huge crowds OR being outside, so the two together didn't sound like my kind of day. There was a concert in the evening, followed by some really spectacular fireworks.

The next day was filled with their normal programming: some chapel services, praise and worship, and activities on the waterfront and on the rock wall. This was the day I went to get the tire fixed, so I missed a lot of that, but the services were wonderful. After the last service some people gathered for a baptism, and Morgan told his daddy that he'd like to be baptized, too. Michael talked to the director and he said that everything there was very informal, so if he'd like to baptize Morgan it was a great time! It was all so amazing. It was an incredibly peaceful evening and something we'll remember forever!!

A couple monkeys

Mallory and Matthew practiced a couple monkey breads before leaving for a week at Maranatha Family Camp. Mallory will enter hers in the 4-H division, and Matthew will put his in open class. Mallory had to have her 4-H entries decided before we left on vacation, so that allowed us to keep it simple!! At least I thought I did! We entered her in the cherry pie baking contest, which is where she would have to take everything to the fair and make her pie there. She also had a cat wall hanging done that she made for me for Mother's Day, and she had a garden paver kit that she got for her birthday. We knew we could make some at Maranatha, so we wanted that one to wait until we got back and had practiced! We also planned to write up what she had done to her room. That would make four entries plus her contest and I thought that would be enough for her first year. If not, she could still enter anything she wanted in open class, as we have done for the past few years. We also had some entries planned for the boys, but that didn't need to be decided beforehand; just the 4-H division. We left for vacation thinking things were as "under control" as they could be!

Meanwhile, the kittens were trying to prove they were house worthy, so we blocked off the crawl through and let them stay in the basement. We had Sarah come over and check on them, so we were hoping they could be good for six days! It's a lot to ask of a kitty, but they said they'd do their best!

June 25, 2007, Gearing up for fair

We needed to get some cherry pie practice in before leaving on vacation, so we tried a quick one! It was very hard, and we only wound up with a single crust, but that makes for a good single crust pie! She tried again, and got a two crust pie done, but it was really hard. She enjoyed herself, though, so we knew more practice was going to be fine with her!

June 24, 2007

I don't usually start my ramblings with dates, but due to lack of internet, I'm pretty far behind!! I'm on dial up right now, so I have to keep this short. If a call comes in, I can't retrieve it from this computer and the other one isn't hooked up to a phone line.

Anyway, June 24, Mallory was baptized. Pastor Norm baptized seven people at the Ambassador Wellness Center, but he invited her dad and grandpa to be part of baptizing her. Baptism was something Mallory had been pursuing for quite some time and I wanted to leave that up to her. Since it represents the personal decision she has made, I wanted her public announcement, the baptism itself, to also be of her design. It's just so awesome to see your children choose Christ! We had a little reception here afterwards that was really quite memorable. She asked several people to come and had me call a few that afternoon to make sure they were coming! It's nice to have a decision stick out in their minds. Mom counted about 25 people here. It was a very warm and intimate time, and just exactly what we hoped would happen. Pastor Norm opened the invitation at the baptism to anyone else who wanted to be baptized at that time. The boys have both made decisions for Christ, but they have their own plans for their baptisms. More to come on that subject...