Fair results!

Well, I promised I'd be back with some fair results and I even have some good pictures (oh my new camera, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!)

The theme for fair this year was "Keepin' It Country", and I completely forgot to bring scrapbook pages or any sort of crafty thing, because I was so busy trying to get food stuff together. Hubby did pick some veggies out of our garden for the garden class, and the girls decorated book covers while we were there for that contest. Here's our results:

Green beans - no place
Giant Zucchini - 2nd Place
Giant Vegetable - 1st Place (cucumber)
Slicing cucumbers - no place
Summer Squash (yellow straight or crooked neck) - no place, but the judge said ours would have gotten first if the straight and crooked neck were in different classes)
Summer Squash (zucchini or coccozelle type) - 2nd place
Whole Wheat Bread - 1st Place AND Overall Yeast Bread (won 25 lb bag of flour!)
Miscellaneous Yeast Bread - 1st Place (Pretzels)
Banana Bread - 3rd Place
Zucchini Bread - 3rd Place
Pumpkin Bread - 2nd Place
Fruit/Vegetable Batter Cake - 1st Place (carrot cake)
Any Cookie made by person 13 and under - 1st Place (Eva's Gingerbread Men)
Intermediate Level Decorated Cake - 1st Place
Canned Fruits - 2nd Place (Pear Sauce) and 3rd Place (Peaches)
Canned Vegetables - 2nd Place (Green Beans)
Pickles - 1st Place (Bread and Butter Pickles) and 2nd Place (Dill Pickles)
Spiced Products - 1st Place (Zesty Salsa)
Relishes - 1st Place (Sweet Pickle Relish)
Butters and Jams - 3rd Place (Strawberry Jam)
Jellies - 2nd Place (Pomegranate Jelly)
Miscellaneous - 2nd Place (Apple Syrup)
Miscellaneous B - 1st Place (Spaghetti Sauce)
Decorate a Book Cover, 3 and Under Division - 2nd Place
Decorate a Book Cover, 4-6 Division - 4th Place

So, total premium money was $51.50, and the bag of flour (according to MIL who bought an identical one for fair baking) runs about $17 at the grocery store. Not bad!

Besides spending ALL DAY on Friday with the foods (and skipping the BBQ afterwards to relax at an air conditioned restaurant) the girls and I stayed overnight at MILs house so that we could see the parade in the morning. The girls got a ton of candy...and Eva didn't find it funny when I suggested we put it up until Halloween and use it for trick or treaters (I have never actually been around to hand out candy to trick or treaters, to be honest...most kids around here don't go trick or treating, other than the downtown event, and possibly to relatives houses...)

Saturday, the Knights of Columbus put on Kid's Games. They were divided by ages and sexes, which was great news for Charlotte, but not as great of news for Eva. Charlotte had 2 other girls in her division...so she came in first, second or third on all four races. Eva had about 10 little girls in hers, so she only placed in one race: the three legged race, and she and her little partner took first. Then the Knights do a penny scramble, where they throw money into sawdust on a tarp, and give the kids a minute to dig in it...the big kids all stand around and whine while the little kids are digging, because it is SOOO easy to find the money then (unless you are a 3 year old!) All in all, the girls came home with $5.35 from the kids games. They also got to pet animals at the petting zoo. There were NO RIDES this year at the fair, which made Eva sad. We did eventually find the bouncy house thing, but not until I was out of cash and out of energy. When we went back Sunday morning, it had already been packed up.

I met a woman and her husband that I just really clicked with...they own several cows, and sell shares in their herd of animals...if you buy a share of a cow, you are entitled to 1 gallon of raw milk per week for a monthly herd maintenance charge of $28. They also have chickens, goats and three little boys that they home school (the oldest is a little bit older than Eva, and the youngest is just a little bit younger than Charlotte. She's working on having some goat cheese making workshops before too long, and I am really looking forward to that. She also told me that I could bring the kids by anytime, and learn how to milk. Yeah, she's basically everything I'd want to be if I were in the country...don't know if I'll ever get that far (she rendered the lard for her apple pie!) but it's cool to meet someone who does all that. They even have a website for their farm.

Now, I really should get to cleaning up the kitchen from my all day baking disaster!