my blue ribbon winning girl 2.0

This year Julianna entered three items into the Dixie Classic Fair competitive entries.  It was going to be hard to top last year and she really didn't want to do it this year anyway, but I persuaded her with some strong arguing and reminder that rides cost money and ribbon winners get prize money.  Although I don't want to make her do anything that she really doesn't want to do if I don't have to, this is one of those traditions in my life that is kinda important to me and I knew she would be glad that she did it when she saw her work on display at the fair.  In the end, we honestly scrambled a lot the night before the entries were to be dropped off at the fair grounds and we didn't have the energy to put much effort into it.  We got it done though and my mom was kind enough to take them by the fairgrounds while we were at school.

Jules entered a decorated potato, a craft made of recyclable materials, and a ceramic. Unfortunately, when we got the entry tags in the mail the week before the fair, it turned out that she was entered as a 1st/2nd grader for her recyclable craft.  The others she was included correctly in the PreK/K category.  Oh well. I probably made a mistake filling out the paperwork and I knew it really wouldn't be a big deal.

The theme for this year's fair was Everyone's a Hero and most of the entries had to reflect that theme in some way or another.  This is what stumped us. I know nothing about comic book characters and apparently my daughter knows more than I do.

Eventually Julianna came up with the idea to make some of the characters from the Fantastic Four.  She made The Thing for her potato by drawing lines all over it to look like cracked, wrinkly skin.  She made The Human Torch out of recycled materials by stacking yellow Solo cups and attaching plastic bottle caps and crepe paper streamers.  Her ceramic dragon was something we had made earlier in the summer and she didn't have to do anything to it to get it ready to enter.

When the fair started we were at the beach for a friend's wedding so we were so excited to hear from my mom that she won three ribbons to add to her collection (first, third, and fifth).  It was funny because Mom kept calling back to report a new result on the different entries as she went from building to building throughout the fairgrounds.  We're really weren't expecting her to place at all considering how hurriedly we finished the decorating.

Naturally, Josh was eager to participate.  He had no idea what we were doing, but he was all about doing it.  He painted an apple silver and we called it the Silver Surfer.  He got an honorable mention ribbon for his participation.

Have you ever entered anything in a fair?  Did you win anything?