I LOVE 4-H! We have awesome extension agents and helpers who are very serious about helping kids learn! Mahayla was able to take a sewing class this semester where they made laundry bags, pillow cases, backpacks, garment hanging bags and a roll-up for accessories. We still have one more lesson where the girls will make pajama pants, too!
Mahayla entered most of her sewing projects into the fair and won Grand Champion on two of them!
Between Mahayla and Caleb, they entered 14 different projects in the categories of sewing, homemade soap, canned veggies, beaded jewelry and art and came home with FIVE Grand Champion ribbons, 12 Blue Ribbons and 2 Red Ribbons. The Grand Champion items will go to the State Fair in August! (Caleb wanted me to insert here that his projects were only in canning, soap and art – he DID NOT make any jewelry or sew any girlie stuff.)
And together, they brought home $41 in prize money to boot!
Goat showing, well, it didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned. We were complete newbies – and everyone there knew it! Ha! From where to go and what to do, we didn’t have the first clue. Granted, after many required hours of goat and livestock classes we should’ve known what was going on, but the classes didn’t ever teach the practical side of show day. Oh well, live and learn is a saying that truly fits in this situation. We’ll know better next time. In fact, we were so lost that we completely missed showing goats during one round because we had no idea that we weren’t finished after the first showmanship round. There is apparently a showing class based on the weight of the goats that took place while our kids were screaming at the top of the ferris wheel! Oops!
Below is Mahayla with her Daddy. They were watching Caleb show goats. Caleb was able to watch a few more rounds than her, which gave him a distinct advantage in the ring. She’s busy telling her dad how ticked she is that he didn’t work his goat NEARLY as often or as hard as her, but was placing higher.
Eli was SO cute! And made everyone melt as he talked to the judge. Again, we had no idea the kids would be questioned by the judge, so that’s yet another thing we were unprepared for. But the kids held their own even under the surprise pressure.
Here’s Eli’s conversation with the judge. He didn’t skip a beat.
Judge: And what’s your name young man?
Eli: Eli
Judge: How old are you, Eli?
Eli: Two (He’s not, he’s three and a half!)
Judge: Wow! Two? (Eli shakes his head ‘yes’.) And what’s your goat’s name?
Eli: Sister, but this is my brother’s goat, Brother. (Eli’s goat had a hurt foot, so he showed Caleb’s goat, which Eli calls Brother.)
Judge: That’s a really long name! What do you like best about your goat, Eli?
Eli: When he pets me.
Judge: You like when the goat pets you? (Eli nods ‘yes’.)
Baseball and softball season makes for a b-u-s-y life. But, it’s so much fun. Fresh air, exercise, cheering on my children, encouraging other children – good stuff.
This is Caleb’s 6th year of ball – 1st year in B-ball (kid pitch) where he plays 2nd and right-center field for the Red Sox. Their team is very competitive this year, but better yet, they have encouraging coaches who are there to instruct rather than criticize. (I can’t say that for all the team’s coaches, sadly.)
Mahayla is in her 3rd year of softball with the Wildcats. She plays wherever she’s needed and happily goes about her day whether her team wins or loses. And it’s a good thing, because her team has yet to win.
We’ve been so busy enjoying summer that I may or may not post regularly for a while. In the mean time, here are just a few things we’ve been up to besides ball games…
Melissa and her children drove down for a visit recently. Of course, we took a nature walk together! This picture of the boys is the only good picture I took all day – we were too busy enjoying one another! We also spent some time talking about future publications from Shining Dawn Books. Once we release the Incredible Creeks unit in July or August, we plan to start thinking about other products – some nature related, some not. I think you’ll be excited about them!
My niece had her 6th birthday party at the YMCA with a gymnastics theme. The kids had a blast!
We spent Father’s Day evening hanging out at the drive-in together. Toy Story 3 is a great little movie!
We took a nice break during a trip full of errands in Lexington to ride paddle boats. I’ll post about that adventure soon.
And we’ve been busy this week with the county fair. I’ll write a post about showing goats and some of the 4-H entries soon, too. The short of it – we were fairly obvious newbies in the goat showing circle (Ha!), but the kids came home with lots of red, blue and grand champion ribbons for their 4-H entries!
I hope your summer has been full of memory making fun, too!!
I went out the other day on a nature walk by myself with the sole purpose of practicing my nature photography skills. I have so far to go, but I thought I’d share some of the amazing creation God supplied during that walk.
Later that day, my son found this itty-bitty guy in the field. It’s an Eastern American Toad according to thesetwo websites. Even though this variety of toad stays small, it seems as if this might have been a young toad since it was super tiny.
And, while I was was mowing grass the following day, I found this really big guy! It’s a Polyphemus Moth who was injured – poor thing.
This is my Granny. She’s 88. She lives with my aunt and uncle in Alabama. Her health is declining and she once told me she would probably never make it back to Kentucky again. The Lord saw fit for her to be able to not only make it back to Kentucky, but have the energy to attend a family reunion over Memorial Day weekend.
Isn’t she beautiful?
The reunion was filled with people I had never met from my Granny’s family. Although I enjoyed meeting and talking with them, I was more intrigued with soaking up every bit of my Granny while I could.
I didn’t even know she once played the guitar and many of her family’s gatherings once centered around singing and playing together. That day, we enjoyed lots of old-time hymns and bluegrass music with my Granny and two of her nephews.
You can’t hear her singing very well, but her songs were just precious to me.
Back Row: Steve (my husband), Me, Eli, Mahayla, Dad, Sister, Uncle
After the reunion, we took some time to visit many family members already with the Lord. This headstone represents my great, great grandma, whom Mahayla was named after – her great, great, great grandma.
Caleb requested pineapple upside-down cake for his family party, and it just so happened that there were 10 pineapples in which to place candles. (I had to make cupcakes for church friends AND chocolate chip cookies for his baseball team. Whew!)
Take a look at Eli’s little bald head. I was using the close-cut electric razor on the back of my husband’s neck before church a couple weeks ago and set the razor down for only a split second. Within that split second, Eli had grabbed the razor and cut two huge strips from the top of his head. There was nothing else to do except finish his job. This bald head had already seen two weeks worth of growth!
I snapped this picture of my husband helping his 84-year-old grandma out to her car after the party. Aren’t they cute holding hands?
You never know what I might be writing about - homeschool plans, field trips, projects, family life, and so much more. I hope you'll consider using the subscribe button at the top of my blog to keep up with all the happenings at Westward Academy. And, by the way, I love comments!
