Camille drew this picture and I thought it was too precious not to share. It shows how your seeds grown when you have faith vs. not having faith. I love this girl!

State Fair

Audra and Claire qualified for State Fair for a number of items, but then they also made it for a cooking competition- Creative Cooks. They have qualified for this competition for years past, but we have never done the state competition. But, since they both made it and they were really excited, we decided to do it.

It was a lot of work!

We didn't really know what to expect as this was the first time we went to state fair. We left at 6 AM and drove almost two hours to the fair.

The girls did great! They didn't place, but they performed really well.

 It was great to walk around to see the other things that got turned in- flat bread, cross-stitch, and a quilted table runner for Audra, and triple chocolate quick bread and a dress for Claire.

Audra got 6th place for her table runner, but let me say: The competition is stiff! There are some great quilt makers out there!

If you can see it, she made the fox in the middle. It has a frame around it. She just got a "state qualifier" ribbon, which was still pretty neat.

Claire won Champion for her triple chocolate quick bread! This is pretty cool as it means she won first place for all the quick breads in her age group in the entire state! It's the first time any of them have gotten first at state for anything- go Claire!

Since we had never been to the state fair, we decided to go check things out afterwards. Ben and Camille stayed home since we had no idea what to expect, but it would have been great if they had also come. We saw pig races, high diving, and a circus act. We ate lunch, and maybe would have stayed later to go on the rides, but decided to head home after the shows.

Overall, it was a great day! It was a really fun, country feel which I happened to thoroughly enjoy- much more so than I thought I would.

Overall, it was a great day! Maybe we will do it again next year- with the whole family next time!

First Day of Enrichment

The girls started Enrichment. They weren't super excited- until they got there, and then they had a wonderful time reconnecting with their friends and meeting some new ones.

And, I got to go have breakfast with a friend. Win-win.

Pinewood Derby

I personally hope that the Pinewood Derby dies a thousand deaths, but nevertheless the girls in our congregation were, for the first time, allowed to compete in a Pinewood Derby. The problem for Claire is that neither of her parents cares or knows anything about the Derby, so the effort was very minimal. And, since really the Derby is all about how much effort the parents put in, Claire was hindered from the start.

But, she didn't come in last- she she was pretty happy about that.

And, now it's over so hopefully we never  need to do it again.

Audra's Humor

We were reading about Tienanmen Square and I was telling the kids how I remembered that being all over the news. Audra turned to me and said, "Mom- I can't believe it. You have seen so much in your life! You saw the first rocket take off...."

Umm, for the record- no I didn't. I did not see the first rocket take off.

Fairy Tale Project

To start off the school year we are doing a Fairy Tale Project. We are mixing things up this year with a lot more fun projects, and so we are starting with Fairy Tales- which is something that my girls love. 

We read Hansel and Gretel, and we of course had to make a gingerbread house. I decided we should try using actual gingerbread- not just the graham crackers we use at Christmas time.

Let's just say it didn't go well. The dough was so dry, and the pieces didn't really work together. But, the girls were real troopers. They said, "Well, it's the inside that's the most important anyway, so we are going to just show the inside of the house."

They actually went into great detail. There's three chairs, Gretel cooking, a cage for Hansel. It doesn't look like much in this picture, but there are lots of details from the story put into this. It's super cute!

And, the girls missed Phoebe over the summer, but now they are back to walking their favorite dog.

First Day of School?

It was super HOT, but we had a co-op at the Botanical Gardens, specifically to see this incredible art installation:

It was so cool! Then, we walked around the gardens some more and ended up at the butterfly pavilion area.The girls got really into it, identifying all the butterflies. I thought to myself, "Wait a minute! If we add a few more things, we can count this as our first day of school."

So, we did.

We came home and did some nature journaling- they took the pictures of butterflies they had on my phone, and drew them. Perfect- art. Then, we had something new we are starting this year: Poetry tea (juice) time. This is where we have some "tea", perhaps lunch/snack, and we read poetry to each other. Then, we did read alouds and called it our first day of school. Pretty cool, since it definitely did not feel like school, and the kids had no idea we were doing school. That's the best kind of school there is!

Windermere Park

We headed to our favorite splash park with our dear friends Chloe and Avery! It was super hot, so splashing in the water with friends was perfect!

Fair!

I dropped the ball with fair this year, so we didn't go down as a family to see how the kids did. Instead, Audra and I went down. It's a good thing we did- there were many, many awards that our kids got!

Audra made it to state with all three of her items- crossstitch, quilting, and flat bread.

Claire made it to state fair with two of her projects- the dress she made, and her quick bread. She got second place for her rocket and second again for her elephant stuffed animal.

Camille got participation ribbons, which is what all the Cloverbuds get, for her rocket and pillow.