2021 Gage County Fair

The Gage County Fair continues to be a summer highlight.  This year's fair was better than last year's which was limited due to the pandemic.  Given ongoing COVID concerns, the fair wasn't exactly the way it's been either.  A theme I've noticed is a decline in numbers of 4-Hers as well.  What this means long term is yet to be determined.  As long at theirs a fair, we will continue to enjoy time spent with extended family here.  The end of the fair included awards night with Izzy, Audrey, Micah, and Victoria receiving special recognition with their projects.  Everyone had at least one item selected for the State Fair as well.

We focused mostly on sewing which likely stems from 1) their mother enjoys sewing, and 2) that is what I can help the with the most.  It's been fun to watch all three of them grew and learn.  Though this was Micah & Victoria's official first year in 4-H, this was their third year sewing.  Prior to this, they entered their projects in open class.  I have learned that Micah can only sew 2 or 3 seams before he's done.  With a bit of planning, he was successful in sewing two items; a pair of shorts and sleeveless shirt.  Boy was he excited to see that his shorts won champion in Steam 1 for craftmanship.

Victoria, on the other hand, can sew forever.  She is slow and steady and is quite good.  I'm interested in seeing where she's at in the future compared to her older sister.  Her Santa sweatshirt was completed in a weekend with the buttons left for her to sew when they visited Oma & Opa for a week.  She got those buttons sewed on in two days!  Victoria won reserve champion in Beyond the Needle and champion in Steam 2 for construction.

This year I let Izzy choose what she wanted to sew and provided some guidance on fabric choices.  Her craftmanship was wonderful.  She still struggles in time management which led to her sewing the day before the modeling contest on the farm.  We are lucky Oma has most everything we need for such scenarios.  She has since decided that mom's opinion is not so bad in what styles look best on her body.  We've since been brainstorming what she wants to do next year.  Hopefully we do better in the realm of time management!  Izzy took home reserve champion in Steam 2 in construction.

Last year Victoria entered the King Arthur Flour competition and won despite her cake breaking in two.  This year she had dreams of winning it again.  What would be the chance of that happening?  Much to her surprise, she again won with her angle food cake.  We learned a lot on how to make your cake light and airy with a learning video that accompanied our recipe.  I was worried we took her cake out of the oven too early.  Turns out it was just right.

Prior to leaving from our trip back for the modeling competition, the kids flooded cookies with royal icing to enter as decorated cookies since these could be frozen until we returned.  Four cookies were required.  Each decided on a theme for the four cookies; Victoria - Valentine's Day, Micah - Halloween, and Izzy - Easter.  My favorite was the lip cookies.  The rest of the family enjoyed snacking on Oma's famous sugar cookies the rest of the time.

All three made finger knitted blankets.  Micah has to be reminded near daily closer to fair to get his completed and even had to finish a few rows on the airplane.  I guess under pressure he did well and was happy to have done better than his sisters who had won several more awards.

We have dabbled in epoxy for a few years.  After exploring ideas, the kids settled on game molds.  Izzy created a tic-tac-toe game, Victoria dominos, and Micah Tetris.

The kids begged me to enter the costumes I created in open class since they were entering projects in 4-H.  The judges must have like Victoria's Elvis costume as well.

Following awards night, we hit the midway for rides and game.  This year's midway may not have had as many larger rides.  What they didn't have, they made up for in games and charisma.  I've not seen them hand out extra turns or prizes as freely as other carnivals.  This made for a very enjoyable night with everyone walking away with desired trophies.

The kids decided to split up to conquer the rides.  Victoria and Audrey paired up with Izzy and Amelia making another pair.  This is the ride they seemed to flock to quickly.  Each went on this ride more than once.  Micah did as well but said he wasn't going to repeat it.  I'm grateful for getting some Dramamine in him before he did so.

All the grandkids partook of the large slide with these three doing repeats as well.

The Dieckman basketball skills were on display.

With a larger family, ensuring we won was easy in these racing type of games.  The winner was Oma.  In true grandmother style, she let Victoria pick out a prize as she was the last grandchild who hadn't won anything.

The culmination of rides was the large Ferris wheel.  Micah didn't want to go as his belly was still bothering him from the large swing ride.  He therefore hung out with Oma who snuck off and shared a funnel cake!

There was a discussion about the boys attending the Demolition Derby rather than the midway.  After learning that the event they wanted to watch didn't occur for at least an hour after the gates opened and lasted ~2 hours, they vote was to defer for this year.  Much to our amusement, we were able to catch a bit of the show from the top of the Ferris wheel.

The end of the night is marked by a few funnel cakes.  We obviously weren't the only ones with the same idea either.  Requests were for a traditional funnel cake (powder sugar) and an Elvis one (peanut butter, chocolate, and bananas).  Those things were gone in mere minutes.  The only proof is Opa standing in line to order.  Until next year....