Fair Results (mine and others') *VERY LONG*

We made it to the Tulsa State Fair today, and we all had a great time.

We got smart and took the free shuttle. That is DEFINITELY the way to go! Not only was it fast and easy, but we didn't have to pay $10 for parking then still have to hike to the fairgrounds. I highly recommend it.

I was so proud of the kids--they made it for 3 1/2 hours! We started at the Sugar Art Show, then the Creative Arts display, then we got corn dogs and a yummy cherry-aid and strawberry-aid (lemon-lime soda with cherry and strawberry juice) before heading to the Just for Kids area. After that we went to the petting zoo, then back through the midway to the Sugar Art area where the kids decorated two graham crackers. I didn't get any pictures because I was in the middle of the cake display. That's the quick summary, and what follows is the long version with pictures.


Here's Mattie's cake, (DJ's daughter). She did great!

This is DJ's entry. It's all from sugar! No real flowers. Isn't it beautiful?


These two cakes cracked me up. I assume they're for a baby shower. Not quite what I'd want, but it takes all kinds.


The flowers on the cakes (and the cakes themselves!) were amazing.


These aren't real roses, if you can believe it.


From the Sugar Art Show we went to find all my stuff. Here's my Black and Tan with a Little Spice quilt, which got a first-place ribbon:


My Floral Fantasy got a second:


Here's Rori's Ice Queen, which got a third. The "Adult knit clothing/accessory" category is a FULL one and she should be really proud!


Here's my Rose of England shawl, which got first and Sweepstakes for Hand Knit articles:


And my handspun got first and Sweepstakes, but I think it was the ONLY entry in the handspun category. That makes me really, really sad because we have a lot of very talented spinners in this area.


Here's Gillian's Wallaby sweater, which took a second place. Hey now, whose sweater got that blue ribbon? RORI!!! YAY, RORI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My socks got first place. Those are Dawn's socks in the background (you can just see the toe) and Emma's socks took second. (I'm not sure why mine got first and hers second, because I think that pattern is more difficult than the one I did.)


Here you can see Rori's socks (top left) as well as some of the crocheted entries:


Here's my necklace, the one hanging over the edge of the table:

It got a second place, which I'm quite happy with. I hadn't ever entered anything in that category.

Rounding out the entries, here's my rubber-stamped card which didn't win anything. The ones that did win were spectacular!


After the Creative Arts building we headed out to the Just for Kids building, via the midway where we got corndogs:


and then went to the Just for Kids building where they had a great time building:

They added onto something that had been started at 10:30 that morning. Quite impressive!

Then we found the kids' entries.

Here's Gillian's artwork:


and Ryan's artwork:


and finally, Gillian's weaving, which took a second place. I'm so proud!



After the Just for Kids building we headed over to the barns and the petting zoo area.

The kids fed all sorts of animals and saw some Cavies, whose pen had a Jackalope sign. I kept hearing people calling the Cavies "Jackalopes" which totally cracks me up, because where I grew up Jackalopes are a taxonomists' creation to fool gullible tourists.

Here's the sign in the pen, just to clarify about Cavies (click to embiggen, as with all the photos):

And here are the Cavies:

Gillian fed a camel:

And her awesome Dad helping Gillian feed baby goat:


They also petted a HUGE cow-like animal although I didn't see a sign on its pen. It was really friendly and obviously loved attention. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures.

After the animal pen (and thorough hand washing), we headed over to where Dawn, Janae and Brittney were working and the kids went through the Fun on the Farm. They were thrilled to have "earned" a bag of chips and yogurt bar.

We slowly made our way back to the Creative Arts building (we ran into Donna Titsworth and her daughter on the way) and the kids decorated a graham cracker with icing. It turned out that they got two of the last three graham crackers! I didn't get pictures of them decorating them or eating them, but they told me all about it.

After that we headed back out to the shuttles, hopped on a bus and got back on our way to Broken Arrow.

After dinner we had a little fire in our fire bowl outside and really enjoyed it.

Now we're tired and I'm heading to bed! Have a great Monday, everyone!