fair time!
Monday was the start of the annual Eastern New Mexico State Fair. After a frantic scramble to the finish, I had 13 photos and 2 cakes entered. I also helped little Loren enter 3 of his photos that I thought were good. I managed to get the two cakes in with literally minutes to spare after an exhausting night trying to get the wedding cake to look how I wanted it to.
Monday morning the boys and I met their grandma at the parade route to watch the parade. Loren (hubby) was supposed to be riding his motorcycle in the parade with his job, but called me about halfway through and said his motorcycle was overheating and he wouldn't be in the parade. Little Loren was upset at first that Daddy wouldn't be in the parade, but he enjoyed the rest of it, and I think he got over it pretty quickly. Justin enjoyed the fire trucks going by at the beginning, and then fell asleep. When he woke up (with like 5 floats to go to the end), he thought the parade was pretty cool and was pretty enthralled with the floats.
We didn't make it out to the fairgrounds until Tuesday night. I was pretty anxious to see what little Loren and I had won, especially for my cakes since I'm still what you would call a novice at them. I was very excited to see that I had won
blue ribbons for both of my cakes, and I also won ribbons for 12 out of 13 of my photos. I won 2
blue ribbons (1st place), 6
red ribbons (2nd place), 3
white ribbons (3rd place), and one
honorable mention for my photos. I was pretty excited, even though I still can't quite figure out their judging criteria.
BUT... I was even more excited for little Loren. He got 1
blue ribbon and 2
red ribbons for his photo entries. A clean sweep! He seemed excited, but I'm still not quite sure if he completely understands the whole thing. We'll pick our entries up on Monday, and hopefully he'll figure it out a little more by then. I am so proud of him!
After we checked out our entries, and got yummy (NOT!) fair food, we decided to go ahead and let the boys ride a couple of the carnival rides. Little Loren rode the motorcycle one (he did last year too), and then we figured out that Justin was tall enough to go on the construction tractor ride with Loren.
Justin thought it was hysterical, and I wish I had had a video camera. The video recorder on my camera just wouldn't have cut it. After we got them off of that ride, Justin was still very excited. Then little Loren and his daddy went on the big airplane ride (that little Loren went on with his Gamma Gamma last year) and Justin thought it was funny watching them. We tried to find another ride that Justin was big enough for without an adult with them, but he was only big enough for the construction one, so we let them go on that one again. He loved it just as much the second time, and I think he wanted to go back on it. Those dang carnival rides are
expensive though!
We are supposed to go again on Sunday with my parents if they are able to come down. I can't wait to take the boys again! If not Sunday, then next year! And next year, you can bet we'll have more entries, and hoping for more ribbons as well!
"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly
changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."
- Henry Beston, Northern Farm
Bad Boys Basketball cake was for a local youth basketball team. I never did find out what exactly they were celebrating, but I did hear they absolutely loved the cake.
This cake has a bit of a bittersweet story that I won't go into on here. But I do have to say I am positively thrilled with how this Hannah Montana cake came out.
