The County Fair - 4H Kids

 It's been a busy and exciting week with taking kids to the fair every day, usually multiple times a day.  

Big Sister A and Brother M entered three rabbits in the 4H rabbit show. One of each of the breeds that we raise: Silver Fox, Silver, and Polish.

We visited the fair for fun and looked at all the other fair entries.  I loved seeing the veggies and produce. It made me wish that I'd entered something. 

We visited various types of livestock.

And to the delight of the children we rode the rides! Each of them got to choose two rides. 

Miss L was all about the horses, as usual.

Big Sister A and Brother M loved this hang glider ride

Grandmama and Grandpa Jim treated us to some "fair food"-- fried oreos, funnel cake, and caramel apples all round.

Caramel apples at the fair are a family tradition for our kids.  The cousins came at just the right time to enjoy the fun!

Our rabbits were judged and did very well.  Though the Silver and Silver Fox were the only entries for those breeds. 

A's Polish doe, BBSweetone, also got first place for her variety

Grandma S and Grandpa J worked hard and played hard during their farm visit. They attended the fair, picked veggies, cleaned, cooked, helped make a model car, read tons of stories to kids, and babysat. 

Big Sister A and Brother M -- ready for the showmanship contest and the judging contest.  They each placed fourth for showmanship in their age groups. Brother M won first place for judging and Big Sister A won second place for judging. 

Rabbit bowl contest was a little like jeopardy, just with very hard rabbit questions.

Rabbit club potluck dinner at the awards ceremony

On Saturday the kids rode in the Rabbit Club float with a beach theme

Brother S finished his model corvette today!  Daddy and Grandpa John helped with the trickier parts of assembly and Brother S did all the painting. 

Baptism Day for Brother S!

Grandpop took some great photos for us of Brother S's baptism day. We were originally planning to have the baptism at 10 am on Saturday, but it turned out that we needed to drop off some rabbits at the fair for 4H at that time.  Luckily, we were able to move the baptism time to 4pm instead.  We had a little trouble with Brother S forgetting his bag (towels and underwear) and had to go back for it.  Also our Bishop, who was to preside at the meeting, put a nail through his hand and had to go to urgent care for a tetanus shot.  All that led to a late start, but we were not in a rush and the other attendees were all relatives and Brother S's best friend's family. 

Sister W, S's best friend's mama, gave a wonderful talk about starting on the covenant path through the ordinance of baptism.  She illustrated the whole talk with an object lesson about putting together a lego car and then the parts of the lego road. 

Daddy baptized S and Grandpop and Grandpa J were the witnesses. While we waited for them to get changed we watched the music video of "My Own Sacred Grove" TWICE. 

Grandmama gave a lovely talk about the Holy Ghost and how God called Samuel and it took him 3 times to recognize that it was God talking to him. 

He was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost by Daddy with all the Grandpas and the bishop in the circle. 

Baby A was very reverent most of the time sitting on our laps.  He loved watching his big brother get baptized and kept pointing down at the water as if he wanted to get in too.  He started to fuss a little during the talk on the Holy Ghost and we had to sit in the back and play with a container of dry erase markers - taking them out of the bin and putting them back in. 

I spoke briefly in my capacity as Primary President and welcomed S to the older primary group.  I suggested that he keep in mind how important his example is for the younger children in primary and his younger siblings.  I read the scriptures from JSH about how the angel Moroni told Joseph to come back on exactly the same day one year later to receive further instruction from him about his role in restoring the gospel and the order of the church. I likened that to the way that we are commanded to come for further instruction and intelligence from God through daily prayer, weekly sacrament meeting attendance, primary attendance, and regular trips to the temple. These efforts to get to "our own sacred groves" with regularity qualify us for the gift of further intelligence. 

We've been having a great time hosting our cousins K and D for a couple weeks.  I hope they are making lots of happy memories and strengthening their family connections with their cousins. 

We invited all the attendees to come home with us for refreshments after the baptism.  That mostly meant S's best friend and his family.   They were able to play together for awhile before we had to head to the fairgrounds to care for our bunnies and drop them back at their house.