Great news! I finally got the laptop to stay on long enough to post the pictures to get to the second summer trip blog. (It took all afternoon and after trying to upload the pictures three times, I finally did it in two separate batches with a cool down time for the laptop inbetween. I might need to get a new one.)
As soon as we got to Ohio, my throat was sore and my nose was runny. It seems to happen nearly every time I go to Ohio, but this time was particularly bad. I was just wiped most of the time. But, there was work to be done for the fair. Basically, fair stuff was about all I could muster, which sucked because we actually had Calib with us all week in Ohio and I wanted to show him how awesome it could be. Ok, maybe not awesome, but at least fun. It just wasn't meant to be this summer, I guess. We do have another trip coming up. And, I'm not sure even a sore throat and a miserable mom could ruin a cruise to Mexico for Calib, so I'm not too concerned.
We got there on Thursday night and I spent all day Friday mounting all their art work and finishing up projects so that we could take things over to the fair on Saturday morning.
Last year we didn't enter a lot. It was the boys first experience, and they didn't seem too into it. But, when they got their checks from their winnings last year, they were all about next years entries. Peyton decided he wanted to try his hand at collections and enter all his president stuff.
We finished up some last minute art projects too. But, for the most part everything due on Saturday was crafts and art work we had completed months ago.
After we dropped stuff off, the boys got to work on some of their flower entries. Last year, Calib and Peyton were the only two kids who entered flower arrangements, and they obviously cleaned up with the ribbons and the winnings, so they were excited to do it again. There's two shows for flowers, but there were two categories we could do way ahead of time: Fairy Gardens and terrariums.
Hayden used the same garden from last year, just with a few add ins. My grandma and mom had picked up some things for the boys to make their gardens.
Calib had a Halloween theme.
The terrariums were pretty easy to put together too. I loved Peyton's.
Calib's terrarium..
And Hayden's terrarium..
There's three arrangements they can enter each show. One show had the Fairy Gardens and one had the terrariums, which meant I only had to help them each with two arrangements after that, which was nice.
Oh, and in Hayden's age group he could enter in the vegetable category. He was excited to make the boat out of vegetables.
I thought the pirates were a nice touch.
This guy had a little broccoli sword.
The boys haven't gotten too into the baking categories, but they do make the cookie jars.
Calib had the flour for about two seconds before this happened.
But the jars came out pretty.
Despite my soar throat, we did eat at a few Fremont must stops.
And on Sunday, we headed back to Toledo. We had lunch at Costco..
And then headed off to the Art Museum (which is totally free, btw, score!) to check out their temporary "play time" exhibits.
The swings were cool.
Hayden decided he, too, could make a stuffed animal wall.
The old TV's were fun.
And the boys LOVED the floating ball that interacted with them.
There was this cool interactive sound board too.
Plus, we enjoyed some of the 'always there' exhibits.
I like how kid-friendly this museum is. It's much better than the Tampa Museum of Art or the Dali Museum here. (Though those are both very cool for adults!)
But we were there for one specific attraction. You had to get a timed ticket and come back, but that wasn't a problem, as you saw there was lots to do.
This is a giant knit playground, and we all got to climb on it!
There's the hanging balls to swing on..
...and all kinds of pockets to climb in. The top is much more open, and not compartmentalized, but I wasn't brave enough to climb all the way up there to take a picture.
But I did climb up into it with mom!
So much fun! If you haven't yet, and you're nearby, check it out.
We had planned to hit the zoo next, because it was the only time we could really fit it in. But, they were closed Sunday until 2 and open late because of some summer event. When we showed up at 2:30 the parking lot was full and the line to get in was out into the street. As much as we want to see the new aquarium, you know my kids and crowds, so we bailed and headed to my grandma's house early.
We brought along some fair projects to work on. Since grandma couldn't come to the fair, we brought the fair to her!
Peyton's rice crispies won second, by the way, I don't think I ever took a picture of it.
Calib's decorated rice crispies were kind of a mess, but grandma and mom thought they tasted great.
And Hayden made tetris pieces.
Then we got working on our marshmallow creations.
Aunt Bonnie stopped by for a pizza dinner, and grandma showed us her new grown-up coloring book. I want one!
Oh, and the boys enjoyed the grass.
Ohio does have the best grass. You're not going to lay in the grass here like this. Blah.
The good news is even if we didn't do much the first weekend we were in Ohio, the boys found ways to entertain themselves. My mom does have an excellent back yard.
One day it was even warm enough to get the slip n slide out. Or at least sort of warm enough.
On Tuesday, the fair started so we finally got to check out what the boys got. We dropped off our arrangements in the Flower Building, and got to see our baked goods, Hayden won second on his cookie jar. (With lots of competition too!)
Calib got first place on his volcano.
He made that forever ago, and mom took it back with her when she came to visit once, so it was nice to see saving it for this long paid off.
There's also a category called memory jars. Peyton made one full of Lincoln stuff, Calib did one full of Bucs stuff. Peyton took first, and Calib got second.
We entered Calib's vase from Greek Week and Peyton's war shield from Native American week and they took first and second.
Our headdress from Native American week won second.
And Hayden's memory jar full of Disney stuff won first in his age group.
We headed back to check out the art and collections building to check out our ribbons, and found Peyton's collection had been moved, because he won Best of Show. Meaning not only did he get first place for any not listed intermediate collections, he was the best of ALL intermediate collections.
Hayden cleaned up with his art projects. His melted crayon art won second in the crayon category.
His sharpie on foil won 2nd in pen and ink.
His dalmation earned him an honorable mention in mixed media.
His geometric design took third in charcoal.
His peacock won first in acrylic paint.
His birch trees won second in watercolor/tempura.
He lost a few leaves off his tree, but it still won second in 3D sculpture mixed media.
And his flower won first in miscellaneous.
Over in the older kids, Peyton took second for his flag in paper design. (Calib got an honorable mention on his rainbow.)
Peyton's oil painting got second.
And his dragon eye got third in charcoal.
Calib did win first on his crayon mosaic.
Plus they did pretty well in photography. Calib's crayon picture won in the 'extreme close up, color' category.
Peyton got third for his picture he took at the Louisville Slugger Museum.
And second in extreme close up black and white with another Louisville Slugger picture.
In 'People, black and white', he won first for his picture of me and Asa.
Calib won second in 'botanical black and white' with his flower picture.
We stopped by the Beef, it's whats for dinner tent for some chopped steaks and lemon shake ups.
And then went off to pet the animals.
I was in love with this baby goat.
I later found out he was for sale. But, Asa wouldn't let me get him.
I spent the afternoon helping mom over the flower building. She's the superintendent there, and does the clerking for the judges, so I put ribbons on everything while the boys wandered the fair.
When we were all done, they got to check out their ribbons on their flower arrangements. Hayden got second on his terrarium, and second on his sunshine arrangement.
He got a third on his lightning inspired arrangement.
And second on his veggie boat.
He picked three of grandma's cherry tomatoes and won third.
Calib and Peyton were again the only kids in the 11-16 age group to enter flower arrangements.
Peyton's terrarium won first, Calib got second.
Calib's arrangement took first in another category...
..while Peyton's took second.
But Peyton broke the tie winning with his very simple arrangement.
Calib's was cool too though.
Mom finally got to check out her ribbons after we were all done at the Flower Building.
She won Best of Show too! (Apparently she had entered his exact piece in the antiques building before and hadn't won a thing, how funny!)
Then it was more fair food with some walking tacos for dinner!
I was going to do one whole blog with the rest of our Ohio trip, but I'm racing against the clock before the computer shuts down, so I'll be back later with Asa's trip to Ohio and Cedar Point.
Next Up: America's Roller Coast
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