Fair Food

And another successful 4-H career takes off.

Hannah had the great pleasure of not only winning her class in the Cats project, but also gathering a blue and Grand Champion in the entire Senior Cats division. She and the hissing cat then went on with a Best of Show placing to win the entire Cats project.

I think the best part was Hannah's total surprise. She had no idea how well she was advancing and what the fuss was about--just showed up in the ring each time they called her name. Her smile was enormous when they handed her the trophy for her division. When a big plaque followed for Best of Show her smile nearly wrapped all the way around her head.

Kevin and I put in a long, long day. Late yesterday evening we made an unexpected trip to Chicago to retrieve a replacement part when a tool broke at the Ohio plant. We took the Lafayette-Chicago-Lafayette leg of the trip and handed the part off at noon today to be carried on to Ohio.

We skidded into the fairgrounds just in time to catch Hannah's Cat project judging.

Our day ended with a visit to Haylee and her parents then congratulatory ice cream at the Igloo with Hannah, her siblings and their mother.

Kevin is exhausted. The nice satisfying exhaustion of a busy day well spent. He has a little more endurance these days; still tires easily and sooner than he would like, but it's improving. His appetite is better and some foods are beginning to taste "right" to him. I noticed him crunching ice this weekend--something I haven't seen him do since last October. He says there are places where the cold still hurts his mouth but it's worth the occasional jolt of pain to be able to have the ice on a hot day.

Nothing like pushing through for a good cause, I guess. Rib eye sandwiches and elephant ears were also on the list of "all for a good cause" foods. Kevin plopped 2 elephant ears down in front of Hannah & Co. only to learn they had never tasted one.

"We don't know if we like that or not. What is it?"

"What is it?? It's fried dough with sugar on it, guys. It doesn't get much better than this! How did you get to be 9 years old, Hannah, without eating an elephant ear or two or twenty??"

Luckily their mom agrees that after nine years of me feeding her kids balanced meals in daycare it's only fair for her to turn a blind eye to us occasionally throwing in things like fried sugared dough and trips in their pajamas to eat ice cream at the Igloo.