2013 State 4-H Show Weekend

Brad and our niece Kristine are competitive with each other kind of like siblings are.  Not always direct competition, but Kristine tries to out do what Brad did at her age when it comes to showing horses.  They compare placings in different events at different shows over time.  It is a strange ritual they have but they seem to enjoy it.  No one who is listening, except maybe Diane, enjoys hearing about it.   Brad has always told Kristine that if she makes it in the Versatility class at the State 4-H Show (which you have to qualify for) that he would come down and be one of her grooms during the class.  Each participant gets 2 grooms.  Brad was so excited to get a call from Kristine saying she made it into the Versatility class this year!  She was not the only family member to qualify, Karoline qualified as well!

Kristine and Karoline

Everyone getting their blue shirts on while Grandma give the final touches to the horses.

Kristine and Frankie

Miss Karoline and Kermit

We packed the kids and the motorhome up the next day and headed down to Springfield for the show!  I am not going to lie I was not really looking forward to it.  Versatility starts in the evening and isn’t exactly short and young children don't always find them entertaining.  I was not looking forward to the logistics of entertaining 3 kids while trying to watch the show.  I was grateful that it went 10x better than I thought it would!  Vincent had fun hanging out with his cousins.  Cecilia seemed to really enjoy spending time with all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents plus she loves watching the horses.  Joel did pretty well watching and playing with all the family members and toys that I brought along.  Plus a few walks and time on the iPhone made him happy as well.   The nice thing about the class is that each contestant went one at a time in each of the four classes and Kristine and Karoline went one after another.  That way Brad or I could go for walks with the kids and then be back in time to watch.  The plan went great until I thought they were starting at one end of the line of contestants and they started at the opposite end.  I ended up missing part of one of Kristine’s patterns, which all things considered wasn’t too bad!

Cecilia's first corn dog.  She was very serious about eating it!

Vincent begging Cecilia for just 1 bite of her corn dog.  She refused!

Vincent and Thor watching the show

Kristine and Karoline did a great job showing that night!  Their grooms did a great job helping them as well.  Brad and Thor were Kristine's grooms and Bob and Millie were Karoline's grooms.  I am so proud of Kristine and Karoline and their horse skills.  It seems like not very long ago that they were scared and didn’t want to ride at all and now they do a beautiful job riding and showing horses.

Keith cheering on his sisters

Look at that cute face

Joel and Vincent cheering on their cousins!

Vincent cheering on K squared!

It is a tradition, so I am told I never really showed horses, that after the versatility class they have a shaving cream fight in the street in front of the barns.  There are children running up and down the street  spraying each other with shaving cream and having a blast.  If you are in the barns you are probably safe, but it is not a guarantee.  Vincent saw all the fun happening and wanted to join in.  We did not have any shaving cream and I was using that as my excuse.  So Vincent was scooping up piles of it off the street, jetting into the crowd of kids, smearing it on them and running back to the barn where it was safe.  Then one of his cousins offered him a can of shaving cream.  All the cousins stood at the door of the barn deciding on a plan of attack and no one wanted to be the first one to run into the fight on the street.  After a quick lesson on how to use the can of shaving cream Vincent was the first of his cousins to join the fight.

Team Kristine and Karoline showed our support by wearing blue

Cecilia looking a little strange

Joel enjoying funnel cake

Brad and I stood inside the barn watching through the doorway.  Constantly trying to keep an eye out for Vincent.  Most of the kids were at least 10 years old up to high school age and he looked so small out there.  He is lucky to have a great group of cousins that kept an eye out for him as well.  He had a blast!  I think he wants to go back next year just for the fight, but he thinks it should be whipped cream instead.  It would probably burn less when it got in your eyes.

Thor and Bob making sure everything the needed was on the truck.

Saddle and change of clothes on the truck

Change of clothes on the truck and ready to go

Joel and Cecilia watched the shaving cream fight from the comfort and safety of the stroller, it was after 10 pm afterall, and they didn’t seem very amused by any of it!

Joel stuffing his face while sitting on Grandpa's lap

Millie

We stayed over night and watched a couple more classes the next day before heading to Farmer City to drop Brad off to do some spraying while the kids and I took the motorhome to my friend Jennifer’s new house about  20 minutes from Farmer City.  I don’t drive the motorhome very often and was a little nervous driving it to a location I had never been.  It was great to see Jennifer and her family!  It had been almost a year since I had seen them.  When we got there the kids instantly went in the house, took off their shoes and started playing with the toys like they owned the place when in fact they had never been there before!  They had fun playing with Jennifer’s son Austin who is 2years old.  Austin thought Vincent was fun to follow and Vincent enjoyed having someone other than his brother and sister following him.

Vincent having so much fun!

Cecilia and Brad watching the horse show

 

Vincent with a fresh can of shaving cream

They enjoyed playing on the swingset, with the new toys and the chickens.  They boys thought the chickens were so cool.  Ever since our trip down there Joel keeps telling me that he wants a yellow chicken.  Hopefully we get a chance to see them again during harvest this year, because I did promise Delaney a chance to camp with us in the motorhome.  Hopefully staying in a corn field counts as camping.

Karoline, Keith, Olivia, Millie and Vincent

Karoline and Vincent

 

Karoline and Millie