We're Going to State!

The kids' 4-H group did China for the regional International Festival yesterday.  They all worked really hard to make sure they had learned a lot and did lots of different crafts of things from China.  They made tom-tom drums, Chinese lanterns, firework sparklers (not real ones, of course), cherry blossom trees, terra-cotta soldiers, a clay dragon, a buddha, a replica of the Great Wall of China, and they all collaberated on making a big parade dragon.  Some of the crafts were done by all of the kids and some were just done by a few or individuals.  James made the little clay dragon.  Amie helped a lot with the paper mache on the big dragon and along with Christine and another girl, painting the poster we used.  AnnaBeth helped me make some Chinese sweet rolls on Saturday to take because all the groups had to have a type of bread.

Anyway, it was a ton of fun just making all of that... so now, on to yesterday.

During the presentation to the judges, Amie was one of three kids who explained about why we chose China and the different crafts we did.  She and Christine both helped do the public presentation, but neither had speaking parts in it.  James was also in the public presentation... under the big dragon.  He was the third (and last) kid in the dragon.  He loved it.  We enjoyed going around and looking at the other groups tables and seeing what they had.  Most of them had store bought stuff on their tables (the only store bought thing on our table was a betta fish, also called "The Chinese Fighting Fish").  Anyway, the kids enjoyed asking questions of the other groups and learning about different countries.  At the end, the guy presenting the awards starting listing who all had gotten blue ribbons or green participation ribbons and we kept asking, "Did you hear our group?" Nope, it wasn't in there.  Then he announced the runners up.  By this time, we were so excited.  The winners were announced... HOMEGROWN CLOVERS!! Woohoo!  Anyway, we are heading to the state International Festival in August down in Springfield, IL.  Noelle and AnnaBeth might be visiting friends or family during this time as they weren't quite as interested in participating in the actual festival and got a little bored.