Youth Challenge

I encouraged Rachel and Daniel to enter the Youth Challenge today. It started a bit later than expected, but Ruth and I stayed to watch them.
Rachel was getting so nervous through the afternoon and started wishing she hadn't registered. She got over her nerves though and had a great time. Now looking forward to doing it again next year. :-)
Rachel was confused as to why bandaging someone's ankle would be a challenge - as that was easy for her. It was a nice range of challenges.
Ring toss (they had horse shoes last year, and both are quite a challenge).
They also had to answer some questions that a police officer had (on car and gun safety).

Rachel got really worried when she heard that she would have to disassemble and reassemble a rifle. They did give a demonstration though. She was doing incredibly well actually, when she just didn't push the trigger part hard enough to get it to click in. She then took it out to try again, and it then took her over half a minute to get it back into the right place. It's a lot harder than it sounds. There is a real trick to getting that part to sit sweetly. And it takes a lot of strength too. Everyone would have done a lot better if they had a 2nd try. And that was in itself the challenge.
Some rowing. The guys did 250m and the girls did 200m. Rachel said she struggled to go faster, and wished it was rather a longer challenge, seeing how far you could go.



And then to crack a whip. This is way harder than it sounds too. Almost everyone struggled with this. Rachel got so frustrated because when she picked it up for a bit of practice, she got a perfect crack. She couldn't get another perfect one after that. She still got 2.25 points, so they must have given 1/4 points and even 1/2 points for different "results" in the whipping sound. She did get close a couple of times.
There was one guy who clearly had experience. He was swinging it around his head and cracking it both sides as she changed direction. It was amazing. And so loud that the whole area just stopped and watched him. When he finished he got a huge round of applause. It was great to watch, and not a huge surprise that he won overall too. :-)

Hawarden show 2017

As soon as breakfast was done it was time for presents. Hannah actual birthday Hannah. :-)
I then took Ruth up to the hall to drop off all her entries for the show. By the time we left it had gotten so much colder. I wasn't sure it was worth heading up with Asher. Thankfully it only drizzled for a short time and then was mostly dry.
First we went through the school art display (photos in this post) as they were still putting things together for the rides.

The planes were set up, so Hannah and Hezekiah headed off there first.

The children have been saving their pocket money for many months in anticipation of today. It works really well with them having their own money to spend. They have to think wisely about what they are going to use it on. Hezekiah and Hannah both had $17. Hezekiah ended up needing an extra $2 to get the hot chips he wanted, so Rachel helped him out (we only heard about this when we got home). It's so expensive though. Even with Rachel's help, he only got to go on the planes, the jumping castle / slide, the Ferris Wheel and get his hot chips. I think he will be saving up for longer in anticipation for next year's show. :-)

Hezekiah having so much fun on the huge "jumping castle" slide. He went on this last year too. It's great for the boys especially. They have so much fun together and get out some of that extra energy.

A younger boy spotted Hezekiah and so was pleased to be able to go on with him.  Hezekiah even going head first on his back. He enjoyed it all so much. And half of his enjoyment was knowing that we were standing there watching him do some of his tricks (and getting me to take photos). Such lovely fun memories made today.

I wasn't sure how Asher would cope as she doesn't like being in her pram if it's not moving. (And if she was out the pram she would just be running.) The only other option is to have her tray with activities. So I brought a few with. It was drizzling slightly at this point, so these toys could at least cope. The drizzle stopped thankfully, so she could have a bit of time with her Dora cards and books too.
When we were facing the other way, watching the planes, she was watching those swings (behind her in this photo) and she kept saying "wow", "wow". It was so cute. I'm glad she enjoyed just watching and didn't have the idea in her head to get on it herself.

And then finally Ferris Wheel time. It was lovely that Katie was around as she offered to go on with Hannah. It's always so much more fun with friends.

Finally got a "cheese" (without a pole in front of her face).

Daniel had never been on a Ferris Wheel, so these two had a ride as well.

Hezekiah wanted to go on too, and so Ruth offered to go on with him.

It was a little bit frustrating for her though, as he didn't want the chair to be rocked. Hannah did well and was rocking away this year. Perhaps next year Hezekiah will get into the rocking too. :-)
Brendon and I then left with the youngest two so that I could put lunch in the oven and get the rice on. Once that was done, I went back up with Hezekiah.

We found Ruth and as we were heading to get photos of all their entries, we got to have a look inside the limousine.

So fancy with lights flashing and music playing. Hezekiah especially loved that no one could see in, but he could see out. :-)

We then found Hannah, Rachel and Daniel, so we got another sit in the limousine to show them. :-)
By this point Ruth had gone off with her friends. I wasn't worried as she had her cell phone and I had said we would meet at the car at 12:30. Rachel didn't have her phone, so when the 5 of us were together, we decided to head home a bit early (at about 12:15). Only when we got home did I realize that Ruth wasn't with us. So I got teased a bit and immediately turned around to fetch her. We had only just missed her as she was already at the gate. So if we had been on time, it would have worked out perfectly. :-) Well done Ruth for being so reliable.

After lunch I headed back up with the older 3 while Brendon stayed at home with the younger 3. Hannah had thankfully gotten to see the band this morning, but I missed getting a nice picture. So I was pleased to be able to get a good one this afternoon.
We watched the grand parade together and then Ruth had fun collecting lollies in the lolly scramble (that she then gave away).

This was the big tractor that the children got to try and name. The winning child got to ride in it during the parade.
Then we wandered around and waited for the Youth Challenge. All those photos in their own post here.
All in all a lovely day with lots of fun memories.

Show display & entries

This first section are all the "school display" - so not officially entries (and not judged).
Hezekiah showing us his artwork that was on display.
Hannah's item was the flower one that I took a photo of at assembly, so I didn't take another photo today. It was also too high to get a photo of her next to it.
Ruth had a number of items on display. She was so disappointed with this butterfly one. She had worked much longer on her first one, which she was really happy with, when someone messed the page around it. So this was her 2nd quicker design. I hope she still has the 1st one, as it would be lovely to see. This one is pretty too.
That was Summer.
And another butterfly.

And another written piece.

The the entries section Hezekiah had this caterpillar.
He also had a potato in a bucket. Unfortunately after our weekend away in Feb, it died (it was a terribly hot weekend). He took the bucket back anyway on Thursday and we were all so excited when he said he had 10 potatoes. Well done. At least you got something. Next year I'm sure your plant will do much better.

He had also told us about the cup cake that he decorated - with a rock. So it was nice to get to see that too (and he ate it in the evening).

Hannah had a hedgehog entry. Very nice Hannah.

Ruth's boot arrangement.
And her vegetable kiwi (bird)

She got 3rd prize in the Abstract section. This was especially well done as it was an adults section.
She got 3rd prize for the smaller apples. She had hoped to arrange them in a line as it was a bit like the three bears, with a smaller, middle and bigger size. :-)

The bigger set got 2nd prize. The judging is done all with numbers, so they don't know whose items belong to who. Once the judges have decided, someone goes and looks up the number and writes the cerfiticate. So she did really well to place with both.
And then her cress head entry got 2nd prize too. Well done Ruth. With 6 entries and 4 of them getting places. I have a feeling she may enter even more things next year. :-)

Hawarden show 2016

The children have been looking forward to the show day for ages. Such an exciting day for them. They save up their money for the rides and it's a highlight for them.
I will be honest and say that I was rather nervous having Asher in the aeroplanes. I didn't know what all that motion would do. Thankfully she was fine and had a great time. We did limit her to just that one ride though.
Hannah and Hezekiah enjoyed them too.
The carousel is also always a highlight and Hannah is not too big still young enough to enjoy riding her horse around.
Ruth would rather have a go on the bumper cars.

Hezekiah was thrilled with this massive "jumping castle" which was a huge double slide. He burnt off a lot of energy there through the morning. Thankfully there were a few friends on at the same time - so that had a great time together.

Hannah joined a neighbour and her daughter on the Ferris wheel.
And then I heard Ruth calling for me to take a photo of her. I didn't even know she was going on. She only told me afterwards that she would have liked me to go with her. She knows Brendon and I don't enjoy it - but I would have gone on if she had asked.

Asher spent a while watching these heads moving from side to side. The man soon offered for her to just have some fun putting the balls in. He was rewarded as her business with them seemed to draw a few other people and he got busy for a while. Asher patiently waited for them to all have their turns and then he let her play again. When we left he gave her a small prize. :-)
It warmed my heart to see people just being extra kind to her. It helps that she says "thank you" in such a sweet way. It's not at all clear, but I ask her to "say thank you" while I show the sign, and then she copies with her sweet attempt. They then know what she is "saying".

She also spent ages climbing up the steps of this big tractor. She was rather disappointed that she couldn't open the door and climb in though. She did content herself with climbing up and down over a dozen times.

Hannah's artwork displayed with all the school art.

Ruth got 2nd place for this poem about the A&P Show.
For some reason they didn't see her name and age on this one about friends - but she got 2nd place too. She told them later (and showed them her name on the back) and so they added her name to the certificate.

Rachel did very well with her 2 poem entries.
The write up from the judge was really special. She not only got first prize (for them both) but also a Special award because she was so impressed by them.
Well done girls.

I got a lovely tip from a photographic neighbour to file photos through the year into a "show" file so that when it comes time to submit entries you don't have to hunt for photos. Ruth had wanted to enter photos this year, but ran out of time to take photos. So the idea of collecting through the year is a great one and I am sure Ruth will have a few entries for next year. Perhaps I will too. :-)

I went up to meet the older girls at the final prize giving at the end of the day. We got home at 5:40 just as a 2 minute Tonic Clonic seizure had stopped. Asher hadn't breathed well through it and went rather blue. At least it was again almost a 2 week gap. So hopefully not related to the mornings ride.