J's Fair Projects

J had a good day Wednesday!  For his woodworking project, he made a chess board.  He's really big into chess this year, so I wasn't surprised at all when he told me his plans.  D had some blood wood at the shop that J fell in love with as soon as he saw it and thought it would be a perfect dark wood for the board.

  He worked on it here and there over a week or so, but I think the worst part was waiting on the glue to dry in the various stages  It was frustrating to him to do a little bit and then have to leave it alone until the next day.  Lots of gluing and sanding.  He got a purple on this project as well as a state fair blue. He's been itching to get to take a woodworking project to the state fair so he was thrilled!

He also had 2 foods projects.   He did EVERYTHING this year. From picking the recipes to the baking to the picking of the 3 "perfect" cookies.  It was nice! =)   He did great and made Chocolate Mint Cookies (oh so good and I will be making these around Christmas time!) and Banana Oatmeal Drop Cookies.  Both got State Fair blues!

This is J's 3rd year in Rocketry and a project that he declares every year is the last year.  Usually as he's sanding out fingerprints/runs for the 1,000th time.  He really enjoys it though and I saw a LOT of growth in this area too this year.  He did a super job on his fins, which have been his problem area. However, he put all his attention in his fins and the judge also pointed out his launch lugs needed a bit of care too.  He did get a purple and state fair blue on his rocket.  I think it will be good for him to take his rocket to SF and play with the big dogs.  He will get to see pretty fast what he will need to improve on as some of those rockets look like they have factory paint jobs and they use a device to measure the alignment of the fins!!

PHOTOGRAPHY!!  This was his first year for this project.  I hate it when my kids are in a new one projects.  I stresses me.   Anyway, he really enjoyed it and I REALLY ENJOYED having him in it.  I love taking pictures so it gave he and I some common ground that resulted in some nice conversations.  Here are his pics he took.

These 2 got blue ribbons.

 This one got a red. She didn't like the focus or the lighting.

State Fair blue for this one. I was surprised as this is one of my least favorite pictures he picked to take.

State Fair Blue.   This was one of my favorites, (and he had lots of fun setting different poses up for this pic!)  but was worried about how it would do as the top of the head is a bit cut off when we had it printed.

State fair blue, First year champion and overall 4-H Grand Champion Photo. (My terminology isn't correct, but this is in "BECKY" terms.)

Seriously..I think I peed my pants a little when D called to tell me this.  COULD--NOT--BELIEVE IT!
I wanted to tell everyone the story about this picture.  We were at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club getting ready to head out on the boat.  J and I were looking at the boats, he was taking different pictures, and  he was trying to get the boats and water lined up just right so there were straight lines of boats on both sides with water down the middle.  J had a vision in his head and he just could not get the shot he wanted.  Anyway,  while we were doing this, D is up telling J to come up and see it from where he's standing.  We kept rolling our eyes and making fun of him because *we* are the ones that like taking pictures, not him. And that he didn't know what he was doing.  hehe  Finally J goes up to shut his dad up, snaps a picture, and.....there is it!  J learned that sometimes just changing the angle or direction of the shot can make a world of difference.  And we will be hearing about this from D until NEXT fair time...and probably even after. ;-)