State Fair

Sareny and I made gingerbread houses to enter in the State Fair, and we had so much fun! I was totally impressed with how good Sareny's house turned out--she worked really hard on it and came up with all of the design elements herself.

Her completed house from the front.

Her house from the back.

My favorites were the little snowmen she made out of marshmallow fondant, and I thougth the shovel turned out pretty cute as well.

I made a farmhouse for my entry.

I've never completely covered the gingerbread with icing before; I thought it turned out pretty cool.

This view shows the chimney on the side of the house.

The storefront. I particularly love how the little apple baskets turned out. I had to snip the ends off of hot tamales to make them. I made the pumpkins with marshmallow fondant. We named the farm Green Bluff Farm after the farm Keith's dad owns. Their family farm is named Strawberry Hills Farm, but since this was more of an apple orchard than strawberry farm, I named it after the region of Mead, Washington that they live in, which is the Green Bluff area.

I thought the little porch light turned out really cute too. It is a lemon drop outlined with black royal icing.

I cut the flagstone patio out of gumpaste that I colored gray. You can also see the light's bracket better in this picture.

Sideview featuring the pumpkin cart and apple trees, complete with ladder.

We went to the fair as a family the first day it was opened to see how our projects did. We picked Grandma Nancy up at the airport that day, had lunch with Keith, and then later met him at the fair. I must admit, it was a lot more exciting going to the fair when you are looking for your projects that you worked so hard on and wondering how they did. I was particularly hoping that Sareny's house would win a ribbon--I knew it would mean a lot to her. Here she is by her house, and we were shocked and thrilled that she won not only a 1st place ribbon, but also a purple Best of Show Rosette ribbon. How exciting!

I was so proud of her, and I know she is excited to get a check in the mail for $5, the amount they give first place entries. My friend Tia is the superintendent over the baked goods area, and she told me that the judges were super impressed with Sareny's entry. When I went to pick our houses up after the fair was over, she said she had lots of people very impressed with Sareny's house and asking if Tia knew how old the little girl was. They all couldn't believe it that she is only 7! So way to go Sareny!

I have to admit, I was probably just as thrilled as Sareny was when I saw that my house won first place and Best of Show also! How cool is that? It was kind of fun to see people at the fair crowding around my house and taking pictures of it.

I thought it was pretty awesome that we both took home top honors. We were even contacted by someone who wanted to feature us, the mother/daughter fair winners, on a local TV show, but sadly, we were in Disneyland the day they could film us. You can imagine Sareny's disapointment!

I am really glad the Young Women (I'm the secretary) decided to enter the fair, because that is what prompted us both to enter. It was a great experience, and Sareny can't wait to enter again!