I officially eat my words.   He did it.  And not once, but twice!  My little man won 2 Best In Show ribbons at the county fair, plus a few second place ribbons as well.

The second Best In Show was for his sculpture – the tornado sculpture.  And while that’s an impressive win, the photography one makes me happier.  Because he’s following in his mom’s footsteps.  Kiddo has the eye for it!

This win is such a lot of different lessons for him, and not least the lesson on work ethics.  It’s a great lesson in persevering, being patient, and advocating for yourself.  He tried and tried to take a good picture of this lizard at an animal meet-and-greet, but the other kids were always in the shot, always trying to pet the lizard.  So when I saw the animal handler getting up to put the lizard away, I pointed him to her and told him to ask for a picture.  She stopped, he clicked, and done.  Less than 5 seconds, and he got the shot.

I’m proud of him.  I’m beyond proud of him!  All I did to help was get the image printed for him and help him cut the mounting board.  This is 100% his work.

I’m even more proud because he stuck with it.  His first few attempts at fair photos didn’t go well.  Every image ended up blurry, every image was poorly lit.  We figured out that his camera just wasn’t able to take great still shots, so I loaned him my phone and let him prowl around snapping images.  When we went to the animal meet-and-greet, he cornered me while I was keeping an energetic Princess from terrorizing the snake (she wanted to hold it sooooo badly!) and requested my phone so that he could “take pictures.”

And take pictures he did!

At the risk of sounding too parenty, this was a great opportunity for our kids to learn work ethics.  They worked hard with a purpose.  Sure, I had to steer them and keep them on track, but they’re little still.  They put a lot of time into their projects and it paid off – I’m so glad it did!  I didn’t expect the Princess to beat out her brother at the educational display category and win first place, and I sure didn’t expect her to win first place with her feather print, but she won!  Even my little man Destroyer won a second place ribbon for his smeared and speckled watercolor painting.

Today they learned that work has its reward.  Some of their items didn’t win anything – and they learned that’s ok.  Some of their items beat everyone out – and that’s ok too!  They got to help me look for my pictures and see if I got any ribbons, and they heard how I responded when two of mine didn’t win a thing.  It’s about the work, the process, and the challenge.  The winning is a nice bonus.

Although, if I hear “you got wasted!” one more time from a certain husband of mine, I’m going to have to shove a second place cookie down his throat.   And I’m darned PROUD of that second place cookie, because I went up against the grandmas with their super skills and won!

I’m proud of my kids!