On Saturday was the annual agricultural show here. Each summer the boys, especially Calum, are keen to make sure that our holiday to Granny & Shen's coincides with it!
They love to enter some of the competitions and I love to watch them eagerly run to each competition tent once the judging is over to see if any of them have won a rosette.
This year, I'm happy to say, was their most successful yet!
Preparations for the show began the day before, with the boys baking their entries for the children's baking competition.
Calum (11) turned his gluten & dairy free Victoria Sponge (recipe in the free from tab above) into a sheep cake by covering it with dairy free buttercream icing, marshmallows and a fondant icing sheep face!
James (14) turned some ordinary cupcakes into Cookie Monster and Elmo with the help of some coloured buttercream icing, mini cookies, Oreos and a little fondant icing.
David (8) turned his cupcakes into little monkeys by using some chocolate buttercream icing, mini Jaffa cakes and a little fondant icing for the eyes.
Each of the boys, including David, did all of their bakes entirely on their own.
On the morning of the show they also made their entries for the 'animal from fruit or vegetable' competition, which is always one of their favourites to enter. Last year David had won a 3rd for his melon crab so they were eager to see if anyone could equal or improve on that!
Alasdair (5) made these cute little fishes from orange slices, blueberries, carrots & a tiny bit of strawberry for their mouths. I helped him a little with slicing the orange and carrot but the rest was his own work.
David made this monkey. There wasn't an intentional monkey theme going on with his entries!
Calum made a little peacock.
And James made a chick hatching out of an egg.
After making their fruit and veg animals, the boys had to help dad load their scarecrow into the car. They had made him the day before as well. They had been busy in the garage with Shen, stuffing the scarecrow with shredded paper as we didn't have any straw. But because we knew the weather forecast was for rain they put the paper into plastic bags first so that he wouldn't go all soggy!
Thankfully after all their efforts in making him, he fit into the boot of the car ok!
Here he is in position outside the fruit and veg tent.
Once the show started Calum was a keen to see the animals, especially the sheep.
Alasdair enjoyed seeing the emergency vehicles.
And David enjoyed sampling all the home baking in the tea room!
But what the boys were really wanting to know, as I'm sure you all are too, is had anyone won any rosettes?
In the baking section the cakes are all lined up neatly with their rosettes on top.
Isn't that an impressive array of cakes?
Well, in the under 12s animal from fruit and veg competition, David's monkey won first!
Calum's peacock was second.
And James won first in the over 12s competition with his hatching chick.
Calum's sheep won first in the under 12s baking competition.
While James' Sesame Street cupcakes won 3rd in the over 12s competition.
In the grown up baking competition, I entered my shortbread (recipe in the ordinary recipes tab) and my tablet.
The shortbread got a third.
The tablet came second!
And remember this little Star Wars cross stitch? I only brought it with me on holiday because I was going to put some felt on the back of it, but I thought since I had it I would enter it in the cross stitch competition anyway. I'm glad I did now as it also got a third!
Now, are you wondering about the scarecrow? Just pretend you are anyway.
For some reason this wasn't judged at the start of the show like everything else and every time the boys went back to check there was no sign of any rosettes on any of them. Then as we crossed another part of the field later on they saw the judges pinning on rosettes and so they raced across the field to see what was what.
They were delighted to see they had won not only a first but a best in show rosette.
It's the first time anyone in our family has won a best in show so they are pretty chuffed with it, even if it was just for a scarecrow!
When I was taking the photo of the scarecrow the official show photographer was also taking pictures of them. He asked were the boys the creator of the winner and said they should go in his picture too. I found this photo he took of them on the show's Facebook page.
But to finish with here is another photo I discovered on the show Facebook page. One that we had no idea had been taken but that I absolutely love.
It's of Calum, the boy who wants nothing more than to be a crofter when he grows up.
Doesn't he already look the part?!
