Steam-punk in Wonderland

It was gloomy morning but no rain as we woke up this morning.  This made for a great way to sleep in and gain that extra rest before the big event.  The children were all awake by mid morning, which was a nice way to spend some quiet time for me.  It was also a good thing because we had no water!  That's right!

Water...water....everywhere but not a drop to drink...or wash clothes (Thankfully, I woke up early and started the load needed for the day!)...or take a bath!  The water supply company is drilling a new well down the road from us and decided to turn our water off without telling us!  So...the water finally was back and the children awake...and the excitement was building!

We were out the door by 1pm and off to watch the other teams perform and cook for the judges.  One group in particular was a hoot to watch...the Paleo group from our favorite pregnancy help center!  So we were there extra early!

Thankfully, it was a cool day so we were able to enjoy watching all the rounds before us.  Paleo Puppies did awesome...made third place in their heat.  We were surprised to see a crazy group of ladies in the second heat with rainbow Afro wigs and dancing to 70's music with hula hoops!  They also brought in the children in the audience to have a hula hoop contest!  They ended up winning the showmanship award!

We are convinced the judges were scared of the Steam-punk style...one of the judges even said he was afraid of walking to our sweet Cheshire cat because she "freaked him out!"  LOL!  Oh well...the children had a lot of fun and made some awesome tea cake hushpuppies with a icing filling!  We had an idea for a coating at the last minute that we planned to try at the contest BUT I forgot to bring the shaker with the coating with me!  I was disappointed in myself but the children were OK with the results.  So proud of them...they got third place in their heat and were within 15 points of making it to the final heat!

We were late to our booth for the evening shift so we had to leave before the final results.  I hope to find out from the newspaper tomorrow.  There were some very good recipes made....it seems the judges preferred spicy puppies this year over sweet.  The audience did seem to like our recipe, so all was good to us!

The booth was much busier tonight.  We added about 100 pine cones to our quilt today!  Amanda was especially instrumental in getting the children who visited the booth to add their print.  This quilt is going to be AMAZING!!!!  I look forward to seeing the finished project!

Brendan was so tired...he fell asleep in the rocking chair set up for Timber (museum mascot).  He was so cute!  Perfect pose for our little sleepy dormouse!  Zaira (our little Alice) also fell asleep in my arms!  She looked as if she was dreaming about her own wonderland adventure!

The children also had an extra thrill as they stayed in their costumes for the rest of the evening.  Many people asked to take their pictures taken with them or just of the children by themselves.  Others asked where they got their costumes.

We enjoyed our festival dinner a night later than planned...but who can resist a yummy dish of nachos....fried veggie plate....and corn dogs!  Yummy!  Well...at least once a year!

We are all exhausted but hyped up from the overall experience.  We learned from the experience....funny...even though this will likely be our last chance at this contest...they are already talking about ideas for next year.  I do not see it happening (at the end of contest day I never do), they might just convince us to make the trip back to the festival contest next year!  I am just so glad they will have these memories of our wonderland adventure!