Maria's 4-H Skill-a-thon

This morning Maria had her Skill-a-thon for her sewing project for 4-H (the fair starts on Monday). We were both a little nervous since we didn't know what to expect. I was mostly focused on getting her to the right place at the right time, hoping that we had done all the paperwork correctly, etc. We did schedule a practice interview with her advisor, Jenny, earlier this week, during which Jenny gave us a little bit better idea what to expect and ran Maria through what her interview might be like. Afterwards, Jenny told us that she thought Maria did very well and was ready, although Maria has been continuing to study for at least a half hour every day .

So we were pretty sure she was prepared but having never gone through this before we still weren't certain. We got there this morning in plenty of time - they even took back Maria a few minutes early. She was gone for about 40 minutes - don't think Sam was prepared for the long wait even though we brought his Nintendo DS and a sticker book. He did fine, just complained. In the waiting area, which was for all sewing projects, I saw quite a few outfits that were much more complex than the skirt and scrunchie that we had made. But I'm assuming many of those girls were in a different category that us.

Maria rocked. She got a 36/36, which breaks down to 10/10 in all three Skill-a-thon categories and a 6/6 for the interview. The interview comments were all positive as well - things like "So cute!," "Described the process in detail," and "great interview, easy to talk with." And (Rita, are you ready?) the comments about the construction of the skirt: "Very well done!" and "Seams and hem neat and pressed." The judge did ask Maria if she or her Mom did the pressing, and she told the truth that I had done the pressing.

So she and I are both very proud of her - she worked very hard this week to learn all 13 sewing categories. We won't know final scores until after the Style Review Monday night - the sheet says that the projects will be reviewed again then before any final decisions will be made. I'd like her to do well, but had not thought that doing very well could mean going to the state fair until Jenny brought that up Tuesday. Not sure I would be up for that, but it is what it is.