4H Family Fun Night

So you might be a little confused or doing a double take...or maybe you just think I am posting on the same event twice...but no...our club has this event every year to promote the projects our club offers.  We call it "4H Family Fun Night" because the project leaders like to set up booths with fun activities associated with the various projects.  We also serve a meal for all the families that come to the event.

So, here we are the morning of the event and working fast and furious to get it all ready.  It is great to be so involved in different projects in 4H.  But on days like today, it gets a little hectic.  Normally our projects are spread out throughout the year, but on this day we have to bring them all together on one day and throw in a meal to add to the mix.  Needless to say it gets a little crazy at our house.  We are making the most of it to "Make the Best Better."

Last night, Henry and I decided to take away some of the burden of the day by making the chicken spaghetti.  We had cooked a chicken all day in the crockpot and then deboned it.  Henry had never done this before so we can add this to his learning experiences for Food & Nutrition.  He also learned how to make chicken stock (no waste in our house!).  Then he helped me prepare the spaghetti casserole.  Now we can just throw it in the oven this afternnoon before the fun begins!

This morning, Sean made lemon cupcakes with a creamy frosting for dessert.  He had wanted to make his 'famous' key lime pie that he made for the Youth Fair last spring, but I did not make it to the store for the ingredients.  This created an opportunity for us to make a new recipe.  We googled for recipes this morning and found one that would work for a base for his creativity.  We almost never use a recipe exactly like we find it!  This recipe was very bland with little lemony flavor so we jazzed it up and hope the lemon taste does not get cooked out of it.  We can always add more flavor to the frosting if the cake does not pop with flavor! 

We are now working on our activities for 4 different projects.  Somehow we are going to make this work tonight.  We have other 4H members to help us with the booths so all should be good. 


Wow! After all the preparation and fuss, we made it through the fun. They came...they ate...they played...they left...and now we are home too!

All in all it was a big success. We were able to promote our 4H projects to at least 75 individuals. We had a lot of new interest in our photography project and wildlife project.

Cool water effect Henry demonstrated

And for our side of the event, the children were able to succesfully present the information about their projects to others. Just another thing I like about 4H is the public speaking opportunities. So when the potential 4Hers came to the photography booth, Henry was able to talk to them about the camera trick to get a good reflection. I was very proud of him for talking to all ages from 8 year olds to adult. Great job!

Also, Sean showed real enthusiasm when it came to his computer science project. He took this booth on his own and was able to tell the participants about what we plan to do for the next year. Sean was also able to split his time with the entomology project helping to identify the insects to those interested.