State Fair Surprise

I blogged about my State Fair entry here. Well, I took the kids to the Fair on the first day because it costs $1 to get in per person, which left me with some room to buy some tickets for rides. Here they are having fun.

 If you ride with kids you get to ride for free. Fun. We rode the Merry-Go-Round together. The girl was hanging on for dear life and we hadn't even started moving yet.

We checked on the competitive exhibits and saw some cute things, never did see my entry on display, but that is ok, there was tons of items. So we got warm chocolate chip cookies and enjoyed the weather.

Fast forward to this past weekend. On Sunday my hubs inquired about how my item did at the Fair. I told him I didn't know because I didn't see it at the Fair and I hadn't heard anything. So, he said, "Well, let's look it up."
Wait.
We can do that?
I had completely forgotten that the results would be published. The Fair was on it's last day and was closed and I hadn't even bothered to check the results. Why didn't I think to check the judging results?

He found my name and what I had made, and surprisingly right next to it was an award and some other number. Total shock and amazement on my part. I had won. First place. Blue Ribbon. Now I was super excited to go back to the Fairgrounds to retrieve my item and see if it was true.

I go to pick it up. I helped the lady locate the hat and sure enough on the tag is a blue ribbon picture. She asked if I had seen it at the Fair and I said no, I couldn't find it otherwise I would have known before Sunday. I was super excited.

She took me to another table to get my actual ribbon. The lady at the table takes my paper and gives me my ribbon and then says something strange.

"We couldn't cut you a check because you didn't leave your social security number on the application."

 Ummm...cut me a check?

Yeah. Apparently, in addition to the ribbon you can get money for first place prizes. I could have gotten $8 along with my ribbon. That's what the strange number next to the 1st meant.

I had no idea that you could get award money for sewing from the State Fair. I figured that was for the agriculture and animal exhibits since they pay to enter. I entered for free, but they will award you money anyway. Who knew?...I do now.

I will be on the lookout for a cute something to enter next year, and this time put my social down on the paperwork, just in case, now that I know what those numbers are for.

Congratulations to all of the winners and competitors!