Keira's costume for the Texas State 4-H dog show...

On July 11th my 9 year old daughter Keira and her half Sheltie, half Papillon dog "Chelsi" went to the State 4-H dog show in Belton, Texas... it was their first time and this was something that Keira got interested in and wanted to do for the better part of a year now. She's been working with her dog some, but they both need some more work, and Keira kinda realizes that. She wasn't ready to do "the big stuff" and so she wanted to "get her feet wet" by doing the "tricks" competition and costume competition. When we got there, we found out that tricks was right before costume, and Keira was worried because her and her Mom were working on the costume literally right up to the last minute, in the car on the way home from Indiana via Tennessee...

Her choice of costume made me proud... Hope it gives you guys a good laugh as well... HER costume is actually recycled; we made it for a school "vocabulary parade" thing a year or two ago... the kids had to choose a word, write it in large letters on a cardboard sign with a Sharpie, and then make a costume to look like that word. She chose the word "ROCKET"... so we took an old band T-shirt my sister gave me, turned it inside out for a full white exterior, and with some careful and rather tedious application of decoration via a BIG MESS of Sharpie markers, turned her into a SATURN IB ROCKET, complete with roll patterns, "USA" and "UNITED STATES" lettering, fins, rocket nozzles around the bottom, interstage and intertank, ullage motors, APU's, and cable tunnels. With some quick work in posterboard and some soda straws, as well as a spare bit of BT-50 and an old Alpha III nosecone, I made her a conical "Apollo capsule" hat, complete with Sharpie marker applied windows, hatches, and thrusters, and made an "escape tower" for the top of it. The hat was held on via some string tied under her chin.

HER idea was to make a new costume for the dog, for them to go as a pair... she decided since she was the rocket, Chelsi the dog would be the astronaut... or is that muttstronaut?? LOL Anyway, with some careful use of duct tape and baby clothes, along with an old cheesebox and some other stuff, and decorations by Sharpie marker, she made Chelsi into her astronaut. I talked her into putting the name and rank of the astromutt on the PLSS backpack-- Commander HEEL BARKSTRONG... LOL

She was up against some pretty heavy competition, and still managed to get 7th place, which isn't bad for her first time out...

Anyway, enjoy the pics... Later! OL JR

That's adorable! Way to go!

Soo much cuteness..... head exploding

That is an excellent set of costumes.

"That's one small paw for dog ..."

VERY creative and congrats to your daughter and the proud papa!

Greg

Way cool!! Congrats!

OUTSTANDING! Congrats to Keira and Chelsi. And Mom. And the proud papa of course.

+10 for originality! +25 for "Heel Barkstrong"! Wonder how many did not get it??

Jeff, those pictures are priceless! I especially liked numbers 6, 7 and 8. Congratulations!

Thanks...

It was more fun than I thought it would be...

Later! OL JR

fyrwrxz said:

+10 for originality! +25 for "Heel Barkstrong"! Wonder how many did not get it??

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Sadly, probably most folks... Course with Neil passing about a year ago and them renaming Dryden Flight Research Center for him, maybe I'm just underestimating folks...

Later! OL JR

tmacklin said:

Jeff, those pictures are priceless! I especially liked numbers 6, 7 and 8. Congratulations!

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Thanks... they kept them standing around a LONG time... Most of the kids got tired and ended up sitting down and waiting for the results to be announced...

Bless that little dog's heart... Chelsi was SO good... she didn't bark, didn't fidget, didn't roll around or bite at the costume and try to destroy it, as the 4-H club sponsor said she'd seen many times...

There were some other really cute costumes there as well... I can post some if there's interest...

Later! OL JR

That's super cute,,,
She's adorable,,
and the look in the dogs face...
The dog is OK with this as long as your daughter is there too....

Many years ago we had a "Toy" Yorkshire Terrier...
Fluffy was named appropriately as her coat was curly and fluffy as opposed to straight and stringy as some Yorkies are....
I was sitting in the living room and my daughter Cynthia had dressed Fluffy in some of her doll clothes...
Cynthia came walking out of the darkened hall bending over and holding the "hands" ( remember it was dark ) of what i thought for a second was a chimpanzee....
Cynthia was holding Fluffy's front paws so she could walk upright and Fluffy's hair was puffing out of the doll clothes all over the place...
I was speechless,,, all I could think of was " where the heck did Cynthia get a chimpanzee from".....

Cynthia was about 7 at the time and that was one of my "I will NEVER forget that" moments....

Teddy

How bout some more pic's JR....

Teddy

onebadhawk said:

How bout some more pic's JR....

Teddy

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That's a cute story... Those kids do the darnedest things...

Ask and ye shall receive...

Later! OL JR

And a few more... not all these competed in the same class... there were three classes from what I could tell... the littler kids like Keira up to early teens, teenagers, and then the older folks class...

Later! OL JR

That's too cute JR...
I didn't realize a dog is dressed up with everybody....
And the dogs are all OK with this...lol
That's too funny...

Teddy

Yep... that's the "costume" part of it... the dog and owner are supposed to be dressed in something that "goes together"... like Olive Oyl and Popeye (the dog), or the beekeeper and the bee (dog), or Pocohontas and the dog dressed with feathered headdress and stuff, or Robin Hood and her dog dressed up with a bow and arrow, or the cowgirl and the dog as the bull with the rodeo rider on his back.

The lady in the Victorian gown with the dog in the tuxedo and top hat, they were in the adult division or whatever...

Keira's division was won by the girl at the last dressed up as the 'pastry chef' and her little Shih-Tzu was stuffed down inside the "cupcake", with just his head sticking out. There was another girl who had a giant "Starbucks" cup with just the dog's head sticking out the side. Personally I think those sort of 'costumes' shouldn't rank as high, since the dog can't really do anything. The girl also had a "shop" set up with the 'cupcake' in the "window". It was cute, but a little much IMHO... The funny thing was, when they were announcing the winners, the mom "knew" she'd won before they announced it... evidently she was a "long time" big name dog breeder type and thus on the "inside track" to a win at every show... (one of the things that I figured was rampant throughout the whole thing, and those sorts of "competitions" really don't interest me... when the only ones who can win are the big cheeses, what's the point?? To me it would just serve to bring Keira down, which is why I wasn't a huge supporter of her doing this, but I figured "what the hey-- she's a kid, she's interested, let's find out and if it's that way, well, she's smart and will pick up on it and probably forget about it after this year... just hope she's not TOO disappointed if it works like I think it will...") Anyway, you should have seen the look on her face and the stammering and sputtering and muttering when they read off her kids number, but a DIFFERENT NAME! It was hilarious... she couldn't get over there fast enough to hash it out with the judges and they made an announcement a couple minutes later that, "Sorry, we had the right number but the wrong name... so-in-so didn't win, it was #149, "such-n-such"... course by that time everybody had dispersed and gone on about their business... took some wind out of her sails you could tell... The kid didn't seem phased... probably just doing it for her mother more than herself... you could tell the mom did virtually EVERYTHING on the costume, setup, etc... I judged aerospace at the 4-H fair in Indiana for my SIL a couple years, and some other things, and it's relatively easy to tell who actually did their project and who's "entering daddy's project" in the fair... especially at the younger grade levels. I always had a chat with the kids as I judged their project, to find out their level of involvement and interest in the project. If they were just sitting there and couldn't answer anything about it, or seemed like they didn't really care or didn't really want to be there, it was easy enough to figure out, especially if it was 'TOO well done"...

Anyway, it was kinda neat and she seems to have liked it okay... happy enough with seventh place. It did seem to me that when you get to the "higher levels" of it that there's probably a lot more of an "inside track" making it a LOT harder to place high or win if you're an "outsider"...

Oh well... it's not as bad as I thought it would be... those AKC competitions, OTOH, those seem just about as rigged as you can get... about like figure skating-- unless something DRASTIC happens to upset the applecart, the "favorites" going in usually win...

Later! OL JR

That's too funny JR....
Good for you man,,,,,
Now that's what it's all about.....

Teddy

Luke,
Kiera's costume is AWESOME!!!! a Saturn 1b costume! she would have won hands down if I were judging...anything 1b wins with me...I mean the pastry chef was nice and all...but did she have H-1 engines? I didn't think so.... I liked the BPC on her hat too...neat touch!

WAY TOO COOL !!

NJRick said:

Luke,
Kiera's costume is AWESOME!!!! a Saturn 1b costume! she would have won hands down if I were judging...anything 1b wins with me...I mean the pastry chef was nice and all...but did she have H-1 engines? I didn't think so.... I liked the BPC on her hat too...neat touch!

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LOL Thought you'd appreciate that one... it's even the all white tank version... LOL

Ya know, that'd make a neat T-shirt design for a T-shirt biz...

Later! OL JR

gotta love the white tank 1b!! I do think I am in the minority with the white tanks though...regardless...cool rocket and cool costume!!

Jeff
Costume and pics just great. We are all of course biased here toward rocketry, but really, compared to all the others you showed Keira's had a lot more creativity and just plain cleverness. It's good to see how much you and her Mom are invested in her, and it looked like it was a fun family project. I hope you and Keira know how blessed you all are!

as you always say, KUTGW!

BABAR said:

Jeff
Costume and pics just great. We are all of course biased here toward rocketry, but really, compared to all the others you showed Keira's had a lot more creativity and just plain cleverness. It's good to see how much you and her Mom are invested in her, and it looked like it was a fun family project. I hope you and Keira know how blessed you all are!

as you always say, KUTGW!

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Thank you... We think she's kinda special.... Think we'll keep her... Lol

Later! OL JR

BABAR said:

Jeff
Costume and pics just great. We are all of course biased here toward rocketry, but really, compared to all the others you showed Keira's had a lot more creativity and just plain cleverness. It's good to see how much you and her Mom are invested in her, and it looked like it was a fun family project. I hope you and Keira know how blessed you all are!

as you always say, KUTGW!

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+1 for sure..

Teddy

GregGleason said:

"That's one small paw for dog ..."
Greg

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"That's one small paw for A dog..."

(you'll start another debate in 20 years if you don't correct it now.

Really good job, Luke. Tell Keira she's going to make a good astronaut (or aeronautical engineer) when she grows up.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Einstein.

-- john.

P.S. That 'Heel Barkstrong' is *classic*!!!