Bull Dog. The boys had put huge icicles as teeth on the bottom of the mouth, which looked awesome, but they got knocked out by the time we took the picture, probably when someone tried to get inside the mouth.One of the most interesting things about having children and moving to a small town in a rural area has been that I continually find myself doing things that I never dreamed I would ever do in a million years. Anything and all things farm related, of course, community meals such as pancake breakfasts and spaghetti dinners. Chinese auctions for used, donated items, hats with ear flaps and wearing long underwear everyday. Heated discussions about Polaris snow boots and about a hundred small town parades each year.
This weekend was the Cooperstown Winter Carnival. It started out on Friday evening with, you guessed it, a parade. My girl's scout troops were included on two of the floats and I spent the afternoon trying to iron badges onto a Girl Scout sash. The positive aspect of iron on badges turned into a negative, when I realized that I had applied the badges so that the seam of the sash was at the shoulder rather than the hip, where it belongs. Since some of the badges won't come off, I suspect I have to start all over and buy a new sash and badge set. Of course. Anyway the parade was short (it is a small town after all) but much candy was thrown, a snow king and queen waved from the back of a convertible and we watched the fireworks at the lake afterward. Um, in 5 degree weather. That's where the long underwear thing came in handy.
Saturday morning I had to take one of my daughters to a swim meet about an hour away. While I sat fully clothed in a sauna, oops I mean pool deck, all day, Doug was outside all day, monitoring our son and his friend while they built a snow sculpture. He also took our youngest to a pancake breakfast and then stood outside at a skating rink while she and her friends raced around the rink.
When we got back to town, my older daughter and I attended a chinese auction, looked at the snow sculptures, walked through the chocolate contest and stood in line so that she could ride on a dog sled. Just as we got to the front they ended the rides because the dogs were tired. Dang...
There was a concert by Catie Curtis that I would have liked to have seen on Saturday night plus several other restaurants and bars had live music, however, I was a zombie by 7pm and pretty much fell asleep by 10. So that whole stay out late thing is all gone too, unless I have a nap during the day. Heh. Like I ever get to take a nap.
My son insisted that I enter the chili contest so I spent Sunday morning making my fab chili, while Doug took the kids to the sledding contest and then to the ice rink again. I met them there and hung around talking to some friends.
I don't think I won the chili contest, and I really doubt we won the snowblower in the raffle, that would just be too much to hope for, but my son did win the snow sculpture contest. His sculpture, pictured above is a bull dog's head (the theme of the carnival was "Dog Days of Winter" so the sculpture was supposed to have a dog theme) and it looks a lot like the characters that he includes in the stories and comics that he is always writing.
Next up: the school carnival. Many cakes to bake for the cake walk. Chances are good that I will end up working at the popcorn booth again or serving hot dogs even though I am morally opposed to their very existence. Can't wait.
4 comments:
Shirley ..Great snow sculpture.
Sounds like you had a lot of fun!
It was a lot of fun. But cold. I still have a chill from it all:)
Tracy, what you describe here is, to me, what life and community are about.
Hi Ed, you are right and I agree. The oddness for me to have these kinds of activities though, is that as a kid, our family was out of the loop on most of those things, and then as a young adult I actively avoided all of it. So being involved now is still surprising to me, and just a bit unsettling as well. But our kids love it and so I do it and it's all good.
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