Fiesty Meiste's: ice sculptures

this past weekend, downtown holland held an ice sculpture contest. bradley was busy getting rid of birds at the chicken coops and the rest of the fam was a little bit restless. so we took to the road for some culture and art and ice. it was a perfect day for an adventure outside as the mild temps were real tolerable for a michigan january.

i loaded the veen with warm outerwear, a wagon, and children and away we went. downtown was busy, like almost tulip time busy. we had to park "a long ways aways" according to my boys. but with the promise of power tools and ice they were willing to go the distance.

maxer was adorably helpful. he pulled the wagon until the sidewalk became a hazy throng of people and necessitated my expert navigating skills. the bad news is i do not have said skill. if you ever get the entertainment of watching me push a cart through the aisles of a store, you will know the massive challenge before me with the wagon and the people. i do not do gracefulness or elegance, so add to my awkwardness a wagon gifted me from my dad as a castoff of vogelzang hardware days held together only by a nail wedged in a wheel, a very active,distracted boy and a load of cute seated in the wagon and the combination is disastrous.

nonetheless, we made it to the main event.

everyone was quite impressed.

maxer loved the fact that chainsaws were utilized. all he had to report to brad upon our return home was that there were chainsaws and he told weston there were chainsaws.

i felt really knowledgeable as i loudly pointed out the presence of dremmel tools as well. my summer at the hardware store ended up providing me with valuable knowledge, not just enraged customers.

one nice random asked if she could take the pic of all of us together. she then commented that i had a beautiful family. i said, yes i do. thank you.

though i think that may be top 10 worst pics of me. wearing ayla jo's hat and shannon's sunglasses were a bad combo with my unruly big hair.

after a quickly expensive stop into the peanut store for some sea foam, suckers, and sour watermelons, we turned the corner and headed down the street back towards our veen to check out the sculptures remaining from the night before. many moms were allowing their kids to touch the art. i was not. and this was hard for max to comprehend, but really, i think we can all agree that if bear would have reached out to touch that froggy, it would have tipped right over and shattered. i just did not want him to have to live with that...