You may have noticed a distinct lack of blogposts yesterday. Well, here's why - we decided to head off to Dunkirk carnival for the day and ended up getting back much later than I expected ! Juliette didn't fancy getting dressed up but Pierre and Sophie did - in fact, they got ready all by themselves and Sophie did a fantastic job on Pierre's makeup !
It was a cold but beautifully sunny day with a bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. There were still plenty of huge puddles left over from the recent rain for Pierre to go wading through on the way though !
It's quite a long walk so we packed lots of provisions and made lots of stops along the way to refuel !
If you're wondering what the weird metal structures in the background are, it's a modern art sculpture made out of scrap metal that is supposed to represent a crashed spaceship !
After a picnic lunch on a park bench and a long play in the playground, we headed off to see the giants. They're on wheels and the little squares that you see are for the carriers to look out of.
For weeks now, all three of the Madhouse Mini-testers have been busy ripping and cutting up odds and ends of coloured paper to make homemade confetti. It cleared out the crafts cupboard nicely and saved me a few pounds on the day ! They even had a last minute addition using the cardboard packaging from the picnic !
We were all very impressed with the finished confetti and they were proud of how much they produced - this is the second lot, after St Pol carnival last week !
How much fun can you have with ripped up paper ?!
We had fun walking around on the edges of the carnival, seeing all the people dressed up with their big umbrellas, but we kept out of the main fray which is far too crowded for small children.
Madhouse Daddy was off with the grown-ups though. This is how manic it gets when the mayor throws kippers out of the town hall balcony. Madouse Daddy was very proud to bring one home this year, even if he cheated a bit because he knew one of the people throwing them out and managed to get one before it all started !
If you're wondering why they throw out kippers, it's because the carnival was originally thrown by and for the fishermen heading off to the treacherous waters off Iceland, unsure if they'd make it back in one piece and wanting a final party before they went. These days, it's just a good excuse to go a bit crazy in the run up to Mardi Gras though !
Other blogposts you may be interested in :
Really interesting post, thanks!
ReplyDelete#letkidsbekids
amazing costumes, looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a very fun day! Love the costumes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids