Madhouse diaries : Forget Mr Potato Head, bring on the sugar beet !

On Tuesday night, all the kids in Dunkirk will be celebrating St Martin. (Click through to find out more about the origins and the celebrations.) This is one of my favourite local traditions - in fact, forget that, I think it's possibly my favourite all time legend. A drunken saint who lost his donkey in the dunes and turned donkey poo into bread?! It all sounds vaguely blasphemous and irreverent and on top of that, the kids always have a great time !

Every year, during the school holidays, the local council organises a free distribution of sugar beet that the kids can carve/paint/decorate then take along to be judged, with everyone winning a prize.

Every year, I give the kids a few ideas then let their imaginations run wild. You can see our past efforts here - we've had angry birds and pigs, pirates and Indians, mice and butterflies ...

This year, Sophie was too old to join in but she helped out Pierre and Juliette. They came up with

an alien (apparently !)

a hedgehog

a whale

and a Minion !

I bet you never imagined how much fun you can have with mud-covered root vegetables !