winter carnival fun!

so us crazy Minnesotans have a carnival in the dead middle of the winter.  i think only in the Midwest would we be crazy enough to do this!  but, we do and we go every year to it!  it last a total of 10 days and it is a great family event with so many fun things to do for all ages.  

you see the winter carnival holds a special place in my heart.  it was my only 'real' job in college other then being a nanny and working on campus.  i had an internship there my senior year and it was so much fun.  i really learned a lot about what i wanted in a job.

on friday night we headed downtown St. Paul and checked out the ice carvings.  they were still working on them, but were looking so good!  it is so fun to see all of the hard work that goes into this carvings!

there is just so much detail and it i can't believe it all made out of ice! and they work long hours in the cold to create such a beautiful masterpiece!  it is a long tradition of the winter carnival, which is another reason i love it!

this year they had a stage with live music and an ice bar, but i didn't get a picture...not sure what i was thinking!  there were a lot of people around that area.  and the girls would not look at me in this picture, because the lady dancing was way more interesting then my camera!

i think we will hit the snow sculptures this week, since they are right by our house.  they have a big snow castle that i know the girls will love and a huge snow hill to play on too!  and then there is the parade this coming weekend...and they say there is a warm up coming, so we might just have to head out!

what fun things do you do in this long, cold winter?