Sweet Pea Festival

This weekend was the Sweet Pea Festival here in Bozeman, which for perspective is like Lander's 4th of July, without the parade drinking and blowing things up. Anyway, it's a really awesome 3 day arts festival with a few extra days of awesomeness thrown in. Wednesday was the 'Bite of Bozeman' where James and I were overwhelmed with yummy choices from local restaurants. Matthew's favorite was the Bison tamale, causing me to pause and wonder if I shouldn't have ordered two.

Saturday kicked off with a kid's race and parade. Here's Matthew and James waiting for the parade to start.

And the first of the hundreds of kids to race down Main Street. Next year we'll have to make sure and register Matthew.

The race was followed by a parade filled with everything a parade should have. There were horses, costumes, tractors, nordic skiers, dinosaurs, cute kids, the works!

Ingenious idea: Candy Cannon.

And the best use of a bike trailer in a parade (in case you're confused this young ladies followed the horses):

Sheer awesomeness:

And a very colorful and intriguing float from Yellowstone Coffee:

Though the costume design for ummm, coffee beans is a little confusing and questionable:

Just an idea regarding banner placement for my mother's class reunion next time :-)

Matthew, it turns out, is a candy magnet for 8-10 year old girls handing out candy:

Matthew on the move to get a better view:

The shoe that nearly ran over Matthew 5 seconds after I took this picture. Luckily James heroically scooped him out of danger:

Not deterred in the slightest, he's on the move again for more candy:

Interpretive dance to Pink's "I'm Coming Out" courtesy of the Women's Health ward of the local hospital.

Cuteness from the Parks & Rec dance class

The bulk of the event is at the park where we had our photos taken last week. There's 5 stages of puppets, plays, music and dance. We caught the end of a Missoula Children's Theater production of Robin Hood, the end of a Stellaluna puppet show and a few musical acts. There's also a great area for kids set up, including a very popular area where contractors donate scrap wood and kids build and paint things like these:

Watching some of the adults haul some of the creations (like a 7 foot snake/serpent) to the car is priceless!

There were also some amazing arts/crafts vendors as well as food booths run by local non-profits. We also realized we've hit the food stage where Matthew wants to eat everything we're eating. So we said yes to the sno-cone:

But ended up having to hide the kettle corn. This should keep James and I on our toes about dieting and eating healthy from a little while. All in all, an excellent weekend. We can't wait for next year when Matthew's a little older and can enjoy more of the kids activities and is a little less rigid about napping so we can enjoy more of the adult activities.