Winter Carnival Snow Sculptures

Living next to the State Fairgrounds is great - when events are taking place we're only moments away.  The St. Paul Winter Carnival is underway now, and they've had truckloads of snow brought onto Machinery Hill at the Fairgrounds for their annual snow-sculpting contest.  It was a pleasant night, so we wandered over after dinner:

Dozens of sculptures - most of them intact but there were a couple that fell apart in today's 38-degree weather...

Of course, Wynn liked the dragon.

Great detail and craftsmanship on this one!  Wynn is taking piano lessons weekly after school...

Work is still underway - this looks like it'll be a Vulcan palace when completed. They were giving fire-truck rides around the Fairgrounds this weekend; we could hear the siren going off every so often during the snowstorm...

I think this was a Far Side cartoon...

They had a big snow maze set up, and she had a blast running around inside that.

What a charmed life she leads!

She *still* really likes congee

Now that we live in the middle of the Twin Cities, it's a lot easier to try new restaurants.  Last night we stopped at Que Nha on University Avenue.  A light-rail station is literally just outside their front door & this is exactly the kind of business that will get all sorts of traffic when the trains start running.  A family-run, family-friendly place ... clean, well-decorated, with fast service.  We'd told Wynn that they had congee on the menu, and that's all she wanted to talk about on our short drive there...

This serving bowl is about 2/3 of a gallon...  just beautiful; we haven't seen so much meat in a serving of congee anywhere else on our travels.  Really a lovely sight & smell to behold on a gray, windy, cold day like yesterday.

Wynn had three bowls - I had one as well - and we still had plenty left over for breakfast today!

Happy 7th Birthday!

It's really difficult to have a birthday right after Christmas and right before Chinese New Year.  But a girl's gotta get presents.  Thankfully she's genuinely grateful.  (We squirreled away the My Little Pony trainset...)

Cupcakes from ... Cupcake, on University Avenue.  They're mighty good.

I can't believe Wynn has been part of our lives for 5-1/2 years now.  But here she is, already becoming a Big Kid.