Annual Town Picnic and Crabfest

A week a go on Saturday was the town annual picnic for employees and their families. Heidi works for the town, so we get to go. Last year the picnic was held at the same time that Michelle & Drew & family, Sam & Amber, and Sue & Adam were visiting. This year it was held the same time Drew & Michelle & family were here. The weather was nice though a little warm on Saturday morning, and then went downhill from there, as you will see. The picnic is began in the afternoon just after lunchtime and was held at the park adjacent to our neighborhood- so we walked there.

First stop was one of the many playgrounds in the park.

I don't know if we stopped so the little girls could play, or so Katie could play. Anyway, all three girls had a good time in the playground.

Well, if anybody knows Aubree, you know she loves to eat- anytime and all the time! So the first thing we did was load up our plates with food and head to the tables under the eating tent. Everyone is asked to bring a side-dish or dessert, and the town provides the main course: hotdogs, hamburgers, deep-fried fish & hushpuppies, and of course steamed crabs! All-you-can-eat crabs!

At first Aubree wasn't sure what to do with those ugly crabs. But after she was shown how to crack them open with the hammer, she got busy.

She pretty-much pulverized a couple of crabs.

Isabelle busy digging-in on her plate of food.

The Shades and Katie eating lunch. Behind the guy that is standing in the picture, are several boxes of fresh crabs on the table.

Heidi enjoying a pile of crabs.

Isabelle is showing off her unicorn that was painted on her arm, and some balloon art on the other arm.  Everything at the picnic is free: face painting, balloon animals and other kid projects, caricature drawings, two water slides, pony rides, and there is even an ice cream truck that comes and you can go back as much as you want.

Isabelle in her bathing suit, ready to go down the water slides.

Here is an overall view of the picnic. The big white tent is the eating area. The smaller tents were for face painting and caricature drawing.

Aubree wasn't too happy about waiting for the ponies to get saddled-up and ready to ride.

Isabelle got to ride the horse.

The picnic was held in left field of one of the baseball fields at the park, that is the scoreboard in the background.

Aubree finally got her pony ride.

Aubree was bold and went on this water slide all by herself. It was a bit of a struggle for her to climb to the top, but she did it several times. This picture and the next three pictures show Aubree riding the slide all by herself.

Her she is all 'locked and loaded' and ready to go.

She would get herself all turned around and end up going down the slide on her tummy.

And in the end she gets dunked in the pool at the base of the slide.

Shelly done eating crab. It's very messy and you get 'Old Bay' seasoning all over yourself. Delaweenian's use Old Bay for a seasoning on everything.

The Shades relaxing during the first round of ice cream after the ice cream truck arrived.

Shelly enjoying her second (or is it third?) ice cream. 

Well, the sky finally darkened and it started raining. It not only rained, it poured! The rain was like a regular monsoon and lasted for a few hours. Good thing there were the tents all set-up and a pavilion to use. Most people stayed for a while, and enjoyed visiting during the rain. Though the rain started around 2 or 3 on Saturday afternoon, it rained off and on the rest of the weekend. The total rainfall for our town that weekend was six inches!

This is my favorite picture of this post. The rain did not keep Aubree from going for more ice cream at the truck. She is pointing to a picture of an ice cream she wants. She and Isabelle got totally drenched, but loved it.

Heidi holding up Aubree while she is all wet. Of course she is not unhappy at all.

(I hate using double-negatives, but it seemed to work here.)

We had a great time again this year at the picnic, and the rain with lightning and thunder made it more memorable. Can't wait till next year!

The End