Thumpin' Small Town Weekend

Once again, my family enjoyed staying mostly local.  A neighboring town had their own festival which we enjoy visiting.  This year, my girls only did the carnival, but to buy an arm band and ride whatever they want for as long as they want is worth it.  Actually, we didn't even buy an arm band because we have connections.  Shhh!  That is another perk to being connected in a small town.  I highly recommend it.  Wait!  I'm reminded of a Chris LeDoux song:

So, y'all just stay where you are.  Enjoy your big city.  Let us take care of the snakes and critters out here.

Here are my kids {not} enjoying a STW.

We also enjoying eating as cheaply as possible so that we can go out on the town and enjoy the local attractions.  We hunt and grow our own stuff.  My husband also works on a ranch that has an incredible garden.  The office sells the produce, and my husband brings home what he can.  Whether you buy from a farmers' market or grow it yourself, it really is the best way to eat.

Cooking sausage links from last season's hunt.  

Do you see the spider?
I pointed him out
before Model T
jumped in for that mater.  

Red knows better than to go in there!

The other thing that started this weekend is VBS!  I'll have more to post about that later, but here is the first night.

Small Town Weekend

Every small town has a weekend to celebrate the special nature of being that small town.  Our weekend was this past weekend.  We have the typical events which include a fair, rodeo, music entertainment, and a parade.

The events begin with the crowing of the Queen and her court.  My Model T wanted to run this year for the Little Miss Hometown.  She got over some fear and shyness to talk to people and raised lots of money.  It wasn't enough to make the court, but I was so very proud of her!

Small town rodeos are so much better than any other big town.  All the seats are good unless you are looking directly into the sun.  Everyone was very excited to see the world class rodeo clown Leon Coffee.  My family saw him last year at another rodeo, and we will go see him again!  He is hilarious and does a great job.  You can read more about him in Texas Monthly.

The whole town turns out for the parade on Saturday morning.  This isn't a huge metro parade.  It is small town style!  I love that I can drive up to our church ten minutes before the parade to pull out the lawn chairs and join our friends to watch our other friends march down the street in the parade.

My students were marching with the ROTC, the band, the cheerleaders, and other organizations.  Local businesses created fun floats.  Church groups entered their floats.  Class reunions from 1949 to this year's graduating class of 2014 created floats.  Maybe not every single one in between, but there were a lot of classes.  Small town classes get back together.  I didn't personally go to my own reunion because it was too big and I hadn't seen most of them for 20 years.  Even floats from local towns close by came to join our parade.

Of course, the best part about a STW is hanging out with friends!  Here are some of my favorites.  (I have tons of favorites.  I don't want anyone to get upset.  I just didn't get pictures with everyone.)

Small Town Week!

News from the Week:

This was a crazy busy week!  I mean I felt like I was running all week and didn't finish the race.  Maybe it was just the weekend.  Can I have another one to recover now?  Probably not, but Spring Break is on its way!  Thank the Lord for a coming rest.  Seriously, can I get an Amen?

Friday started with Model T's stock show.  She is still too young to do the big animals, so she did a short term project.  Next year will be another story.  We'll have to decide between all the options of projects and animals that she could do.  She took Mr. Fuzzy to show off.  Apparently, he was a big hit because there were not very many Lion Head Rabbits at the show.

Model T and Mr. Fuzzy

Saturday, my husband had a big day at work.  The Luling Foundation hosted a massive cattle sale.  I had never been to an auction of any kind and completely enjoyed the speed of the entire day.  This is not big city speed; this is small town speed.  There were multiple organizations selling bulls, heifers, pairs, registered, and commercial cattle.  Before I knew it, four hours had flown by.  Auctioneers are amazing!  I was exhausted just listening to him!  

The cattle waiting to be auctioned.  

This is a parking lot that I can handle. 

Cousins entertaining each other. 

Model T completely mesmerized by the auction!

Commercial cattle auctioned five at a time.  

On the way to and from Luling, I had to navigate our town because there was more traffic than normal.  It took me an entire two minutes to get through town because the square was blocked off for the Lone Star Grand Prix.  Someone said those little cars got up to 80 or 90 miles an hour on the straight sections.  There were people in town from all over the country!  I've never seen so many different licence plates in our community.  

Finally, we rounded out the day with some amazing pizza at Whizzerville!  I'm not sure if you will find that on a map.  There is no Whizzerville proper, so you have to look in McMahan.  It is a hole in the wall kind of place, and it was completely packed last night.  By the way, there isn't even a stop light in McMahan, but everyone was stopping to get pizza.  Our Sunday School class made it a social event last night.  12 adults and a bunch of kids made a fun time!  We took pictures, but we couldn't share last night because there was no cell service, and we loved it!  Disconnected digitally so we connected in person.  

Model C loves her daddy and uncle!

Pucker up!  

Cousins playing together

And this is the pizza joint of choice for her birthday!  

Did you notice that all the kids had amazing things to do that did not involved electronics?