The Nelson Family: C.A.L.F

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

C.A.L.F

The week after Steve and I went to Hamilton (which was the week after we went to Disney), I took the girls to Abilene, Texas for a book festival. It was one fun trip after another! I had heard about CALF, the Children's Art and Literacy Festival, several years ago and had always wanted to go. It seems that it was always taking place the same weekend of our dance recital, so this was the first year that we made it (took a break from dance last year).

It's really a pretty amazing little festival. The city prides itself "the storybook capital of the world" and they have children's storybook character statues all around the down town area. Each year a different children's author/illustrator is featured and they unveil a new statue.

Cat in the Hat

Sam I Am

Duck on a Bike

This year's author was Peter Brown and the girls got their books autographed!

The festival kicked off Thursday night with a storybook character parade and then they unveiled Mr Tiger from Peter Brown's Mr Tiger Goes Wild. After some music and food trucks we went to an adorable theatre to hear Peter Brown's presentation. He talked about how he wrote and illustrated his books and focused on The Wild Robot. I had read that book and the sequel with the girls last year so it was really neat to hear all about it. Ruby loved the talk, and that was probably my favorite part of the festival too.

2019 statue- Mr Tiger

The next day was full of activities at various venues all around downtown Abilene. We each got a lanyard to wear and as we went to events we collected buttons with various characters from Peter Brown's books. There were book readings, plays of the books, crafts, music, a magic show, a puppet show, musical instrument display, and a balloon art show. The weather was beautiful while we were there (sunny but not too hot), the girls were happy, and we all had a lot of fun!