Tonight we treated ourselves to a treasured tradition, arguably the biggest event of the year in our lil' ol' hometown. A twilight parade that is the grand finale to a week long festival. To the locals it is
serious business. People start adorning the sidewalk along the parade route with chairs (of all sorts mind you - lawn chairs, camp chairs, plastic chairs, picnic benches, dining room chairs, even expensive patio furniture with plush cushions) as early as Friday evening to stake their claim to a piece of front row property. Our chairs were out by noon today and we had prime realty thanks to our friends who'd put theirs out earlier in the morning. In order to avoid the hassle of finding a parking spot within reasonable walking distance, we packed a picnic dinner and headed out late afternoon which enabled us to a snag a spot in the parking lot of the bank just yards from where are chairs were set up. But arriving early presented it's own challenge...how to keep little ones busy for four hours before the parade started. As we were the first ones out of the group of four families to arrive we packed the Girls in the stroller and walked a few blocks to the nearest Starbucks for some warm beverages and a much needed shot of caffeine for J. Though just a few short blocks, the trip proved to take quite a bit of time as maneuvering a double stroller down a sidewalk lined with chairs is no easy feat. By the time we returned to our seats it was just a few short minutes before our friends all started to arrive.
As we were trying to figure out how to keep six kids ages 5 to 21 months busy we noticed a little girl down the street drawing
with sidewalk chalk. Brilliant! Luckily for us, there was a dollar store just blocks up the street. So us Moms left the Dads to entertain and high-tailed it to the dollar store. Speaking of brilliant...not bad for 21 months, eh?! We returned with the sidewalk chalk and man did we score big with the kids. They welcomed us back with cheering and I couldn't get that packaging opened up quick enough. They all
grabbed chalk, even the littlest ones and went right to work drawing grand pictures and imaginative shapes on the pavement in bold shades of pink, green, blue and yellow. It didn't take long before Baby Sister was covered in chalk and rubbing her dusty little hands all over the rest of us. In addition to 16 pieces of chalk for just a dollar we also came across the most awesome glow wands in a smorgasbord
of shapes and colors - a purple heart, a yellow star, a green star, a red ladybug, a green frog and a yellow bumblebee. The kids really went wild for those, so fun to see their faces light up with glee and excitement. So, for the price of two skinny, measley little glow necklaces being sold by the street vendors we were able to get 6 glow wands worthy of envy. Man do I have a new appreciation for that dollar store. It might just
be my new favorite place to shop. Anyplace that can elicit such delight on the faces of small children
earns a soft spot in my heart. And so, after much coffee-drinking, junk food eating, masterpiece creating, chatty conversing, laughing and memory making, the time had finally arrived for the parade to begin. The kids, who could hardly contain their excitement were dancing in the street and craning their necks to see what was headed down the street in our direction. Not that they couldn't figure it out
from the blaring sirens and the flashing lights that grew louder and brighter as the fire engines traveled down the parade route in our direction. There were several marching bands, a handful of beautiful 'princesses' riding on the backs of fancy convertibles, horses, colorful floats decorated with flowers and lights not to mention plenty of drill teams, three of the cutest little alpacas I've ever seen,
friendly clowns and pirates. One of which who was not-so-friendly. He had fake blood painted on one half of his face, was carrying a bloody club and thought that it would be funny to pick on a four-year old girl. Our four-year old Girl. He got right in her face and yelled no doubt expecting to get a rise out of her (and not noticing the protective Daddy about to give him a knuckle sandwich). But the Girl just stood there
staring him down, then once he moved along she burst into tears. J wrapped her up in his arms and said that her heart was beating a
million times per minute. Poor thing. Luckily, there were still cartwheels to turn and friends to take her mind off of grown men dressed as scary pirates who should know better than to pick on little girls.
Tonight we treated ourselves to a treasured tradition, arguably the biggest event of the year in our lil' ol' hometown. A twilight parade that is the grand finale to a week long festival. To the locals it is serious business. People start adorning the sidewalk along the parade route with chairs (of all sorts mind you - lawn chairs, camp chairs, plastic chairs, picnic benches, dining room chairs, even expensive patio furniture with plush cushions) as early as Friday evening to stake their claim to a piece of front row property. Our chairs were out by noon today and we had prime realty thanks to our friends who'd put theirs out earlier in the morning. In order to avoid the hassle of finding a parking spot within reasonable walking distance, we packed a picnic dinner and headed out late afternoon which enabled us to a snag a spot in the parking lot of the bank just yards from where are chairs were set up. But arriving early presented it's own challenge...how to keep little ones busy for four hours before the parade started. As we were the first ones out of the group of four families to arrive we packed the Girls in the stroller and walked a few blocks to the nearest Starbucks for some warm beverages and a much needed shot of caffeine for J. Though just a few short blocks, the trip proved to take quite a bit of time as maneuvering a double stroller down a sidewalk lined with chairs is no easy feat. By the time we returned to our seats it was just a few short minutes before our friends all started to arrive.
As we were trying to figure out how to keep six kids ages 5 to 21 months busy we noticed a little girl down the street drawing
with sidewalk chalk. Brilliant! Luckily for us, there was a dollar store just blocks up the street. So us Moms left the Dads to entertain and high-tailed it to the dollar store. Speaking of brilliant...not bad for 21 months, eh?! We returned with the sidewalk chalk and man did we score big with the kids. They welcomed us back with cheering and I couldn't get that packaging opened up quick enough. They all
grabbed chalk, even the littlest ones and went right to work drawing grand pictures and imaginative shapes on the pavement in bold shades of pink, green, blue and yellow. It didn't take long before Baby Sister was covered in chalk and rubbing her dusty little hands all over the rest of us. In addition to 16 pieces of chalk for just a dollar we also came across the most awesome glow wands in a smorgasbord
of shapes and colors - a purple heart, a yellow star, a green star, a red ladybug, a green frog and a yellow bumblebee. The kids really went wild for those, so fun to see their faces light up with glee and excitement. So, for the price of two skinny, measley little glow necklaces being sold by the street vendors we were able to get 6 glow wands worthy of envy. Man do I have a new appreciation for that dollar store. It might just
be my new favorite place to shop. Anyplace that can elicit such delight on the faces of small children
earns a soft spot in my heart. And so, after much coffee-drinking, junk food eating, masterpiece creating, chatty conversing, laughing and memory making, the time had finally arrived for the parade to begin. The kids, who could hardly contain their excitement were dancing in the street and craning their necks to see what was headed down the street in our direction. Not that they couldn't figure it out
from the blaring sirens and the flashing lights that grew louder and brighter as the fire engines traveled down the parade route in our direction. There were several marching bands, a handful of beautiful 'princesses' riding on the backs of fancy convertibles, horses, colorful floats decorated with flowers and lights not to mention plenty of drill teams, three of the cutest little alpacas I've ever seen,
friendly clowns and pirates. One of which who was not-so-friendly. He had fake blood painted on one half of his face, was carrying a bloody club and thought that it would be funny to pick on a four-year old girl. Our four-year old Girl. He got right in her face and yelled no doubt expecting to get a rise out of her (and not noticing the protective Daddy about to give him a knuckle sandwich). But the Girl just stood there
staring him down, then once he moved along she burst into tears. J wrapped her up in his arms and said that her heart was beating a
million times per minute. Poor thing. Luckily, there were still cartwheels to turn and friends to take her mind off of grown men dressed as scary pirates who should know better than to pick on little girls.
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