I Love a Parade!

We have had the best weekend! Calvin had Friday off for Independence Day so we decided it would be the best time to take the kids to their very first movie! We saw UP and they loved it! Poor Mallory is too small to fit in a seat so she sat in my lap. They loved that they got to eat popcorn and JuJuBe's in the morning and we loved sharing our love of movies with them.

Then we went to Zeppe's for some frozen custard for lunch.

Friday night, we grilled steaks and sat on the patio with a glass of wine and listened to our neighbors behind us practicing for the parade. They had their band set up on the back of a big truck. I love live music and they played for hours....

Saturday, we were sooo excited to walk a couple blocks from our house to see the Cherry Days Parade. Folks in our town start setting out their chairs along the parade route days ahead of time. We had just arrived when we ran into our neighbor across the street. These are the only folks that have really been friendly to us and their daughter is our babysitter. He invited us to come sit in their roped off area and some of our other neighbors were there. Everyone was very nice to us and even offered us chairs to sit in. One of the boys, gave Alex and Mallory some of the poppers that you throw on the ground and they pop. They loved these things!

We were all waiting patiently for the fly over to signal the beginning of the parade!

Once the parade started...all of these kids walked into the streets with plastic bags. We soon discovered that every float throws candy and the kids scramble to retrieve it. Alex was so excited about this and he was great at grabbing a couple pieces before the vultures other kids took them.

Mallory wasn't interested in the candy or much of the parade. She was interested in eating all of the grapes that I brought as snacks.

For some unknown reason, Alex decided to eat his own fingers. I thought his eyes looked so pretty in this picture.
During the parade, a float from our doctor's office was going by. The kids' pediatrician was walking with his son, recognized us and came over to where I was sitting and gave me a water bottle with the clinic's logo on it. I was amazed that he had seen us in this crowd of people.

We let the kids stay up very late so that we could take them to see the fireworks. Around 9:15pm we headed over to Pop's Malt Shop to get some shakes before driving to find the perfect place to watch. We were the only customers there and they brought out some little fireworks and lit them in the parking lot for us. The kids even got to hold some sparklers. The grocery store was in our way for viewing so we drove a few blocks away and sat and watched the kids' first fireworks display. They loved it! Mallory kept saying Boom Shakea Shakea.


This was such an amazing day. For the first time since we moved here 32 months ago...it felt like we were accepted and welcome. The people we spent time with today were so generous and friendly. It felt like we were home....

Alex was up bright and early this morning. (WHY LORD WHY) and he wants to go see a parade and some fireworks. Oh sweetie....not until next year.