A Walk Down Independence Lane

Since moving to the town where my sister and niece live, we have a great 4th of July tradition. This is the third time we have participated in the town's Children's Parade on Independence Day.

Thankfully Kelly had gone the year before we moved here to learn all the details. Otherwise, I'm sure we would have shown up with our lawn chairs and candy bags to watch the parade go by and catch some loot.

This is a different type of parade. Hundreds of kids decorate their bikes, scooters, motorized kid jeeps, etc with all sorts of red, white and blue garb. And then in our case, the parents of babies and toddlers decorate the family wagon, stroller or baby jogger. Then you take a short walk down the parade route (which is actually on our street) while the spectators throw candy at you.

The best part is the destination. The town has bounce houses, magicians, music and other entertainment set up for everyone to enjoy. Free hot dogs, lemonade and popcorn abound. There's also a huge pond with plenty of hungry ducks awaiting. It's always fun running into friends and neighbors and sweating together for a bit.

It's also fun to see how the cousins have changed from 2006 til now.

Lily and Avery in 2006:

I was still speaking in terms of months for Lily's age. She was just 21 months. Look how tiny her pigtails were.

4th of July 2007:

We got smart and got a shade canopy.

Jade celebrated as well...from the womb. Getting some tummy love from Lily and Avery.
Why did I agree to pose for this profile pic just 2 days before delivering?

2008 Highlights from this morning:



Today was really fun. HOT, yet fun. Here is a slide show with some more pics:

Towards the end of the event we set out for our wagon to load 'em up and head 'em out. It was gone though. We knew it had to be an honest mistake at such a family friendly event. We were hopeful anyway. You can see from the slide show that there were only about 567 red Radio Flyer wagons with shade canopies and decorations.

Jerry went hunting it down and I had them make an announcement over the PA system. We were starting to get hot and worried. I was hoping that the family that had mistaken it for theirs wasn't anything like us.

I can guarantee you that the decorated wagon will be riding around in the back of the van for weeks. Then when it is taken out, it will sit in our garage...completely decorated for the next several months. It would honestly take us a long time to figure out that we had taken someone else's wagon.

Thankfully they were a bit more conscientious than we are...it suddenly appeared out of no where. I was just thankful that the cries and shouts from the girls finally stopped. Something about hearing, "why did someone steal our wagon?" and it's variations said over and over and over again at a family event was bringing a little too much attention to the situation!