Busy Saturday!

This past weekend in our little suburb, there was a big festival of sorts. There tons of things going on in the big park by our house (concerts, rides, bouncers, kiddie rides and carnival food). The whole weekend is topped off by some fireworks, which can be seen without obstruction from our back yard. It's a fun time, especially with kids.On Saturday, there is a big parade and I promised Julia we could go. Well, we all slept in until 8:30 and the parade starts at 9am. I got dressed quickly and woke Julia up, forced some breakfast into her and popped her on the back of my bike and off we went at 9:10. The parade starts kind of by our house, but in efforts to avoid the giant crowds at the start of the parade and catch the "beginning part of the parade" - we rode like Elmira Gulch down the sidewalk trying to beat the parade. We did it and found the perfect spot to watch that was not crowded with people. Julia loved it and loved getting all the candy. For some reason the parade was just politicians, cheerleaders and dance teams. There was a band or two and of course the Shriner's - but tons of little girls dancing their hearts out...of course this was Julia's favorite part. The part that un-nerved me was the group from the local competitive cheerleading "school." As a former cheerleader, i don't quite understand the point behind being a cheerleader that is not connected to a sports team. You just cheer because you cheer, but for what? I understand high schools having competitive cheer teams, but they are a high school and that makes sense. Cheerleading is now like this huge deal and there are little girls that are all stacked with their little muscles and short shorts yelling and hopping around like high school girls. Once I saw the 7 year old girl thrown up in a spiral toss on the pavement, I sort of had it. I guess this is how parents secure their daughter's spots on the cheer teams for high school, but I just think it's weird...tell me this in 6 years when Julia is at this school and I am one of the moms sporting my "school" spirit wear and my 10 passenger SUV (for my family of 4) has the decal on the back with her name on it. I will be the very person I can't stand now.So after the parade, we came home and loaded up bike #2 with Jimmy & Kurt and rode to the park to see a car show, let Julia ride some rides and eat some bad food. We were just about to come back home and a guy gives us 20 tickets for rides that his family wasn't going to use. So, Julia and I stayed back and she rode every ride she could. She's so fun at this age and really gets so excited about the cutest things. She also had her first snow cone and cotton candy. I have to admit that I was a little sad that she didn't love these as much as I do. I guess more for me.We got back home just in time to get both kids ready to take them to get their pictures taken at the studio with cousin Olivia. The kids couldn't have been better and the pictures couldn't have been more perfect.

What Cute Cousins...Julia, Jimmy & Olivia

The fireworks were quite a show, lasting for about 45 minutes! The kids were all wide awake and running around like they hadn't been hopped up on sugar and were way past their bedtime.

Part of the Neighborhood Gang - Clay (of the country band ClayKyle), Julia & Will
Travis, Olivia, Lib & JimmyWhat a weekend and I have finally recovered...Julia is already looking forward to next year.