4th Photos

As promised, photos from the parade on Friday. I included a picture of myself in the mix. Yes, I am coming out of my blogging closet. I look a little like a pirate, with the bandana and hoop earrings. The bandana was the only red thing I had that was clean and summery (I had on a blue shirt, was trying to go with the patriotic theme, you see). Also, a bandana is a frizzy-haired girl's best friend.

I can't begin to explain how much fun we had. It was so great to be out with the kids, somewhere other than the usual haunts. The backyard. The park. It gets old. I read about the parade online and thought, what the heck (it's only our second year living in the 'burbs and last year I was eight days from giving birth--sufficed to say not going to parades). It's something to do, I reasoned. I find that we all have so much of a better time when we have a Plan. As much as I love to (and we do plenty of it), it's hard to just Hang Out with kids.

I wasn't sure about the timing of the parade, which was right in the middle of Ellie's nap, but bless her heart, she's an amenable kind of baby. Most of the time, she deals. So Friday morning I packed the kids up, grabbed my little Mapquest directions and headed for Montclair (which is all of ten minutes away). The parade winds through a lovely residential neighborhood and concludes in a park which I have driven by many times but never been to, so it was a nice opportunity to explore a new place. There was a band, jugglers and of course, hot dogs and ice cream. And Ellie had a taste of her first Popsicle. Pictures of that above as well. Oh and Gordon from "Sesame Street" was there! (You can sort of make him out in one of the photos of Leo dancing at the concert after the parade--Gordon lives in Montclair.) The funny thing is, one of the musicians in the band said that the people who most recognized Gordon were not his preschool demographic, but 35 to 40 year olds. Ha.

Leo loved the marching bands. Every time one went by he'd turn to me and sign "music," and clap along. He wasn't sure about the candy that was thrown at us. Or the squirt guns (I wasn't into that much either, I must be getting old). I think the best part of the parade for Leo was that it was basically two hours of waving and saying "hi," which are some of his favorite things to do. And he seemed to think the classic cars were pretty cool. Ellie tried her darnedest to keep her eyes open and not nap but she finally succumbed towards the end. She fell asleep in my arms, which was so sweet since she is such a big girl that she never does that anymore.

Later, we talked about going to see fireworks but it's hard with little kids, since they don't start until after dark. We joked that we'd watch them on TV.

That evening, after the kids had gone to bed, the fireworks started up outside. They were loud. So loud that I thought for sure they would wake the kids. And so loud that I thought, we have to be able to see them. They sounded that close. And sure enough, we could! Rising up behind the trees in the back yard was quite a spectacular show. I have no idea where they were coming from and I am still confused since we live towards the bottom of a hill (not in a particularly elevated area), but there you have it, fireworks from the comfort of our back deck. I'm not complaining. And next year, we'll keep the kids up for the show.