Parade!

Yesterday we went to the parade. My kids have been looking forward to the parade since, oh, last year's parade. Ever since Hannah was born we have ridden in the fire truck that Erik drives but this year he wasn't driving so I figured we would just watch. Hannah and Ivan were more disappointed than I thought they would be but while we were walking around looking at floats beforehand they were invited to ride in the bed of the truck that was pulling the church float. I was told that Hannah is a very good "waver".
So just Clayton, Marilyn, Grammy and Grandpa and I sat on the side of the road and watched the parade. We were sitting near the end of the parade and the funny thing is that we could see both ends of the parade at the same time!
It's a good thing that Grammy and Grandpa were there; they could help keep Miss Moddy contained. That little girl was marching up and down the road in her own little parade while we were waiting. She made friends with all the people around us. At one point she marched over to a lady near us and hugged her legs and then rested her head in the lady's lap. Wherein I was told, "Don't worry, she'll get over her shyness someday" and I replied, "That's what I'm afraid of."
Finally we got to see the front of the parade. And when the church float made it to us Hannah and Ivan climbed out and watched the rest of the parade with us and helped Clayton collect all the candy that was thrown.

I was hoping that by sitting at the end of the parade, everyone would have run out of candy by the time they got to us...no such luck, everyone was over-prepared this year and I think we might have gotten extra as the people on the floats realized they were near the end and wanted to get rid of their stashes. Then our "neighbors" who didn't have any kids in the their group brought over all the candy they had collected. We ended up with a gallon ziplock bag full of candy.(This is only halfway through the parade:) And bandaids. The Rhinehart Clinic was throwing out neon colored bandaids. I personally would have loved coming home with a ziplock bag full of bandaids and no candy.
For a family that does not buy candy or eat very much of it a whole bag of it is a little overwhelming but I read a very timely suggestion just the other day and I think I might buy the candy off of my kids and throw it away. Hopefully they'll go for it. In the past I've had no trouble secretly throwing the candy away but Hannah and Ivan's memories are sharper now and they would notice.
I love our small town parade but I laugh because a lot of the people marching in the parade, who are so proud of how many years they've been in the parade, are "weekenders". Those of us that live here year round are in the minority amongst the marchers. Ah well, it's still fun and next year maybe we'll try riding again so that we don't collect so much candy.