Christmas Parade

We've got both a small, local Christmas parade (where they throw out candy) and a big county parade (where they don't).  This year, they ended up on the same day, so we decided to choose one, and went with the one that wasn't right in the middle of nap time. 

Waiting for the parade to start.  The girls were getting a little crazy.

When it first started, they were pretending to be scared and hiding their faces in Greg's back.  But they were too excited to keep that up for long.

They loved the bands.  Emma kept saying, "I told you there were going to be cymbals!"

So, this parade wasn't right in the middle of nap time, but it was of course in the middle of dinner time.  By the time the parade was over and we sat in the traffic to get out of the parking lot and congested downtown, it was nearly bed time, and we still hadn't had dinner.  We stopped at Subway, and if you can believe it, it was the first time the girls had ever been to Subway.  They thought it was pretty cool.

Parade

The school that the girls are in right now really tries to minimize the whole "holiday" thing, particularly religious holidays - which means they don't come home with bags of candy for Easter, etc.  (And with that being said regarding religious holidays, there's also a big warning on the school calendar that says 'no costumes or candy' on Halloween.)  But they chose July 4th as their "big" holiday that they celebrate school wide each summer.  They make t-shirts, put on a parade, and have a big bbq.  The older kids can decorate their bikes and ride them in the parade.  The youngest kids get their strollers decorated.

They were so excited for this parade, but I think they were even more excited that we were coming to see them in their parade.  They all had noise makers and were having a blast.

They walked the parade route (3 laps around the parking lot) and then gathered to sing a couple of songs that we'd been hearing bits of all week ("I love America!").

Did I mention that it was followed up with a picnic?  And that my kids love a picnic?  This was right at the start of the heat wave (and my sinus infection, as I recall), so we took our lunch down to the gym.

We left the air conditioning when word got out that there were popsicles...

And where there are popsicles, there are dropped popsicles.

December Daily: Dec 1, 2, 3

I'm attempting a December Daily album again this year, but it's really a matter of documenting now and actually putting the album together in stages.  So, here it goes.

Dec 1 is actually kind of a bummer; the girls were asleep when we left the house in the morning (which really never happens), and were asleep when I got home because of class.   It was just ... weird.  No photo for that day, because I didn't want the first photo in my album to be of a boring class.  Instead, I got some hot chocolate at Starbucks on my way to class, and I'm planning to to use the cup or sleeve.

Dec 2 was another work day, but we went out for "mac and cheese a roni" for dinner at Panera after work.  The girls wore winter coats, their pink summer sun hats, and their new teal panda bear rain boots.  After dinner, we went over to Barnes and Noble to try to catch story time and play with the trains.  But apparently, since the last time we went to Barnes and Noble, they've turned it in to a Nook and kid's toy store.  Story time had already started, and the girls weren't interested.  And, to top it off, the train table was gone.  We tried to look around a bit, but the girls wanted to take things out of packages, etc, so we decided to leave.  We headed for the car, but the girls threw a fit at the door...  They were terrified of the horse drawn carriage that was taking people for rides around the parking lot.  Emma insisted on being carried, and wanted to go straight to the car.  I managed to drag Becca and Julie up to see the giant Christmas tree and we spied Santa sitting in front of it.  We didn't get too close, but they didn't freak out.  We went back home and looked at Christmas lights.  Oh, how they love Christmas lights!

Becca's cheese mustache.  If you look carefully, you can see the pink sun hat peeking out of Greg's pocket.

Dec 3 was Saturday.  We ate an early dinner and went downtown for the big annual Christmas parade.  Despite getting there late, we managed to get a decent spot.  The girls insisted on staying on the sidewalk (we've taught them well!) although people were spilled out into the street.  I kept worrying someone was going to come and stand right in front of us.  The girls were a little hesitant at first, but they LOVED the parade.  When we got there, they kept saying, "I want candy!"  I tried to explain that this parade didn't have candy (it's much bigger than our town one), but to my surprise, Target had a "float" this year, and they handed out candy canes.  Which they insisted on unwrapping on the spot.  Emma and Julie gobbled theirs up, but Becca was so distracted by the parade that she just periodically licked the end of it, until she got so distracted she dropped it on the ground.  But the girls were dancing to the music, jumping up and down - - particularly Emma.  I'm afraid they're going to expect a parade every weekend.  On the way back to the car, Becca told me, "I had fun at the parade!"

Finishing cookies from a rushed dinner before the parade started.

Emma's "cheese" face.  I've got to come up with something else for them to say.  But she was all excited, and put her arms out around her sisters all on her own.

Becca loving the parade 

Becca is more interested in the parade than the candy cane. 

Emma crunching.

When we got home, we made hot chocolate.  The first time they had hot chocolate was almost a year ago, when we got all that snow in January.  And they wanted no part of it.  But on Saturday, they were all over it.  Emma kept telling me that hot chocolate is her favorite, and it's the best in the world.

E

Is Julie back there somewhere?

Ah, she is!

R, all in

I love this picture of Emma.  Finally, not a "cheese" smile.  And love the chocolate all the way down her chin.

The Rest of the ... Weekend

Our behavior was still sub-par on Friday morning.  And, you know, to reinforce it, Greg took them to the park to "run them."  And while they were at the park, I got to do some Black Friday shopping.

I seriously considered going to Target at midnight, but the only thing I wanted wasn't one of the doorbusters, and was just a little $8 toy.  And I am SO glad I didn't.  At 11am, when I finally got there, they still had a ton of them.  And I didn't have to be out with the crazy people.  (No offense, crazy people.  I'm just crazy in different ways.)  Target was busier than I've ever seen it, but still not bad.  I don't think I waited in line for more than 30 seconds.  Awesome.

I went to Michaels - again, busy, but I still didn't have to wait in line.  And then I was going to drive by Toys R Us to see how bad it was...  But there were parking spaces, so I went in.  The place was a MESS - everything was everywhere.  Again, it was busy, but there was only 1 person in front of me in line.  I was particularly looking for a certain toy... in pink.  Last year, I remember stacks of this toy on the floor after Thanksgiving.  No problem.  And of course when I get there, there are exactly 2.  So I was literally standing next to the bin for a good 10 minutes trying to decide what to do...  Buy 2 pink and a blue?  Buy the 2 pink and go across the street to see if Babies R Us had one?  Buy 3 blue?  And by some stroke of luck that I never have, a woman that worked there came by and dropped a pink one back in the bin.

I ran into the mall briefly (well, just Sears) because that wasn't looking too bad either.  I bought myself a few presents - a pair of boost and ...wait for it... a handheld vacuum.

On Saturday morning, we took the girls to the zoo.  It's been a little warmer than usual all weekend - in the mid 60s - so it was another great day to get outside. They had a lot of fun, and actually spent some time watching the animals. Well, the ones they were interested in. Becca would not go look at the orangutans, and she and Emma FREAKED out when the loud monkeys started making noise. (Julie was going potty, or she would have flipped, too.) R and E were playing in this little amphitheater when the monkeys started and they just about threw themselves down the steps to get back to me.

E playing on the rocking chair at the playground in the zoo.

Julie and Becca change shoes based on their mood, but Emma almost always insists on the pink boots.

I just love the look on Emma's face in this one.

Sunday was originally supposed to be a rainy day, but it turned out to just be overcast and still in the mid 60s. I took the girls to the grocery store, and then they played outside for a while.

After lunch, they actually took a nap (when I told them there was a special surprise if they took a nap. They're such suckers for that "special surprise" phrase.). We woke them up and about threw them in the car to make it to the town Christmas parade before they closed the road down. We made it just in the nick of time. We found a spot on the sidewalk, surrounded by people with enough foresight to bring chairs.

The girls decided to entertain themselves while we waited for the parade, so they found this metal plate that made lots of noise when they jumped on it.

We also decided that it makes even more noise when we put our hands down on the ground and kick our feet. Really, we weren't breakdancing; it just looks like we were.

We did lots and lots of jumping.

I love this picture.

We collected rocks.

Finally, the parade started. Of course it started with a police car and two fire trucks with sirens blaring. And of course the girls hid behind Greg. In fact, I think Emma spent most of the parade hiding behind Greg's leg. There were a couple groups handing out candy, and they pretty much skipped Emma because they couldn't see her.

Julie and Becca also managed to get balloon.

And then Julie lost her balloon.

The awesome families on either side of us felt bad, and each gave us their balloon.  Back up to three balloons.

One big happy.