The simple pleasures fo Hometown, USA

Those of you that live in a small town understand the many joys of living in one. Our family enjoys living in a small town where we can walk to downtown or to the recently enhanced lakefront. These areas can be the hub of life...hosting many different activities. Downtown boasts of a Christmas Parade and art festival that make downtown burst with life. It also hosts some Friday activities of which we can generally hear the music playing until 10 or 11 o' clock. The lakefront has the privilege of hosting events like Fourth of July fire works and the Spring fling that includes power boat races.

This past weekend was Spring Fling. A small carnival and business and crafter's booths, and antique cars lined the lake front. Even though we can hear the hum of practicing powerboats earlier in the week the parade kicks off the festivities for the weekend. It is a unique little parade. Most of the floats ( i use that term loosely) are trucks pulling big powerboats. However basically anybody in town can be in the parade.

Our MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers) has walked in it for the past 3 years to introduce the community to the beneficial group. This was the first year that my children and I participated in it with them. We have been involved in Christmas parades in the past which are generally a big deal in our little town so we prepared for the Spring Fling thinking we knew what to expect.

Our kids began the countdown approximately 2 weeks ago. Waking up frequently asking how many days were left until the parade. We bought bubbles to blow while we walked and candy to throw. John actually purchased enough candy to feed a small country. I mean if we were going to walk in a parade no one was going to be sitting at the end of the parade route and not get candy from us. On Saturday morning, we slathered on sunscreen. John loaded our double stroller and wagon into the Suburban. We packed water bottles, bubbles, candy, hats, sunglasses, baby blanket, sling, diapers... you know everything that a family of 6 my need while walking in a parade.

We got in the car an hour and a half before the parade began to head to the waiting area before the parade began and our oldest daughter age 6 said...

"This is a dream come true!"

John and I giggled. How sweet it was to be six. John felt a bit odd as we gathered with the other Mothers and their preschoolers seeing that he was the only dad at first. Only one other joined us a little later. But John said how in the world could he miss this....I mean his kids were so excited.

At 10:00 a.m. we began the walk. The preschoolers in our group pelted elderly people in the head with candy. And It took a block or two to teach them that you shouldn't just throw it in the middle of the road. We got our kids to realize they could actually go hand the candy to people. Elijah even ran up to the front door steps of houses to throw, I mean, hand candy to people who sat on their front porches. Then after just a few blocks our kids had it all figured out and it was OVER. Seriously, this was the shortest parade on the planet. It was too funny. With about half our candy left over and without even breaking a sweat...it was over. But the memories can't be measured in the length of the parade or how much candy was thrown. We definitely made some memories this weekend. And the kids are already starting to talk about when we walk in next years parade. :)