4th of July, 2014

We went to our town's parade last Saturday. It's a tradition & 2 of my girls were in a float so it was extra special. If you missed what happened when I saw my girls on their float, you must click here to read #noswag. 

First let me brag about Little
Blondie's hair. I love doing my
girls' hair. 

Little Blondie & me waiting for parade to start. 

Before the parade starts we have to set up our Poo Bingo spots. What, you've never heard of Poo Bingo? Hubby said he'd never heard of it until me and I feel bad for him. I don't understand how someone can go to a parade and not play Poo Bingo. So, if you are one of the uneducated and under privileged, Poo Bingo is where you take a piece of chalk and draw a circle where you think the parade horses will poo. With 8 of us, we can take up a good portion of the street and you'd think someone in my family would win. Not once.

Hubby's spot. Apparently he thinks
horses poo is the size of raisins and has good aim. 

The rest of our Poo Bingo circles and
some from the people across from us. 
P.S. that's not a giraffe's shadow.

The first part of the parade didn't have candy. This was quite depressing for all of us.

Poor sad baby with her empty bag.

And then we had Toby's floats. Toby is the name of the ghost in our house. He's named after the nasty, nasty demon in Paranormal Activity because when the cats are staring at and then running away from things you can't see, or things go missing 2 minutes after you put them away and you're home alone, what better way to ease your mind than name those instances after a mean ol' demon?
 

3 minutes between floats? It's Toby's float! 

And here's Toby's band of 100.
When I asked Little Blondie if she liked Toby's
band, she listened for a minute, looked
at her Dad and me watching the band and
said, "Wow, they're really good."
Poor confused child. 

Hubby asked me for the Quaker State
car for Christmas. He wants to
drive it to the grocery store. 

I'm pretty sure that no other parade
sees signs like this and no other city
has these types of events. 

The Shriner's float is a jail on wheels. One year I was pointing at hubby and asking the "jailers" to take him. They took me. I learned my lesson and so did our kids. They'll take you if you point at others to be taken. Well, most of our kids learned that lesson. Big D stood behind hubby & me, pointing at us, and yelling for the jailers to take us. We knew what would happen.

Jailer pointed to this sign...

...and took Big D and Little Blondie.

That's what you get for
trying to get your parents jailed!

Thank you, Jailer Man.

"We are kid-free!"

That's my sad face.

And...they sent the kids back after half a block. Oh well.

But then...hubby & I actually did get some kid-free time when we went to the rodeo Saturday night!

That's not food on my tooth--I swear
Toby put that in the picture 
cuz it wasn't there in person.

It's at the rodeo that I get to let my redneck flag fly. It's a moment when hubby is reminded that he is 100% purebred City Boy and I am not 100% anything. I'm a mixed breed, I guess, though that doesn't sound all too flattering. I can explain scoring in rodeos, I know the proper way to ride while barrel racing (I've done it, go me), and I would have loved to have been crowned Miss Rodeo when I was younger. Dude, riding on a horse, waving at everyone, while wearing my crown and sash...heck yeah.

Wine tasting in heels or in the stands cheering on a cowboy, I can do it all.