Children's Parade

So one of the things that our kids have wanted to do (since forever, or so they tell me) is to march in the annual children's parade here in town. So after much pleading I agreed that this year we could do it...if we could use the wagon D got for Christmas (knowing that, while the route is short--at six blocks-- the little ones wouldn't want to walk the whole way.) Well, with such a great prop, we came up with the idea to be Pioneers with a wagon going across the plains.

When Taffy and her children arrived here for the summer, they gladly joined in with great ideas and plans. One of Taffy's girls wanted to be an Indian (after finding that Mimi's moccasins fit her really well!) with a papoose and spent an entire day making a costume for her doll. Jeff was very excited when he found out he could be a cowboy, but Buddy wanted nothing to do with girly dress ups, and declared he would decorate his bike and ride in the parade that way. The rest of the girls wanted pioneer dresses. Thanks to Uncle Tee, we had a dress to fit Mimi (originally a Kirsten-type dress) and several bonnets and aprons , but needed to make dresses for the rest (five pioneer dresses and one Native American type dress.)
We marched in the Children's parade, the kids had a great time. Thanks to some excellent rigging/planning and engineering from Grandpa, we had a fantastic wagon any pioneer would have been proud of (or just would have thought was cute!) And thanks to Grandma for saving us...making an awesome dress, lending bonnets, vests and hats, and joining us for the all-night sewing session! This parade exhibit definitely would not have been possible without their wonderful help. It was fun to look for them/wave to them and uncle Beege buns, as well as D along the parade route.

The kids did a great job(especially for waiting for-EVER for the parade to actually start --some judicious lollipops helped with that!) The big girls took turns pulling the wagon, and then they all took turns riding in the wagon (when Kiersti insisted on getting out, and Peaches insisted on me carrying her...thankfully only the last block and a half!) The kids would have been happy to just be in the parade, so it was a totally unexpected bonus that not only were there popsicles at the end for all participants, but we also got a trophy, because, as the lady said when she gave us the trophy, "We just loved your wagon and thought your costumes were so cute!" And sad to say, I am a sucker for a trophy, cuz the all-night sewing session didn't seem so bad anymore!

So here are the pics we took.

Jeff when we got the trophy:


Heading out to the parade...Westward ho!


Jessie the Indian Maiden with Samantha the papoose:



Caroline the Cute (and tall) pioneer girl:


Mimi in the Kirsten-esque dress:


Here's Buddy about to lead us all to the parade on his bike:


Sweet Naomi , Pioneer lass:


Cowboy Jeff and his pal Pony:


Sweetsa and Kiersti, together (Sweetsa in blue with the pink bonnet, Kiersti in green):


Peaches trying to pull the wagon (she did succeed):

Here we are, taking off, after our long wait in line!:


Pioneer children sang as they walked...they sang the chorus to "The Handcart Song":
"For some must push and some must pull
As we go marching up the hill
And merrily on our way we go,
Until we reach the valley-o!"


Peaches enjoying her popsicle at the end of the parade:


Here we all are posing with the trophy (yes it is in there...look in the middle. I know it's small but hey, it's a trophy!):


Here's Kiersti again, just cuz she's cute. She was so excited to throw candy to people, and she did a great job of it too!