Parade

Well, I am pleased to report that our town knows how to throw a parade! Today's Fourth of July parade was just over an hour long, with all sorts of fun stuff to see. Lots of emergency vehicles from our town and several others, old cars, loads of tractors (hello, we live in a farm town! haha!), and fun floats put together by local businesses and organizations. The theme this year was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. Really, the whole thing was fun! I LOVE PARADES!

Sadly, the kids were kind of grumpy, which was the only thing that put sort of a damper on the experience. They will tell you that they enjoyed it, but there was a LOT of whining going on at times ("Is it over yet? I wanna go hoooooome. Carry me!"). I get it. They were up late last night for fireworks (10:30pm) and still woke up at the crack of dawn today. Plus, it was 90 degrees out and humid. Actually, the forecast said there was a 90% chance of thunderstorms all afternoon, but they never happened! So the humidity has just sort of stuck around. We had a crazy storm at about 3 in the morning, so maybe that will happen again tonight. I am still getting used to this weather. My garden loves it, though, let me tell you!

But I digress... After lunch, we drove down Main Street a few blocks (yes, we drove... there are hills!), parked, and staked out a primo spot right in front of the Historical Society building. And I took a ton of pictures, most of which would not be interesting to anyone other than myself. But I will share a few, for posterity! You'll notice in these photos that Nikos is wearing noise-reducing earmuffs. Maya was, too. The parade was LOUD, especially all the sirens of the emergency vehicles! My kids are not fans of loud noises. I actually picked these up at the store (in the hunting department! ha!) a few weeks ago, and we used them for fireworks last night. I am so happy I thought to bring them today, too!

Anyway, I loved it, and it just made me so happy that we live in this amazing, welcoming, family-friendly small town. Plus, it just seems like Massachusetts is a fitting place to celebrate the Fourth of July, given its history! It was awesome!

I am also happy that we had three days of activities, since I had three different outfits for Maya to wear, haha! I love it! Happy Fourth of July, everyone!