Fun filled weekend...sorta

Hope everyone had a great fourth! We went to the parade in Schoolcraft. It is one of the biggest in the area but I think this may be our last year. We may venture out to other parades in the future. We did not have the best experience. It was filled with lots of business advertising of people in a truck and people following with business cards. Kinda got boring, quick. The worst part was how adults were so crazy over penny candy. We were seated next to a lady who appeared very patriotic...she was spraying the girls' hair red and blue. They all had American flags to wave during the parade, too. Well, the Mom then told us that it was her daughter's 9th birthday. We wished the (unenthusiastic) girl a Happy Birthday! Well, whether or not it was her birthday, the Mom used that to their advantage. We started to wonder part way though the parade. She got out a huge sign that said, "Today is my 9th birthday!" I heard her tell a friend that last time they used the sign the people in the parade kept giving them extra candy. Sure enough, the parade begins and every time someone with candy came along they were standing and waving the sign. They all rotated who held the sign...Mom was out in the street, too. The littlest girl got mad because the brother wasn't "holding" the sign, he had it leaned against the wagon. That is when Mom got up and started waving the sign. These kids were running up and down the street grabbing as much candy as possible. You should have seen the Dad when he was a float passing out lunch bags with popcorn. You would have thought they were handing out $100 bills they was he was encouraging the kids. I was a bit disgusted. Last year we sat by people who were all making sure all the kids were getting candy. We were passing candy back to kids who weren't along the parade route. It was very friendly last year. There was a sense of community and SHARING!! These people were all about getting as much as possible. Very much an ALL ABOUT ME attitude. Of course, my Dad had a few comments to yell out at Natalie which hopefully made these people think. Ironically, at the last second some people my Dad knew sat by us with their 5 year old son. He was such a sweet boy and was trying to give candy to Natalie when the parade was all done. I saw a lot of people shaking their heads at the all about candy family. I have to wonder if these people and the kids even know what the parade is all about, or do they just think it's a way to get free penny candy? On top of it, there were adults lining the streets grabbing candy, too. Someone threw candy and a tootsie roll landed in the cup holder of my Dad's chair, an old man came up and grabbed it out! My Dad was speechless. I have to wonder if people show up to celebrate America and our brave military people, or to get free penny candy.
I did get a couple pictures of Natalie. This one is of her waiting for the parade

I love this one! She is watching the parade in this one....notice the green gum? LOL

Natalie has informed me that she wants a Corvette. She doesn't care what color, although she mentioned white, yellow and orange, BUT it must be a convertible. I am sure a glass top would be fine, too. LOL. I had to get a picture of her watching the Corvettes along the parade route.


We didn't got to any fireworks, but we watched the neighbors in my parents' neighborhood light them off. They have a bunch of neighbors who light off the good ones so we enjoyed them. We got home and had neighbors lighting them off here, too. Natalie enjoyed her sparklers, too.