football hall of fame grande parade

it is early. we are tired. but it is parade time! the boys and i loaded up in the backseat and we were off. we did stop to pick up some "peace, love and little donuts" on our way. we saw these donuts for the first time at the parade a few years ago and only got around to trying them in the past year. yum, yum!

before the attack.

happy, happy boys. (notice the "manning" jersey on the guy behind manning.)

each year we are a little smarter. this year we brought a football to throw in the street while we waited. mason was really excited to play catch with big pop - and maddux too.

mason outlasted big pop and maddux so daddy stepped in to relive them.

madelyn had her own way of staying busy.

manning too. this boy loves his raisins.

charger colors represented.

once the sun came over the roofs, we were blinded! that is one tip we forgot - do not cross the street so that you don't have to look into the sun. oh well.

mason finally took a break and manning saw an opportunity.

our animal lover was very excited for the ponies.

grandma is not a fan after waiting on him when she was a teenager.

maddux had to take a break from the super long parade.

excited for the angry birds.

kung fu panda! (we have never seen the movie but they love the idea of a kung fu panda.)

the highlight (for both of them, i think) every year.

it was hot this year for this long parade. we were all ready to go home and cool off. while grandma loved amish country, i think this was pretty special for big pop. love.

memorial day parade

today our character champions got to walk in the memorial day parade. it was matt's day to walk with them so they left before the littles and i. we all walked to the parade route but we always underestimate how long it takes to get there! i was almost dragging manning up the last hill so that we would make it to the start before they left.

not only did we make it in time, but we found some friends to sit with on the curb (maddux' best buddy)!

this is a candy parade (we actually remembered to send some with madelyn and mason to throw this year), so the kids were ready.

on of our babysitters is the blonde on the far side.

and then we found mason and daddy. madelyn was walking on the other side of the road with her friends.

her friend's mom sent me this keeper.

we actually sat right next to maddux' preschool teacher too! she was running late getting her son to the parade start and stayed to sit with us.

they dug right into their parade treats.

we stopped to play at a park before walking back home - maddux was too busy playing with his buddy to be in any pictures.

once we all made it home, we had some lunch and made our way to the pool! we were feeling extra fortunate because the community pool did not open as scheduled this year and we were able to enjoy our neighborhood pool. i think we are going to have a lot of playdates with friends looking to swim this hot week. love.

all sport saturday - stop 1, the grande parade

it makes for an early morning, the parade starts at 8am, but the pro football hall of fame induction grand parade is fantastic! this year we brought only chairs. the way the parade route was lined, a blanket would have been the way to go. we were telling the kids just to sit on the curb instead of our chairs when the family next to us offered to scoot down - and loan us a blanket!

there were a ton of steelers fans across the street from us, so this is the only view we had of jerome bettis.

he wasn't on the list for the parade, but matt was noticed by dan fouts again! it helped that he was wearing his fouts jersey.

these guys were awesome! the first video shows the younger guys and then my camera died as things started to get really exciting so i switched to my phone for the second video.

the kids really liked the 'super fan' floats. mason and matt got a lot of attention for their chargers gear.

people chat, "spin it! spin it! spin it!," to the balloon escorts. and most of them deliver! where we were sitting there were a lot of large trees overhanging the road so we didn't get a lot to spin right in front of us. much to mason's dismay (he was chanting super loud each time). until the children's hospital dog came by!

breakfast street-side since we had to leave before the kids could eat anything (we left around 6:30am).

we were there too!

it was a fun start to the day! love.